The end of eroge sharing in japan?

[NGSalvador]

Booo!!! - No AIslenauts???

 

[nukinukinuki]

Good news. The following popular titles of this week have been released on the Freenet by F22qpoThUl:
www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=759650
www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=749912
www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=748173
It is a matter of time before these game are released on torrent or hosting sites.

With 喫茶東洋 gone, F22qpoThUl could be considered the leader of existing uploaders; he was the one proposing the use of the Freenet. Some uploaders might stop releasing because of the inconvenience of the Freenet. Which game gets released depends totally upon whether it tickles uploaders' taste buds (or maybe F22qpoThUl's taste buds). Yes, arresting 喫茶東洋 has had an impact but I guess at least popular games of months will still continue to be released.

 

[Animaksiat]

that's a relieve, though freenet are slow, but it's still a light of hope

 

[MoroboshiY]

I'm ashamed to say I've fallen behind as far as sharing trends go. Didn't know Share still worked to a degree, but I have been keeping an eye on the stuff about arrests and whatnot. PD has become unreliable (ran into weirdness with their unity folder this past month) and I started getting worried about where to get more recent releases. Glad to see there are other people who've noticed it and have seen possible alternatives.

 

[nukinukinuki]

Booo!!! - No AIslenauts???

My gut feeling tells me Amairo Islenauts from Yuzusoft will probably be shared since that sounds like it's a category F22qpoThUl tends to upload.

The Freenet, which F22qpoThUl calls the last line of defense, will be the primary place for the first source of uploading. And it's interesting to see that games of this week are imported first to torrent before they are to Share (thanks folks for importing games to torrent). All uploaders know by now that Share is not a safe place anymore.

There are 6 other (isolated) uploaders in activity Mp、kyo、9a7ee、見ない酉、ちょこ、and 初心者 and if some of them learn how to make use of the Freenet, then the number of games shared will definitely increase.

Nukige genre such as those from Atelier Kaguya, SQUEEZ is still a missing piece even with the above uploaders, however, because 喫茶東洋 was the one filling that blank. I hope that there are still other uploaders not listed here and if we keep requesting nukige they might be able to hear our wishes.

As long as F22qpoThUl and the Freenet is around, I believe the first source of uploading major titles of each month should not be an issue.

 

[rurifan]

Why don't these uploaders just subscribe to one of those cheap VPN service (that people use for BT) and run Share over that for uploads? Seems like such an easy solution, does anybody talk to them to suggest it?

Edit: We could even donate VPN accounts to individual uploaders if cost/payment is a concern.

 

[nukinukinuki]

Good question, but I do not know the answer. As 987987987 mentioned (post #4 in this thread), I too wonder if the uploaders use some kind of VPN.

In F22qpoThUl's message (文通) F22qpoThUlの独り言 (txt) after 喫茶東洋 got arrested, he basically gave pieces of advice to the remaining uploaders who would　continue using the Share network. He enumerated 6 points and one of them said:

Even if you change an IP address (host) and a port, if you don’t change your cluster, connection speed, and cache data then it is still risky as they still can back track based on those.

Since I have never tried the Share network, I did not know what he was talking about (so kindly let me know if the above translation does not make sense from a technical point of view). Could this mean it is not as simple as running the Share network on VPN? I have no idea :( And then he concluded his message by saying:

Please take those points into account by yourself. If you don't even know why you'd have to do them, then there is not much I can help so just give up using the Share network.

From this last message you can sort of see that there seems to be no direct connection between the uploaders as Hawat said (post #20 in this thread), otherwise the other uploaders would have given 喫茶東洋 a warning in person telling him to have some sort of protection.
In terms of between uploaders and downloaders, there seems to be no direct communication either. The downloaders do not interfere with what the uploaders do and simply accept what is given; The uploaders don't do it for money and they are taking risks, so the downloaders do not request what games they want. Thus I wondered if there was any downloader who had actually contacted any one of the uploaders. It seems, however, F22qpoThUl interacts with downloaders on the Freenet but I guess he does not need any suggestion or advice 'cause he knows what he is doing ;)

BTW, the uploader of 逃避行GAME, who showed up the first time in a while, was the one I did not list in the previous post and it was surprising he chose the Share network as the first source of uploading despite what happened to 喫茶東洋. He may have some sort of protection so that the copyright authority cannot track him down.

This “someone just showing up and releasing something” kind of thing happens and I wouldn't be so shocked if games this month (or any month from this point on) I am interested in did not get shared after a week, a month, or a year because I don’t know who might be coming along to share them for the community in the future. What I do know is that 喫茶東洋 is not around anymore, who was in full boost at the end of every month to cover almost all the titles in various genres single-handedly, and that the situation now is different. So patience is what we need.

Only time will tell.

 

[rurifan]

"Even if you change an IP address (host) and a port, if you don’t change your cluster, connection speed, and cache data then it is still risky as they still can back track based on those."
Since I have never tried the Share network, I have no idea what he was talking about (so kindly let me know if the above translation does not make sense from a technical point of view).

These settings he describes are a potentially unique combination of client attributes. The point is that if somebody is trying to track clients over time, they could use that information to recognize you as the same client even if you changed some other variables (ip/port).

Could this mean it is not as simple as running the Share network on VPN?

The kinds of things he talks about are designed to thwart statistical analysis which would implicate a particular IP as the original source on share. But hiding the VPN service's IP isn't a major concern. The VPN's IP could be any user, and a good VPN doesn't retain logs that would correlate with the p2p analysis. Not to mention the VPN service is out of country and hostile to requests for user information.

VPN still seems like a good option. The combination of p2p uploader obfuscation with out-of-country logless VPN has a lot of layers that all have to fail.

(It's a good point that the client attributes he mentions might let a close watcher identify you if you used the same share install withOUT the VPN ... but hopefully nobody is so stupid. :))

In terms of between uploaders and downloaders, there seems to be no direct communication either. The downloaders do not interfere with what the uploaders do and simply accept what is given. Thus I wonder if there has been any downloader who has actually contacted any one of the uploaders, though F22qpoThUl once said "Contact me via TorMail if you find me".

I don't use TOR at all, but if anybody knows enough to find him it would be nice to confirm the VPN approach has been considered.

 

[Hawat]

Vpn works without problem with share as long as the vpn allows port forwarding and it was recommended a few time in the past but due to it slowing down their speed it was mostly ignored until that arrest.

As for f22, I think he has considered vpn although I m not sure I understand why he consider it dangerous.
Here is what he said about changing ip which probably include vpn.
・IPアドレス(ホスト)とポート変えてもクラスタや通信速度とキャッシュデータ変えないと逆に紐付けされて危ないよ
It says that even if someone change ip and port, without changing cluster, transmission speed and cache data, the uploader could still be associated and that made it dangerous.

I' m not sure how someone could associate transmission speed with an uploader, vpn usually doesnt let you use your full speed anyway and the speed usually fluctuate a lot.
As for cluster, using something everybody uses like 18禁ゲーム would probably be like a tree hiding in a forest and make it hard to find the uploader.
I have no idea what he means by the cache data since its something on our hard drive, I dont know how investigator could use that without actually taking a direct looking directly at the hdd.

 

[987987987]

I have no idea what he means by the cache data since its something on our hard drive, I dont know how investigator could use that without actually taking a direct looking directly at the hdd.

I don't know much about internal workings of Share, but it's probable that a Share node has to inform other nodes about contents of his cache (he has to send a list of files in his cache, complete or not) so that other nodes can find the files they want. You can easily identify someone, because there's no way two different nodes can have identical cache.

 

[magicalgirlj]

well I guess this means they want you to buy the eroge

 

[nukinukinuki]

No new uploaders born yet, but luckily two uploaders who were dormant more than 6 months have waken up (each uploading 逃避行GAME and 炎の孕ませ). I wonder if this is "After a storm comes a calm". Hope both uploaders in activity and uploaders in hibernation collectively (not single-handedly) cover missing titles and fingers crossed for big wave on coming Friday. And many thanks girlcelly as always.

 

[motherofass]

I'm surprised some of the 5/24 games have been upped already... Didn't really want any but at least there's hope, 5/31 will be the real test :)

 

[tigershonen64]

If there is a will there is a way. As long is there is something people want people are going to do whatever it takes to get it for free. Piracy will always be alive.

 

[Satellizer123]

So... seems like things looked up a little after all, no? I was really freaked out reading the first 2 pages :-s I'm not really one to collect and update new eroges (some great titles being exceptions, lol), and I don't know much about the affairs going on in Japan either... Still it's really terrible if we're to be affected. My major source for everything is anime-sharing :s
Awaiting new updates on the issue.

 

[Hawat]

It seems that a few older sharer emerged again, let's hope that they can keep up and that they are properly secured (rurmors are that 喫茶東洋 was sharing unprotected behind his own ip, which probably explains the speed at which he was able to upload all those games) . We should have the confirmation next week if there are a bunch of games missing, I think there are a little more than 20 full price game being released today.

 

[nukinukinuki]

I don't want to speak ill of a person who contributed so much to eroge sharing, but 喫茶東洋 did not have a job (I am not going into detail as to how he purchased all these things he uploaded). So he got nothing to lose, making him such an unmatched uploader; Before 喫茶東洋's time, however, an uploader named 禿 (a bold man) was equally dominant in sharing eroge but 禿 quit sharing last year.

Financially speaking, a normal uploader can afford to share titles up to 2 to 4 games a month. Last week and this week so far

F22qpoThUl: グリザイアの楽園, お嬢様はご機嫌ナナメ, 執事が姫（あるじ）を選ぶとき, レミニセンス, 月あかりランチ, Magical Charming！ (6 titles)
たまになら (roughly translated “once in a while”): 逃避行 (1 title)
Scissor man: 炎の孕ませ“わんぱく”おっぱいお嬢さま学園 ～ (1 title)
kyo: D.C.III R (1 title)
(from last week, LO あんぐる!! and 恋しよっ？are still unshared, though the former can be purchased via DL edition)

* nukige genre is severely affected :(

I do not know if we can expect a new uploader who is as powerful as and can repeat sharing as many times as 禿 or 喫茶東洋. My guess is that each uploader shares a small number of titles and they collectively & slowly cover games in each month. It’s quite possible that some games remain unshared due to the current picture, and also the representatives of eroge makers have started keeping a close eye on illegal copies on Twitter.

 

[starlightbreaker]

There's going to be less uploads

and that means up loaders will be more picky

don't expect obscure low hype games to be uploaded promptly.

 

[AlexSutter]

Also very few uploaders like girlcelly go back to the previous months and share games in those months.

This makes sense especially because uploaders always need battle against new release titles every month, so it is very unlikely they go back to the past and upload old games.

So if a new game of a month is not shared by release wave in the next month, consider it will never be.

 

[Hawat]

Also very few uploaders like girlcelly go back to the previous months and share games in those months.

This makes sense especially because uploaders always need battle against new release titles every month, so it is very unlikely they go back to the past and upload old games.

So if a new game of a month is not shared by release wave in the next month, consider it will never be.

Not criticizing girlcelly but it seems that you are confusing, I don't think girlcelly is a direct uploader, he isn't buying game to upload them, he seems to be resharing mostly what has been shared first on other network or very occasionally when the game hasn't been uploaded by the jp uploaders like the games with activations, they seem to be sent to him first by someone who has bought it, then he shares it, in this case it, it seems to happen a few week/month after the release.

If you check the websites of the games that haven't been released in the past before the arrest, the thing they have in common is that they required some sort of internet activation or account.

As for the reason why games with activation or account requirement aren't uploaded by japanese uploaders, that is probably because they buy the games > share them > immediatly resell them for a small loss. They cannot do that with games that use activation or they would take the full price loss.

 

[AlexSutter]

Oh I see, you have a point.

This weekend is real test for nukige. The fact Honoo no Haramase got uploaded was just a fluke because the guy uploaded the previous SQUEEZ as well and nothing else. If neither Mini Pai Claimer nor Imouto Paradise 2 gets shared nukige is literally over unless a new uploader appears.

 

[nukinukinuki]

Look like Qualiaffordance is going to be the last title of first wave by uploaders this week, and I don't if there's more to come.

As expected nukige has been severely impacted, although what's interesting is that Imouto Paradise 2 and 女装海峡 might come from China rather than Japan. Let's hope and wait.

Postscript:
Just to show you there is some activity going on for the above mentioned titles
http://orenogalgame.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-1645.html

It says "cannot be shared until 6/11 and Imouto Paradise 2 uses Starforce 5.7 hasn't been successfully launched yet". Sounds like we need to go though what we did with 放課後☆エロゲー部, huh :P

 

[Quaxelbaby]

That's too bad, I was looking forward to 恋もHもお勉強も、おまかせ！お姉ちゃん部 a lot. I'd even buy it if they had a download version up.

 

[nukinukinuki]

That's too bad, I was looking forward to 恋もHもお勉強も、おまかせ！お姉ちゃん部 a lot. I'd even buy it if they had a download version up.

Just to be clear, me saying "I don't know" does't mean "it will never be shared". When 喫茶東洋 was around, it was almost guaranteed that any title could be expected. He let other uploaders proceed first and after some titiles had been shared he filled missing, unshared games. Without him, those missing titles may or may not remain to be holes.

Personally, if a game is not shared it sounds right to me to say "I don't know if it will be shared" rather than to say "it will never be shared" because we cannot predict what will happen in the future; Just as in Math, it is much more difficult to prove absense of something than to prove existence of something.

So, even if a title is not shared right away, don't be so disappointed and it's not the end of the world :)

 

[Otokonoko]

I saw 女装海峡 and 妹ぱらだいす！２ titles at 2djgames's VIP section: https://bbs5.2djgame.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=360825&extra=page%3D1.
They aren't gonna share them ?