swedish_drems | 63 points
Fortunately for me running out of accounts isn't really an issue. And thus I've been seriously considering backing up everything posted... A lot and I mean, a lot of amazing content is uploaded here and most of it gets taken down, which is extremely sad. What I want to do is to make make a service that backs up each post to a separate account, people can then request an item and it will be copied into a completely new account and send the link to said copy to that specific user. While this wouldn't be all that hard if I were to manually do 'some' of the work (putting original links together and until I can be bothered automating it, processing requests) I don't have that much free time on my hands due to school... So I'm wondering if people would actually benefit from this? I'd definitely use it myself, but again the time I'd have to put into making it would be rather large...
[-] [deleted] | 6 points
We do have megalinks.ml already which is for backing up links in this subreddit.
[-] swedish_drems | 3 points
I'm pretty sure it doesn't create an entirely new link for each person to access it, in which it is succeptible to being taken down. Unless of course I can't find a way around the copy deletion then yeah... my idea is essentially useless
Edit: can confirm dead links do exist on said website
[-] Cartmanishere | 4 points
I'm pretty sure it doesn't create an entirely new link for each person to access it,
Yeah, you're correct. It is susceptible to takedowns. That's why everytime one of my backup links is taken down, I have to move the content to another account and generate a new link. This takes a lot of time and energy.
[-] douhaveanygreypoupon | 3 points
A proper backup system requires you to download & reupload everything you want backed up.
Importing works as a half-measure in that you'll be able to access something that the original uploader removes or has a disable takedown issued against.
What you're suggesting is already being covered by Mlinks(.)ml - which as it stands has a huge potential to kill a lot of content posted here.
[-] swedish_drems | 2 points
The idea behind that site is that users will post their own backups to it. I kinda see what you mean but I'm more focussed on only sharing backups of backups, thus if a link is taken down I can just make a new one... Also none of the links made would be posted publically (by me at least), each request would be private and unique.
I am more than happy to dl things from mega to back them up, but my upload speed is abysmal so reuploading things would be painful...
only other thing I can think of would be to make a new account that the reuploaded/properly backed up file is shared with, this doesn't require a link and as far as I'm aware can't be reported properly
[-] douhaveanygreypoupon | 1 points
Sounds like "import juggling" which can work but you're still tied to the fate of the original source file. If it gets the "wrong" take of takedown request (read: removal) then your backups are gone too.
Downloading + reuploading (renewing) is the proper method because you control the source, it's not popular because it takes longer.
Juggling = faster, renewing = safer.
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
Downloading + Reuploading is only viable if you have no data cap and a generous ISP.
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
What you're suggesting is already being covered by Mlinks(.)ml - which as it stands has a huge potential to kill a lot of content posted here.
How so? I know the MEGA people can always delete the files from their servers thus making all links obsolete. But I fail to see how my backing up files on my accounts could kill a lot of content.
[-] douhaveanygreypoupon | 3 points
It undoes the protection used here by providing direct links that include the decryption key.
If you want to make it more secure I'd drop the tempid, force login before showing any content and if possible verify that the people registering are coming from this sub.
[-] Cartmanishere | 2 points
Tbh I had the same idea but I couldn't implement that kind of verification. Still, I think you have a wrong sense of how MEGA goes about deleting content.
First: Link Takedowns (So the content is still there on their servers but the public link is removed.)
These kind of takedowns occurs when links are shared publically and it comes to their attentions. In short, the links shared on my website are vulnerable to these takedowns but it doesn't affect the originally uploaded content. Just the public link I generated for that content.
Second: Content Takedowns (They delete the file from their servers, so any link generated for it becomes obsolete)
Generally, these takedowns occur when MEGA scans their servers for copyrighted files using hash of the files. And if they get a takedown request for that file, they delete the file from their servers. So any link created and shared by original uploader or by me becomes obsolete. Only way to preserve such data is Download(Original upload) + Encrypt + Reupload like you said.
Anyway, even if they could gather every link shared on my website and remove the links. I don't think those links could directly lead to the second kind of takedowns.These content takedowns take place relatively fewer times than link takedowns. I developed the site to implement a simple measure against first kind of takedowns.
[-] halolordkiller3 | 2 points
So while this isn't "mega" backup, I could purchase a few of those $10 unlimited for life google accounts on ebay (I have a few for the last few years and work great) and setup a vps to just keep cloning one into the other.
[-] [deleted] | 1 points
I dont understand?
[-] halolordkiller3 | 2 points
What's not to understand?
[-] Cartmanishere | 2 points
It's a nice idea. But as it has been already pointed out, this only works to preserve link takedowns and not content takedowns. Still giving each requester a new unique link will make it more secure than just me posting an alternative link on my site.
But what I'm interested in is how you would go about implementing this idea. I know you can create accounts so space is not a problem but can copying a requested file to another account and sharing that link be automated? If not, that's a hell of a lot of work to do manually.
[-] _FR_Starfox64 | 2 points
The content takedown can be circumvented by uploading a passworded zip with a different password everytime it gets taken down.
[-] Reeces_Pieces | 2 points
It's a nice idea, but the only way for said system to really work without issue is if the service had a central server in which it downloaded everything from every link (or maybe just the best stuff? Could be determined by having an upvote threshold that must be reached in order to get Backed Up. It could also check for duplicates before downloading something new).
It could then just create a fresh account and re-upload it whenever, further scripting could allow it to also associate each file it has stored with the link it was downloaded from, and it could periodically "check" the link to see if it has been taken down, and automatically re-upload it if it has.
Although, it would take a good bit of server storage space and up-time, so it's not really feasible IMO.
[-] _FR_Starfox64 | 1 points
If you guys would like I can work on automating that right away.
[-] sherlockpotter7 | 1 points
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the only surefire way to permanently back stuff up to Mega is by downloading it onto your computer, then re-uploading it to a personal Mega account, from which you never share any links (so that no one can find them and report your account).
[-] Cartmanishere | 1 points
It's relatively safe but unless you encrypt the files before re-uploading to a personal account it's not surefire.
[-] hatemyjobZ | 1 points
Just want to add that detection of files is done via hashing. Unless something changes in a file, the hash will be the same, and therefor, be eligible for takedown.
If takedown is submitted for a .avi, all copies, regardless of name or extension, will be affected. Changing a pixel of the file or putting the file inside a containe (zip, 7z, etc) will fix it.
Encryption doesn't help, if the takedown request is done against the encrypted file.
Maybe this was posted already, but just wanted to share as it might help if the backup idea goes forward.
[-] _FR_Starfox64 | 1 points
Here is a simple CLI tool I came up with http://i.imgur.com/TPrzSLs.gifv
[-] vcdupper | 16 points | Mar 16 2017 15:05:10
The only issue that I see with this is that lately if I import a file to my account, when my copy gets killed so does the source file that I imported from, not sure if it's that way for everyone but that's been my experience, if so then this won't work.
Great idea just not sure if it will work.
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[-] [deleted] | 12 points | Mar 16 2017 16:04:29
[deleted]
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[-] vcdupper | 3 points | Mar 16 2017 19:50:46
Ahhhh good to know thx
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[-] Alexsaphir | 1 points | Mar 17 2017 08:22:39
For the (3) you need to download the file and reupload
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[-] swedish_drems | 1 points | Mar 16 2017 15:15:40
Ok dang, I haven't experienced this, but I'll be sure to look into it. I doubt renaming the files would work but I can also try that... otherwise I'll try duplicating an imported file that doesn't have an existing link to a shared account then stopping said share between accounts. Otherwise yeah it's screwed
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[-] Dude036 | 1 points | Mar 16 2017 17:02:40
Something that you could do is compress the files or separate them into more than one file so the hashes are different I'm not sure how that effects the longevity of the link, but it may work better for storing (you know. Less space and all). Thoughts?
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[-] chagmed | 3 points | Mar 16 2017 17:39:11
Yes, in order to address takedowns, it's important to realize how files are targeted for takedown.
Among the techniques are file name and file content hash. As I've mentioned elsewhere, one of the problems with the zip format is that filenames are visible even if the archive is password-encrypted.
A good zip/rar tool will allow one to encrypt the filename as well as its contents.
My suggestions:
zip/rar the file with a password
encrypt the filename when creating zip/rar
give the encrypted archive a name unrelated to its contents
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[-] sherlockpotter7 | 1 points | Mar 16 2017 22:07:07
Shouldn't the file name be irrelevant? Mega's whole thing is that they have "end-to-end encryption," and can't see what you're uploading.
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[-] _FR_Starfox64 | 2 points | Mar 16 2017 22:30:03
E2E encryption or not changing the filenames would be irrelevant as there is no way Mega is using this to match files. This would cause too many false positives.
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[-] Reeces_Pieces | 2 points | Mar 16 2017 22:45:45
Correct. It doesn't really matter what you do, so long as any human with an internet connection can access it. Anyone can access this subreddit and get to the content they're looking for; that's the whole point.
If the copyright holder decides to do the same thing, then they can send a DMCA takedown request with a link to the reddit thread with all the info detailing what the content is and how/where to get it. Furthermore, scripts could be created to automate that process.
A captcha for this subreddit might defeat scripts though.
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