Winny
Encyclopedia
Winny is a Japanese peer-to-peer
(P2P) file-sharing program which claims to be loosely inspired by the design principles behind the Freenet
network, which keep user identities untraceable. While Freenet was implemented in Java
, Winny was implemented as a Windows C++
application.
The software takes its name from WinMX
, where the M and the X are each advanced one letter in the Latin alphabet, to N and Y. According to a 2006 report by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, upwards of three million people had tried Winny, and it has alternated with WinMX as the most popular file-sharing program in Japan.
Like Freenet, each client functions as a node. Initially, a search will return few results, but one can set up "clusters" based on certain keywords, and over time, your client will learn the best route to obtain the information sought.
The software was developed by Isamu Kaneko, who is a research assistant in graduate course of computer engineering at the University of Tokyo
in Japan. He was also once a researcher at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Kaneko originally anonymously announced his intent of developing the software on the Download Software board of the popular 2channel
(2ch
for short) Japanese bulletin board site. Since 2ch
users often refer to anonymous users by their post numbers, Kaneko came to be known as "Mr. 47" ("47-Shi", or 47氏 in Japanese), or just "47".
On November 28, 2003, two Japanese users of Winny, Yoshihiro Inoue, a 41 year-old self-employed businessman from Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture and an unemployed 19-year-old from Matsuyama, were arrested by the Kyoto Prefectural Police. They were accused of sharing copyrighted material via Winny and admitted to their crimes. Shortly following the two users' arrests, Kaneko also had his home searched and had the source code of Winny confiscated by the Kyoto Police.
On May 10, 2004, Kaneko was arrested for suspected conspiracy to commit copyright violation by the High-tech Crime Taskforce of the Kyoto Prefectural Police.
Kaneko was released on bail
on June 1, 2004. The court hearings started in September 2004 at Kyoto district court.
On December 13, 2006, Kaneko was convicted of assisting copyright violations and sentenced to pay a fine of ¥
1.5 million (about US$13,200).
He appealed the ruling.
On October 8, 2009, Kaneko's guilty verdict was overturned by the Osaka High Court upon appeal.
After Winny's development was stopped, Share
was started by an anonymous Japanese engineer to pick up where Winny left off.
After failing to crack Winny's encrypted communications used in its file sharing feature, the Kyoto Police switched to a different method, namely tracking users via Winny's integrated forum feature. Unlike its file sharing feature, the forum feature of Winny provided anonymity for users who accessed message threads, but not for creators of threads. Users accessing threads were able to determine the IP address
of the originator of the thread.
The Kyoto Police first looked for a thread where its originator was posting the file names of copyrighted material he was sharing, and recorded his IP address. They then configured their firewall to only allow connections to them from the thread owner's IP address. Finally, they confirmed that they could indeed download the copyrighted file from the user who stated (on his thread) that he was sharing it.
In one of the posts in 2ch Download Software board, "47" had pointed out that '... beta 8.1[ of Winny] has a security hole and is not anonymous. Don't exchange illegal files.'. Critics claim that this is one evidence of Kaneko's malicious intent, as that "47" was advising users not to share copyrighted material on beta 8.1 because it was not anonymous and infringing users could be traced.
Others have said that Kaneko's action shouldn't constitute a crime, since he didn't infringe copyright himself, but that he just created software that could be used for that purpose. They also state that the claims of Kaneko's intent by his critics are unprovable (or outright false), as Kaneko's noted statements are too vague to be interpreted as having the intent claimed by critics. According to the Free Kaneko website, he warned users not to share illegal material using the software.
Some versions of Antinny work as follows:
Some people have uploaded their information unwittingly from their computers because of Antinny. That information includes governmental documents, information about customers, and people's private files. Once the information is uploaded, it is hard to delete.
Recently, highly publicised cases of sensitive file uploading have come to light in Japan's media. In particular, a defense agency was forced to admit that classified information from the Maritime Self Defence Force was uploaded by a computer with Winny software installed on it.
Following this, ANA (All Nippon Airways) were also the victims of an embarrassing data leak, with passwords for security-access areas in 29 airports across Japan being leaked over the program. This follows a similar incident with JAL Airlines on 17 December 2005, after a virus originating from Winny affected the computer of a co-pilot.
Arguably the biggest Winny-related leak however, is that of the Okayama Prefectural Police Force, whose computer leaked data on around 1,500 investigations. This information included sensitive data, such as the names of sex crime victims, and is the largest amount of information held by Japanese police to have ever leaked online.
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
(P2P) file-sharing program which claims to be loosely inspired by the design principles behind the Freenet
Freenet
Freenet is a decentralized, censorship-resistant distributed data store originally designed by Ian Clarke. According to Clarke, Freenet aims to provide freedom of speech through a peer-to-peer network with strong protection of anonymity; as part of supporting its users' freedom, Freenet is free and...
network, which keep user identities untraceable. While Freenet was implemented in Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, Winny was implemented as a Windows C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
application.
The software takes its name from WinMX
WinMX
WinMX is a freeware peer-to-peer file sharing program authored by Frontcode Technologies that runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems, created in 2001. According to one study, it was the number one source for online music in 2005 with an estimated 2.1 million users...
, where the M and the X are each advanced one letter in the Latin alphabet, to N and Y. According to a 2006 report by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, upwards of three million people had tried Winny, and it has alternated with WinMX as the most popular file-sharing program in Japan.
Like Freenet, each client functions as a node. Initially, a search will return few results, but one can set up "clusters" based on certain keywords, and over time, your client will learn the best route to obtain the information sought.
The software was developed by Isamu Kaneko, who is a research assistant in graduate course of computer engineering at the University of Tokyo
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
in Japan. He was also once a researcher at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Kaneko originally anonymously announced his intent of developing the software on the Download Software board of the popular 2channel
2channel
is a Japanese textboard. In 2007 there were 2.5 million posts made every day. Launched in 1999, it has gained significant influence in Japanese society, comparable to that of traditional mass media such as television, radio, and magazines. As of 2008, the site generates revenue upwards of ¥100...
(2ch
2CH
2CH is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia, at 1170 kHz AM. It broadcasts an oldies format, and is aimed to an older age demographic...
for short) Japanese bulletin board site. Since 2ch
2CH
2CH is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia, at 1170 kHz AM. It broadcasts an oldies format, and is aimed to an older age demographic...
users often refer to anonymous users by their post numbers, Kaneko came to be known as "Mr. 47" ("47-Shi", or 47氏 in Japanese), or just "47".
On November 28, 2003, two Japanese users of Winny, Yoshihiro Inoue, a 41 year-old self-employed businessman from Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture and an unemployed 19-year-old from Matsuyama, were arrested by the Kyoto Prefectural Police. They were accused of sharing copyrighted material via Winny and admitted to their crimes. Shortly following the two users' arrests, Kaneko also had his home searched and had the source code of Winny confiscated by the Kyoto Police.
On May 10, 2004, Kaneko was arrested for suspected conspiracy to commit copyright violation by the High-tech Crime Taskforce of the Kyoto Prefectural Police.
Kaneko was released on bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
on June 1, 2004. The court hearings started in September 2004 at Kyoto district court.
On December 13, 2006, Kaneko was convicted of assisting copyright violations and sentenced to pay a fine of ¥
Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
1.5 million (about US$13,200).
He appealed the ruling.
On October 8, 2009, Kaneko's guilty verdict was overturned by the Osaka High Court upon appeal.
After Winny's development was stopped, Share
Share (P2P)
is the name for a closed-source P2P application being developed in Japan by an anonymous author. Since the author of Winny was arrested, Share was developed as its successor, also focusing on higher security...
was started by an anonymous Japanese engineer to pick up where Winny left off.
Winny's Anonymity
At the time of the two users' arrests, the Kyoto Police claimed to have "analyzed Winny's anonymity features" to track the users down, but did not disclose the exact method used. It later turns out, as the details of the method used were disclosed at Kaneko's first day of trial, that this statement was not entirely accurate — It was areas where Winny did not provide anonymity that the Police used to track users down.After failing to crack Winny's encrypted communications used in its file sharing feature, the Kyoto Police switched to a different method, namely tracking users via Winny's integrated forum feature. Unlike its file sharing feature, the forum feature of Winny provided anonymity for users who accessed message threads, but not for creators of threads. Users accessing threads were able to determine the IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
of the originator of the thread.
The Kyoto Police first looked for a thread where its originator was posting the file names of copyrighted material he was sharing, and recorded his IP address. They then configured their firewall to only allow connections to them from the thread owner's IP address. Finally, they confirmed that they could indeed download the copyrighted file from the user who stated (on his thread) that he was sharing it.
Debate of Winny's purpose
Critics of Kaneko have stated that the main purpose of Winny is to violate copyright law, unlike Freenet, another peer-to-peer system that Winny is often compared to, which claims to protect freedom of speech. These critics also claim that 2ch's Download Software board, where the software was first announced, is a heaven for copyright violators, and that Kaneko himself had said that the aim of development of Winny is to push the tide towards a world filled with copyright infringement, quoting several posts from 2ch.In one of the posts in 2ch Download Software board, "47" had pointed out that '... beta 8.1
Others have said that Kaneko's action shouldn't constitute a crime, since he didn't infringe copyright himself, but that he just created software that could be used for that purpose. They also state that the claims of Kaneko's intent by his critics are unprovable (or outright false), as Kaneko's noted statements are too vague to be interpreted as having the intent claimed by critics. According to the Free Kaneko website, he warned users not to share illegal material using the software.
Antinny
Since August 2003, several worms called "Antinny" have been spreading on the Winny network.Some versions of Antinny work as follows:
- Upload files in the computer onto the Winny network.
- Upload screenshots onto an imageboard.
- Denial-of-service attackDenial-of-service attackA denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
to a copyright protecting agency web site.
Some people have uploaded their information unwittingly from their computers because of Antinny. That information includes governmental documents, information about customers, and people's private files. Once the information is uploaded, it is hard to delete.
Recently, highly publicised cases of sensitive file uploading have come to light in Japan's media. In particular, a defense agency was forced to admit that classified information from the Maritime Self Defence Force was uploaded by a computer with Winny software installed on it.
Following this, ANA (All Nippon Airways) were also the victims of an embarrassing data leak, with passwords for security-access areas in 29 airports across Japan being leaked over the program. This follows a similar incident with JAL Airlines on 17 December 2005, after a virus originating from Winny affected the computer of a co-pilot.
Arguably the biggest Winny-related leak however, is that of the Okayama Prefectural Police Force, whose computer leaked data on around 1,500 investigations. This information included sensitive data, such as the names of sex crime victims, and is the largest amount of information held by Japanese police to have ever leaked online.
External links
Winny Cool The Winny unofficial information Winny in English English Version Tutorial WinnyKorea.com WinnyShare Community Nate Winny Club Kyoto Pref. Police to Winny: 'We figured it all out' from Internet Watch- Prof held 'for developing P2P software' from the Sydney Morning Herald Japanese police arrests developers of file sharing software from Heise.de A post on 2ch that critics claim that Kaneko states the aim of development that Kaneko spoke is his will of pushing the tide toward the world filled with copyright law violation Hiroyuki Nishimura's e-mail newsletter statement on the nonexistence of 2ch's access logs at the time Kaneko's other software page
- Japanese power plant secrets leaked by virus, The Register, 17 May 2006
- Japanese ISPs set to terminate Winny users net connections, Daily Yomiuri, 16 March 2008