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Wrapster Allows Napster To Distribute Any File
An anonymous reader sent us a bit that's running over at CNet and talking about a wrapper for napster called Wrapster that allows
distribution of files besides just the MP3s for which the software is known. Now suddenly it's a distributable filesystem... Wild.
Or a Napsterfs translator for HURD?
Also, don't forget FreeNet.
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Open mind, insert foot.
One would think that that interpretation was obvious, but the article seems to have it completely backwards:
Wrapster joins a growing list of programs allowing the quick, free and wide distribution of illegally copied files. The trend is bad news for record companies, movie studios and software companies that have fought hard to keep their wares from being pirated online.
How hard would it have been for them to say "...of files (incuding illegally copied ones)" instead of "...of illegally copied files"? Care to imagine how many people will get the strange notion that the specific ability to copy files "illegally" is some special feature of the program? (Or, rather, that something like that could possibly be a special feature rather than a side-effect of the way it is used?) By saying something so misleading, they seem to be encouraging people to buy the industries' claims that things like this (not just [N|Wr]apster, but MP3, DeCSS, and, heck, why not mention FTP) are inherently "pirate" or "hacker" tools.
They have extended the "piracy" stigma to cover all of the program's functions, choosing to see this as a bolder move to make the thing even more "dangerous", rather than a retroactive hedge to create new perfectly legitimate uses that can be used to justify its existence as a legitimate tool.
Of course, it doesn't help that
Its author, identified as "Octavian" in the program's "about" file, suggests using the software as a means for trading programs such as Windows 2000. Octavian could not be reached for comment.
That strikes me as kind of dumb, undermining the legitimizing effect of Wrapster, or maybe he really does intend it as a new-and-improved "piracy" tool, but even his saying it does not make it true or change the fact that the "it's a legitimate file-sharing tool" defense has gained some credibility.
David Gould
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
That's what I meant -- by putting that suggestion in there, he made himself sound like some warez kiddie. I have no idea who he is or whether that description is in fact accurate, but either way, he seriously undermined the good that this could have done, since it also made it sound like something specifically for other warez kiddies, when in fact it could be very useful for a variety of purposes. If he'd been just a little bit smarter about it, he could have spun this so as to make it an argument for the legitimacy of Napster, but instead, he chose to slap the industries in the face with it, just begging them to turn it into another argument for their side instead.
My other point, though, when I said "...even his saying it does not make it true...", is that despite what he said, this does still open up new legitimate uses for the software, which can be used to strengthen the defense. A program's author is not the final authority on what the program's uses are -- if he were, the MPAA would be forced to agree that DeCSS is not for copying DVDs, simply because Jon Johansen says so. (Yes, I know he's not the actual author, but anyway.)
By the way, you probably used "Extrans" when what you wanted was "Plain Old Text", which is why your italics didn't work. The meanings of those two modes seem to be counter-intuitive to a lot of people -- they are actually the exact opposites of what you might expect.
David Gould
David Gould
main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
What happened to perlfs? I'm sure that would have been a fairly painless way to do things, if there is a Napster library for Perl.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
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"Insert witty quote here."
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Reinventing protocols where there are already standards... *sigh*
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
From the article:
"Programs such as Wrapster and Nullsoft's Gnutella, which mimic and expand on Napster, are quickly speeding the erosion of copyright protections online, leaving copyright holders scrambling to keep up. "
Oh, and like I haven't been seeing downloads for pirated software for the last 10 years on EFNet?
For crying out loud.. Napster has done nothing new in the world. All it has done is grabbed media attention. Sheesh.
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- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Okay, what I'd like to see....
I'd like to see some sort of file comparison feature on Napster. Have each file have an MD5 or some other file describing string. Each client lists that in addition to the filename and size and connection and the like. Then when you request a file your computer can not only try the one you requested, but also identical copies on other locations. This could serve to make the Napster protocol far more robust in the case of individual server overload or failure.
Point and click FTP?
What a concept.
Maybe someone could implement it in a web browser...
Now I know how it works, you are probably right.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
Hotline? This type of file sharing system has been around for quite some time. It's amazing how journalists do NO research, and say things like "It's the first of its kind!", and don't even bother to verify that.
HL is still around - in fact its up to version 1.8 now. Hotline, though requires a server and can require a l/p, while naspter/wrapster simply goes from ip to ip. That is what makes napster different.
I still prefer Hotline though.... better interface easier to use and you can preview files.
You can get Hotline off download.com - simply ad tracked.group.org as a tracker and you're off...
Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?
"What would be really cool is if you could define ID3 tag information to be saved as part of the archive, because Napster would be able to search through that information, and it would make things a ton easier."
Is that "meta-data" I hear? Content-based associative database-like organization? I'm saying one-dimensional hierarchical filesystems should give way to associative database-driven "resource systems". That's what Wrapster and Gnutella are essentially.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Wow...I guess using "paradigm" and "fat cat" in a post leads to a score of 5 :)
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
There's a Napster plug-in for Winamp. Still has some functions that aren't supported, and in some ways it ruins the point--since you only log on when you're looking for something, there's no reason to share your files. Still, it's a good sight more convenient than firing up Napster every time you want to find a song.
Whether this technology will make it into, say, IE, off-hand I'd be extremely surprised, just because big companies like MS are far too much in bed with the IP fascists. As for the Netscape branded Mozilla, I think we know the answer there, seeing as how their parent company *is* the IP fascists. The real Mozilla? I bet (I hope!) there's a module within a couple weeks.
What about the bug in napster that always seems to stop a file transfer with 500-600 bytes to go?
It's allright for mp3's because all you loose is the ID3 tag... But what about a zip, or self-extracting exe?
If you loose the last few bites of a zip, that where the headers are stored, listing all the files in the archive.
Anyone else think of that?
As good as Cryptonomicon was, I get more and more convinced that a bunker-style data haven is the wrong way to go.
Why not make the data haven nuke-proof like the internet itself?
Anyway, if you're interested in this paradigm, check out the following projects:
Intermemory
The Eternity Service
FreeNet
And try cypherspace for a nice collection of related links.
Mojotoad
wrapster
When I'm singing a ballad and a pair of underwear lands on my head, I hate that. It really kills the mood.
-Tom Jones
Last I checked, transferring files was legal regardless of the means you use to transfer them.
I don't know about you but this seems like a virus writer's dream. Imagine how much faster Melissa would have proliferated if instead of being a download from an alt.sex.* newsgroup masquerading as porn (which it wasn't) it was available via a Napster or Wrapster type program as an .exe or part of an .exe that everybody wanted. Does anyone see how this scenario can be averted or is this going to open a virus plague the likes of which we haven't seen since MSFT inserted macros into their Office Suite?
Wrapster joins a growing list of programs allowing the quick, free and wide distribution of illegally copied files.
.zip files and doesn't work most of the time. FTP takes some brains to use. The "threat" is that programs such as this are so damn easy to use. In the past, it was only the geeks and tech-savvy folks pirating stuff. Now, almost every college student with a computer and high speed connection can do it without a drop of knowledge.
It seems as though you missed this section of the article. Also, here is the reason it's a "threat"
Napster's ease of use and the huge selection of music available through the system have made it a favorite among college students and other communities with high-speed Internet connections. Thousands of people can frequently be found on the network in the evenings, often sharing nearly a million songs with their peers.
You really don't see a lot of warez on the web, and if you do find some it's usually broken into 50
I don't agreed with what the corporations are saying, however I thought I would at least explain to you what they're trying to say since you seem to have some misinterpertations.
Maybe this is old news to some of you, but it was new to me, so I thought I'd point it out.
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton
The killer combo:
napster. you know where that is.
wrapster. you know what it does.
napigator. In case you don't know what this does, it allows you to logon to a napster server of your choosing.
So, with these three things, you can: find whoever you need to find, exchange whatever file you want to exchange. Feel like a spy yet?
http://notoctavian.tripod.com/ there you go
http://pevets.virtualave.net
I guess now that they allow any files to flow into Napster, there would be nothing to stop the warez traders from jumping abroad from the depths of IRC. Once the BSA hears about this, they'll go through the roof. I'm pretty sure the boys at Redmond are already powering up the lawyers for this attempt to weasel thousands off the evil empre's multi-million profits.
I wonder how long is it going to take before some smartass post an ISO Rip of a DVD and the MPAA gets word of this.
Oooh! Even better! Maybe some malicious moron would finally write the most virulent O2K Macro known to man and physically MELT every Wintel machine out there using Napster!
Microsoft Certified Expert in Solitaire bitmap manipulation, Mine detection in Win32 application enviroments, and Blue
There's also the issue of viruses and trojans. How long before somebody has an army of Netbus'ed machines because the owners wanted Quake 3 for free?
I can think of two ways of handling this. A trusted site could list md5 checksums of the various warez, and i don't think that would be illegal. The software could be configured to automatically check the site whenever it got a file.
Alternatively, warez groups could pgp-sign all their releases, and again, the application could have a list of which warez groups were to be trusted. A lot of them really care about reputation, and so would keep their stuff virus- and trojan-free.
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
I wonder how long do we have to wait for the first Napster-enabled trojans/viruses: on execution copy oneself to a napsterized directory, rename to something like new_pamela_anderson_mpg.exe and wait for others to pull it in...
:-) masses to realize that before something reformats their hard drive for the n-th time, where n is inversely correlated with IQ.
This is only one reason why getting executables from unknown sources is a bad idea. More have been pointed out in other posts around here.
However, I don't expect the (unwashed
On the other hand, sharing data files over WrapGnapNapster is very interesting idea. I see some parallels to Usenet and to things like Eternity service (which aims to make it impossible to unpublish stuff).
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Dialup users totally violoating the acceptible use policy by running server systems on dialup accounts keeping their connection live while they are on vaction in the netherlands. So people who don't violate the policy can't get online.
Not to mention the amount of bandwidth consumption put on an ISP by this activity.
I am all for the use of distributed filesystems like this, but until someone comes out with a way for me to firewall my users ability to be a server for this stuff , I am afraid I have to firewall them all out from napster all together. I would love to allow them download ability on personal connections, and not server, but there's no way to do that.
So until that happens only my business accounts have full Inet access.
I know you all are hardcore geeks and all, but I don't think the majority of people are going to use this to download Windows 2000. I think there will be 2 main uses for this: Music and Porno, neither of which needs to be an executable file. That porno option was sorely lacking from the original napster.
Hey, maybe this tool could even be used for things other than w4r3z. How about .. oh, I don't know ... um, how about hypertext documents? You could use this to share hypertext documents. Even modify the software to automatically display the hypertext documents instead of just downloading and storing. Then, when someone clicks on a link to another document, it would automatically retrieve it.
That would be revolutionary!
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
One thing my page has which is cool is a web interface to Gnutella! You can download files from the Gnutella network right over the web...hopefully I will hack up some better stuff as time allows
We live in amusing times. :)
James
Imagine, for example, a browser that, while a given page is loading, goes out and pings the pages that are linked to, checks their existence and the time it takes to get to them, and displays this information when you roll over the link. Suddenly, a user's experience of the "web" becomes much more reliable: they follow the links that they know to exist and be available at that moment, instead of floundering around hitting pages that went away a long time ago.
Napster's success has been largely because of the reliability (and therefore time-saving) that it promises someone looking for a given resource. That's also why it's being extended to include additional media times. It would be great if we could build this reliability into existing technology.
insmod napsterfs.o /dev/napsterfs /nap
/nap/MP3/By_Group/Korn/*.mp3 ~/mp3s /nap/hollywood/1999/The_Matrix.mpg.gz ~/vids /nap/SURPRESSED/DeCSS.tar.gz...
mount
cp
cp
tar zxvf
OK who's gonna write napsterfs.o?
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10080-100-158 1508.html?tag=st.dl.10001_103_1.lst.td
Cheers,
-j.
Click here for the website for wrapster.
http://pevets.virtualave.net
Now I can start distributing a postscript version of my manifesto, not just the 20Mb mp3 of me reading it.
I woke up this morning, I was feeling kind of high, it was me, Jesus Christ and Haile Salassie I.
We obviously need to put a stop to this before we have another Oklahoma City on our hands!
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dinner: it's what's for beer
Wrapster simply wraps valid MP3 header information around the binary file you're Wrapping, and saves it with a .mp3 extension.
It gives it values of 32KB/s bit rate, and 32K Frequency. So, in Napster, you simply set your Advanced Search fields to look for only files equal to those values, and do a search on whatever term you're looking for. I have yet to actually find any Wrapster files on Napster.
What would be really cool is if you could define ID3 tag information to be saved as part of the archive, because Napster would be able to search through that information, and it would make things a ton easier. Does Napster support ID3v2? This would allow complete descriptions of the archive to be searched through.
Very creative hack, though.
I have not been following Napster and it's clones in the past, but this seems different. How does it recognise a file? Does it just use the filename?
So I take linux-2.0.10.tar.gz, rename it linux-2.2.14.tar.gz somewhere and watch people fall into very large holes? Rebranding Win 3.11 as Win98TE would be even more fun, and no-one would even be able to sue without admitting that they were pirating software.
I like to have control over where my downloads come from and this program looks like a license to self-destruct for it's users.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
I really thought Gnutella was going to be cool. I know the guys at Nullsoft can kick out some really tight code. They know what they're doing. It doesn't take long to realize that Napster is just a special case of a much more general case of distributed file sharing.
/control/ of information. The internet is completely contrary to their whole foundation. And they will /have/ to adapt. Period. Once the dam of information control bursts you can't put the put the water back in...
I have no sympathy for the media syndicates. There is simply NO way that they could NOT have realized that the internet would introduce an entirely new paradigm. If they didn't realize it, well they deserve what they're getting for being so stupid and unadaptable. I'm sure the original creators of the internet, of TCP/IP, the guy who started the Gutenburg project, were aware of the enormous potential and paradigm shift the internet would introduce. It introduces cheap and ubiquitous exchange of information. Media fat cats have long lived on
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Anyone notice how the examples for what kind of software can be traded with Wrapster are sure to make it seem controversial?
The article actually states "Hey now we can go out and download Hollywood movies and Windows 2000". This seems to be an indirect attempt to get the software as much flack as possible so just in case the RIAA doesn't bite the MPAA and BSA should. I wonder what C|Net's ulterior motive is?
I thought this would be a cool thing to do, too. Sure makes it a whole lot easier than Hotline, but I wonder about security...especially in light of the way Napster gives drive paths to the files it transfers. How many Windows registries could I download?
I know you can configure Napster to only share specific directories, but there are plenty of people who don't bother with those things.
There's also the issue of viruses and trojans. How long before somebody has an army of Netbus'ed machines because the owners wanted Quake 3 for free?
I'm not sure, but this could be a bad thing in the end. If sysadmins need a reason to block Napster, the "Evil Hacker" threat is always good for instant credibility.
I think I'll wait for a little more security before going this route. On the other hand, maybe I should download Back Orifice....