Tired of fake torrents? Block the source

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 12, 2007
Updated • May 26, 2013
File Sharing, Internet
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Fake torrents are distributed for two core reasons. First, to make it more difficult for downloaders to find legit downloads, and second in an effort to spread malware around.

The Torrentfreak blog reports that some torrent admins identified IP ranges that upload and spread fake torrents, and also the company that is behind the spreading.

So what can you do to protect yourself and your downloads from these fake downloads? The easiest way to cope with the situation would be to block the IP ranges either in your firewall, your system's hosts file, or in a utility such as Peer Guardian.Below are the information for Peer Guardian 2, simply use the IP ranges if you want to block the IPs in your firewall instead.

  • MPAA Tracker:66.172.60.1-66.172.60.255
  • MPAA Tracker:66.177.58.1-66.177.58.255
  • MPAA Tracker:66.180.205.1-66.180.205.255
  • MPAA Tracker:209.204.61.1-209.204.61.255
  • MPAA Tracker:216.151.155.1-216.151.155.255

The fake torrents look like real torrents on first glance and are disguised as valid group releases such as Battlestar Galactica S03E07 REPACK DSR XviD-ORENJi. According to nforce.nl, Orenji is the group that is releasing Battlestar Galactica  episodes.

It is very likely that the company that is running those services are not only spreading the files around, but also recording IP addresses of users who start to download those files. It may lead to legal consequences even though I'm not entirely sure how this would play out in court, considering that you have downloaded a non-working file that was offered to you by a company that is cooperating with rights holders.

While they may be able to prove intent, it is hard to argue that the download caused any damage. Quite the contrary. Since you are also seeding files you download, you actually helped distribute the fake torrents to even more users.

Update: Please note that these IP ranges may or may not be associated with the MPAA anymore. I guess there is no harm in blocking the IP ranges even if they are not used anymore for the purpose.

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Comments

  1. Decent60 said on November 11, 2013 at 7:33 pm
    Reply

    K-Lite pack MEGA. All you need to know lol If it won’t play with that, then it needed a whole new program to use anyways.

  2. Anonymous said on November 11, 2013 at 10:48 pm
    Reply

    VLC Player has played just about every file for me. If VLC can’t play it, then the file was probably malicious anyways

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on November 11, 2013 at 10:53 pm
      Reply

      As I said, VLC should have you covered. But if you use Media Player or something similar, you may like this.

  3. Ron said on November 11, 2013 at 11:39 pm
    Reply

    Media Player Classic – Home Cinema (MPC-HC) or Media Player Classic – BE (MPC-BE) should be able to play (almost) anything also. MPC-BE is my player of choice. (It also has a small footprint on your hard drive, which is something I always take into consideration when choosing between different programs.)

  4. brian Tran said on November 12, 2013 at 3:28 pm
    Reply

    love utorrent..

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