KaZaA fileswappers hide behind anonymous servers

After the RIAA has sued 400 more users of file sharing applications, more and more fileswappers install hopster - a small application that hides their PC's internet address.

Vienna, Austria (PRWEB) May 7, 2004 -- After the RIAA has sued 400 more users of file sharing applications, more and more fileswappers install hopster - a small application that hides their PC's internet address.

Originally developed to get around online censorship in restrictive countries, hopster also hides a computer's real IP address and "replaces" it with a single anonymous address that is shared by thousands of other users. Other computers will only see this shared IP address, so that PCs with hopster installed can no longer be traced and identified.

Detecting who is behind such a hopster-protected PC turns out to be difficult, if not impossible. Standard internet programs such as "traceroute", which would normally trace down a computer's service provider and sometimes even a PC's geographical location, will now lead to hopster's servers in Austria, Europe - far away from the fileswapper's real location.

Andreas Pizsa (32), founder and developer of hopster, sees an additional benefit in operating servers in his home country, where keeping connection logs is prohibited by Telecommunications Law. "We are not allowed to keep any records if they are not required for billing purposes", says Andreas Pizsa. "Unlike phone companies who need to keep records of outgoing calls so they can bill their customers, our users pay us in advance, so there is no need to record anything. Without log files, we can't identify anyone, even if a court would order us to do so".

In August 2003, a German district court denied the police access to log records of "JAP", a Web anonymization project similar to hopster (District Court Frankfurt/Main Az.: 5/6 Qs 47/03; see http://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/material/themen/presse/anonip2_e.htm)

Several thousand people from around the world use hopster every day. "I love the way hopster works!", says one anonymous user. "There was no complex setup involved and it seems to work well". hopster automatically configures file sharing applications such as KaZaA or iMesh, and also supports Instant Messaging software like Microsoft Messenger, ICQ or mIRC. "hopster is light years beyond others in terms of ease of use, look and feel, and setup."

The software is available as a free download from http://www.hopster.com. Users can try the service for free with limited download speeds. Faster downloads start at US$9.95 per month.

ABOUT HOPSTER
hopster allows open, uncensored internet access at home, at schools, universities and offices worldwide, even in countries where Freedom of Speech is a political challenge. We keep people in touch with their friends and family: hopster enhances the most popular internet applications to work across restrictive firewalls; it integrates automatically with Kazaa, iMesh, ICQ, AOL Messenger, Microsoft Messenger and most other file sharing and instant messaging applications. Thousands of individuals in over 100 countries worldwide enjoy the benefits of uncensored communication with hopster.

For more information about hopster, visit the company's web site at http://www.hopster.com.

PR Contact:
Andreas Pizsa
e-mail: andreas at hopster dot com
Phone +43 699 1728 1528