Team FTL

[coo-coo-clocker]

OMG have you seen this?

Isn't that the team involved in that scandal?

[mstp2009]

I'm betting that they released another "hack" for a new game.

[[XC] riptide]

Care to enlight me wtf is going on? That link seems extreme. And the member names are wtf?

[[XC] riptide]

http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?p...ah&team=149135

Wow! Why the stats drop?

[mstp2009]

Team FTL put up a "hack" for a common game out there (don't remember which one).

In the hack, the included a copy of the single core FAH program.

In the hack instructions, they said install that program as part of the hack and type in team number. . . . etc.



Stanford found out, and removed ALL of their points on Feb. 25th. But as you can see they are still going strong.

[Rise]

imagine all the people who've been affected by it... F@H is like a virus if you don't know how to turn it off... i mean it eats resources and all these kids trying to play games wouldn't be able to play much of anything with F@H running.

then again... I guess they downloaded it illegally in the first place and deserve it.

from a points perspective and the competitive nature of F@H, it's obviously a bad thing. from a copyright perspective, it's almost like a vigilante type of way to punish these people by forcing them to do something good without them even knowing about it. it's like saying "Hey, you tried to do something illegal and now you're inadvertently doing research to save people's lives instead. Enjoy playing this game at 2 fps." I don't know... I think it's more of a good thing than a bad thing i know a lot of people here fold competitively, but I would say that as long as they keep resetting the teams score on a regular basis... I hope this same team keeps doing what they are doing but at the same time I in no way would actually support them in doing it, I just support them morally from inside the closet, if that makes sense.

i might get flamed for saying what I said... but still I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this. Does the good outweigh the bad?

[mstp2009]

It was the single-core only client. I doubt it affected FPS that much.

[MikeB12]

here's the user http://folding.extremeoverclocking.c...hp?s=&u=386620

looks like he got zapped for 3 mil...

FTLSpeed

[mstp2009]

It's not one user. It's a whole team of like 20k people.

[MikeB12]

oh, wow! I searched for the story, but that's all I found is one post at fah. http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.ph...6221&hilit=FTL

edit: ok, so I only searched fahforum.. it's all over google.

I wonder who's brainchild idea it was to package it with a piratebay torrent. LMAO!

[Rise]

it was more like 105,000,000 - look at the weekly production here: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.c...hp?s=&t=149135

[MikeB12]

seems like if it was an automated install package with a torrent dl and part of a game install; then all the points would be the same user from the preconfigured client.cfg file. hard to believe they actually didn't prepackage it configured to install as a hidden as part of the game install. I mean, did users really install this on their own and type in a different username for each dl. that's unreal people are that stupid. I used to be a Novell Zen admin to push packaged apps out through the network.. if I was gonna push this thing out to a bunch of users, I'd prepackage it with the main install as a hidden prereq to the main app install. and push into the same folder as the main install. so the user never knows it's there during install. whoever packaged that thing is a little inept at this stuff.

[[XC] riptide]

HAHHA. I remember in a program I run occasionally... Seventeen or Bust... some guy went to the forum and asked how the hell it got running on his machine. Turns out some guy had packaged it in a torrent too.! Although it had a warning screen before install.... people just clicked "yes", "whatever" "ok" and it installed under his name.

[[XC] riptide]

Well.. at least it benefits science.

[OldChap]

This should be a pre-requisite for all torrents of ripped off software...It may not satisfy the owners of the software but For me at least I feel that this should have been done properly and maybe fully automated. All under one username..."The ripoff collective".. and that's just the price they should have to pay for ripping people off. Great for the science!!! and the single core client is the right way too...unnoticeable for most. To use a local colloquialism...Proper Job!!

Give 'em back their points for just having a good idea!!...It just needs polishing that's all

[ColonelCain]

Team FTL put up a "hack" for a common game out there (don't remember which one).

In the hack, the included a copy of the single core FAH program.

In the hack instructions, they said install that program as part of the hack and type in team number. . . . etc.



Stanford found out, and removed ALL of their points on Feb. 25th. But as you can see they are still going strong.

Well, it seems that stanford needs to check again.

While this is good for science, this is BAD for Stanford. They could possibly get implicated in a suite.

[MikeB12]

they created a blog to explain what happened

http://teamftl.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Debunking myths

This is the Team FTL Folding@Home Blog. We'd like to start by introducing ourselves and debunking all rumors about us.


Team FTL

Team FTL (Faster Than Light) consists of people from various countries who came together online to spread the use of Folding@Home to the wider online community at large by debunking myths, thorough engagement and user-friendly installers.

We are NOT affiliated to any warez or illegal group, nor do we create trojans, viruses, "automatic installers" or any form of malware. We only serve to spread the message of Folding@Home to the masses, and to encourage them to join the project. No user installs our Folding@home installer and folds for our team without fully understanding the benefits and consequences of joining the Folding@Home project. It is known that some of our members are interested in distributing the installer through P2P channels, however it has been determined to be within EULA requirements.


The Scandal
However, due to some of our channels of communications (which include p2p and its forums), p2p groups have been sabotaging us (though we’re not sure whether its sabotage or over-enthusiasm), spreading the Folding@Home client in our team name, resulting in the loss of 106 million points from the entire team. We believe the problem is that they were enthusiastic about getting people to run Folding@Home, but were doing so in the wrong ways, and were breaking the EULA. One reason for this is that we didn't have a proper website till now, which we will now rectify. All legit members' points were zeroed, while two of the sabotaged accounts, FTLSpeed and FTLTravel (both of which were originally team-members’) were both banned, a move which we applaud. We would like to maintain that the founding and legit members of Team FTL condemn ALL forms of behavior which put the team and the Folding@Home project in a bad light. ONLY A FEW ACCOUNTS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED. The installer used in these cases were MSI installers (believed to be derived from the OCAU MSI Installer: http://www.overclockers.com.au/foldi..._installer.htm), or the direct console client with instructions to fold for the 2 users. It is NOT the installer that we have designed.

In addition, we request the following users to be banned from the Folding@Home project as well, as it is the last of the sabotaged accounts that have not been banned, and was probably installed by users who were (we believe) manipulated by this external group:



1. FILExtreme
2. FTLExtreme
3. FTLExttreme
4. FTLExtrme
5. FTLextream
6. FTLEstreme
7. FTLExtreme_(Or_any_username_you_like)
8. FTLExreme
9. FTLExtreme_
10. FTLExtreme_[Or_any_username_you_like]
11. FTLExtreme_Adam
12. ftlextrem
13. FTLEExtreme
14. FTLExtrema
15. _FTLExtreme_hero01
16. FTLExtrreme
17. FTLRxtreme
18. FTLExtreame
19. FTLxtreme
20. FTLExtreme2
21. FTLExtre
22. FTLExtrime
23. FTLExtreme(Or_any_username_you_like)
24. FTLExtrene
25. Username:FTLExtreme
26. FTLExtereme
27. \\FTLExtereme
28. FTLExtreme(Or_any_usernme_you_like)
29. FTLetreme
30. FTLExtreme_
31. _FTLEXTREME
32. FTLEetreme
33. FLTEtreme
34. FLExtreme
35. FLTExreme
36. Any_username_you_like
37. any_username
38. anyuserulike
39. any_user_name_you_like
40. Any_username_ypu_like
41. Any_username_you
42. Any_username_kou_like
43. any_username_you_luke
44. Any_username_like
45. any_usernamelike
46. _Any_username_you_like
47. Any_username_you_like_
48. Any_username_yoou_like
49. any_usermane_you_like
50. any_name
51. FasterThanLight_(Or_any_username_you_like)
52. any_usename_you_like
53. anyusernameyou_like
54. anyusername
55. Any_username_u_like
56. ANY_USERNAME__YOU_LOKE
57. Any_usarname_you_like
58. Any_usernamre_you_like
59. any_usernam_you_like
60. Any_username_yuo_like
61. Any_usernameyou_like
62. Any_usernamer_you_like
63. Any_uzername_you_like
64. Any_unsername_you_like
65. any_username_i_like
66. Any_user_you_like
67. any_username_tou_like
68. anyusername_you_like
69. any_username_you_lik
70. Any_ussername_you_like
71. any_user_name
72. any_user_name_you_lake
73. FasterThenLight
74. fasterlights
75. fasterthanlicht
76. fastethanlight
77. FasterThanligt
78. FastherThanLight
79. FasterThantLight
80. FasterThanligth
81. FasterThanlingt
82. FasterThanLigh
83. FasterTenLight
84. FasterThanLighet
85. FasterThamLight
86. FasterThanLght
87. FastarThanLight
88. fasterthanlightt
89. fasterthanlightning
90. fasterthenligght
91. Fastthananylight
92. FFasterThanLight
93. FasterThanLihgt
94. FasterThatLight
95. FasterThanLightR
96. Fasterthalight
97. FastThanLight
98. FasterThanLigft
99. FasterThanlight_gyuresanyi
100. FasterThanKight
101. username:_fasterthanlight
102. fasterthsnlight
103. FasterThanLigght
104. FasterThanLiqht
105. FasterToLight
106. FastrerTHanLIGht
107. Fasterthanthunder
108. FasterThanLiht
109. FasterThan_Light
110. ___________________FasterThanLight
111. FasterThanLinght
112. FastrThanLight
113. `fasterthanlight
114. FsterThanLight
115. festerthanlight
116. xlcePhoenix
117. xIcePhonix
118. xicephenix
119. XLCPHOENIX
120. xIcePheonix
121. xIcePhienix
122. xicephoenixomran
123. xIcePhoenix_
124. xIcePhonenix
125. user_name_xIcephonix
126. xIceOhoenix
127. icephoenix
128. xIcePhonixx
129. xIcePhoenixx
130. xIcePheoenix
131. xIcePhoinix
132. xIcePhoenix_149135
133. xPhoenix
134. _xIcePhoenix

While we do not have an installer or file that directly implicates these users, we believe it’s pretty obvious. Some of these users may have already been banned since many of them have not returned any WUs since the last zero-ing of points. We have attempted to remove the offending files from P2P sites by liaising with P2P forum administrators, and most of them have indeed been removed. We hope the team will be able to tide over this humiliating attack. We will be liaising with the the Folding Forum to get the above accounts banned soon. As far as we know, all other accounts are legit.

[coo-coo-clocker]

Nice try, but IMO the damage is done.
Not sure how they will manage to sort out the wheat from the chaff.
I would suggest that they destroy that team, and start anew.

[kevinbo03]

Pretty funny, and for a good cause, But I do understand and completely agree with the stats reset. I don't think Stanford is liable at all, As when people package viruses that force ads that benefit the packager, the ads displayed are not liable. Something like that.

Would have been far more appropriate to set the team number to anonymous, Or perhaps create a team with a name that labeled it as what it is. Something like "The I-didnt-know-F@H-was-bundled-with-this-warez/crack-torrent Team".

Now that's classy.

[MikeB12]

Nice try, but IMO the damage is done.

"a Swing and a Miss!"