TrustyFiles

[eclectica]

TrustyFiles (http://www.trustyfiles.com) allows for the connection to the following networks: Gnutella 1, Gnutella 2, Kaaza, and BitTorrent. See the screenshot attachment below.

The program claims to contain "NO spyware, NO bundled software". However it generates advertisements which causes popup ads to appear. When you first launch the program you get a popup ad. Sometimes the ad server is not working and you get a message saying that the server is busy. After the initial popup ad, you get various banner ads on the bottom of the page during the rest of the program's operation. I scanned the computer after using the program with Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3 and found only tracking cookies.

A feature of it I don't like is that it has no bandwidth controls. Another thing I don't like is how its extensive blocklist which is set to on by default, has no off control. The entries must be deleted in order to turn off the blocklist feature. Information on the blocklist can be found at http://www.trustyfiles.com/help-sw-blockupdt.php. It looks flexible and capable of supporting a variety of lists.

When you first run the program and select to share your files it gives you no indication that it is hashing them, but in fact that is what it does. You can see all of your selected shared files in the "My Files" folder. If some of the files are still being hashed, when you select to view "File Info", there will be no hash information displayed. It seems to work in alphabetical order, so the only way you know all the hashing is done is when you can view a hash of the last entry in your shared folder.

I tried separately to connect to the 3 networks: FastTrack, G1, and G2, but it would always crash about a minute after being connected to G1. It gave me the following error message:
Error signature
AppName: trustyfiles.exe
AppVer: 2.2.0.1
ModName: ntdll.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.114
Offset: 0000847c
:rolleyes:
Perhaps I am FCKGWed because I never installed the Windows XP Service Pack 1 on the computer I tested the program on.

I believe that there is only one appeal of this program. It appeals to novices who are scared by RIAA lawsuits. Otherwise few would want to deal with an unpopular application that does not run smoothly and is loaded with advertising. What they offer is a false security for users. If people want real security in p2p filesharing then they should be directed towards a program like MUTE (http://mute-net.sourceforge.net/).

The company known as Razorpop or Futurevision is a member of the DCIA (http://www.dcia.info/), which is a collection of p2p developers including Sharman Networks (http://www.3-3-3.org/forum/showthread.php?t=245) looking to make a profit off of p2p filesharing. Marc Freedman of Texas has connections to MIT and Yale alumni and owns these websites:
www.brandedp2p.com
www.dallasblue.com
www.dallasblues.com
www.dallasmeet.com
www.dallaspop.com
www.diariaa.com
www.donatemymusiccheck.com
www.futureofdigitalmusic.com
www.lustyfiles.com
www.p2pfiles.com
www.p2pstreetteam.com
www.razorpop.com
www.savep2p.com
www.the-future.org
www.topp2p.com
www.trustyfiles.com

I asked of them in their forums (http://www.razorpop.com/net/forums/) who the actual developer is, because I was wondering if they copied the program from another application to make their own commercial p2p application. I also was wondering how they get away with connecting to the FastTrack network, or if they have arranged to share advertisement revenue with Sharman Networks in order to be able to do so. Apparently they are in violation of the GNU GPL & GNU LGPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html) because they use Gnucleus (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnucleus/) and giFT (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gift/) in their program but have not turned around to make their own program open source.

[eclectica]

Marc Freedman is really out for his own interests and out to make money off of p2p filesharing. He has no shame in self aggrandizement.

Read on his webpage here (http://www.diariaa.com/essay-marc-technopop.htm) how he claims to have coined the word "technopop":
Marc Freedman coined the phrase "TechnoPop" in 1991 in a white paper predicting the convergence of technology and entertainment.

Actually there is a Kraftwerk song named "Techno Pop" from their second album Electric Cafe released in 1986.
:tune: Kraftwerk - Techno Pop.mp3 (http://www.p2pjihad.org/eclectica/Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe - Techno Pop.mp3) (9,232,324 bytes)

[eclectica]

Interview with Marc Freedman at UniteTheCows:
http://www.unitethecows.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5062

[RazorPop]

Gentlemen,

I appreciate the review of TrustyFiles. The blocklist is for our users' protection. If you want to turn it off, simply delete the blocklist file in the Data folder.

I'm sorry that you had a problem with program crashing. 99.9% of our users use TrustyFiles just fine without any such problems. We have however noticed specific with some memory resident programs such as anti-virus software (Norton in particular), Winampa (a Winamp media player process that can be turned off without affecting Winamp), and a few screensavers.

Yes, we do carry advertising. We do need to make a living so we can continue to offer and improve our program. We have straight web-based banner advertising and a single pop-up on start-up. That is all. Unlike other programs we have NO bundled or additional software. We believe that is reasonable tradeoff for our customers. With over 300,000 downloads in a few months they clearly agree.

RazorPop, Inc. is the owner and developer of TrustyFiles. Our tech team is heavily involved in P2P open source efforts so we take GPL issues seriously. We did not properly handle and acknowledge GnucDNA and giFT use in TrustyFiles 2.1. I take full responsibility for that honest omission, which was due to miscommunication between our developers and me. When we developed TrustyFiles 2.2 we rewrote much of the network code for better performance and stability. That also allowed us to use 100% native code that is all ours and does not come from anywhere else.

Marc Freedman
RazorPop CEO, developer of TrustyFiles
support1 at razorpop dot com

[JiMiThInG]

http://home.mchsi.com/~p2pfsnewspics/trustyfiles.gif
From P2P Forums (http://www.p2pforums.com)
The Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/) defines Sharepro (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sharepro&defid=661188) as

A person who lies on the internet.
You do not own a 6GHz Pentium 5, stop being such a SharePro.
You don't have a clue about secutity you SharePro.
People who think ES5 (EarthStation V) is a good application are SharePro's. (Or more likely SharePro clones ;)

Trusty Files are one of a growing number of multi-network file sharing clients available to peers today. Its homepage sports a Kazaa Gold like look, and brags about being the client being able to connect to muliple networks including Gnutella (http://www.gnutella.com/), Gnutella 2 (http://www.shareaza.com), and Fast Track (http://www.kazaa.com).

A few advanced users began to question Trusty Files after looking at its code and finding code from both gIFT (http://gift.sourceforge.net/), and Gnucleus (http://www.gnucleus.com/). These clients are open source and fall under the G.N.U. (http://www.alphant.com/gnu-gpl.html) or General Public License. Trusty Files have claimed that 100% of this code was their own.

In a thread Here (http://peerlounge.com/index.php?showtopic=158) you will see they are clearly lying. Marc Freedman is lying to us, or his programmers are lying to him. Trusty Files would be wise to fix this situation as soon as possible. As Earth Station 5 (http://www.earthstation5.com) has learned, its hard to regain the trust of the P2P community once you betray it.

One can hardly help but question the motives of those who lie about their own true nature.
Source (http://www.p2pforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=4284)

[JiMiThInG]

Well I have a certain level of respect for open soucre and a certain level of distrust for p2p's that like to lie to there users. ie es5, and now trusty files.

[bob_m]

i agree with jimything. because sensitive information can be shared or gained
through p2p-programs, it is important to be able to trust them. that is why it
is crucial to be able to rely fully on the good intentions of the programmers. i
completely trust emule for example, because i know that many people have
doublechecked the code.