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Spoofing P2P Networks as Marketing Plot

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the better-than-lawsuits dept.

prostoalex writes "Salon's technology section talks about major music labels spoofing the peer-to-peer networks. The users of AudioGalaxy, Gnutella or KaZaa have probably seen a surge of fake MP3 files when conducting a search on a popular title. The MP3 looks legit, but contains a 20 second clip played over and over. Such promotional tracks were especially popular with newest releases, such as Eminem and No Doubt, as pointed out in the article. Who posted the fake tracks to the p2p networks? Could it be, as Salon suggests, a suburban mom, who does not agree with controversial lyrics, or would it be the label, trying to prevent piracy and promote the new album at the same time?"

14 of 440 comments (clear)

  1. CRC check? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It almost seems as if we should start CRC checking the files through the P2P app. Get several, verified versions floating around at common bitrates (and a VBR version)...
    That way we don't have to deal with garbage like this, and also have a guaranteed, legit (so to speak), quality copy (at least at the said bitrate) to download.

    1. Re:CRC check? by scott1853 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Choose the worse scenario:

      The RIAA starts using these checksums to flag what is pirated and quickly shuts down everything.

      You create some massive database (CDDB) created by the public, for the public, and then after a few years have some greedy bastards (GraceNote) close it up and charge money for access to it?

  2. about that No Doubt mp3... by zenintrude · · Score: 5, Funny
    you thought it was just 20 seconds repeated over and over, but that's actually the real song...


    hey baby, hey baby, hey!

    hey baby, hey baby, hey!

    --
    - colin
  3. Re:More than likeley it's just 1/2 downloads by RAzaRazor · · Score: 5, Funny
    Quote: I have about 1/2 a gig of what I call 1/2 mp3's that I got from people cancelling me out in the middle of a download. Yes they are shared, no i'm not doing it to screw with you. It's just that i'm too lazy to go through my share folder to clean them out.

    So why not just delete the files when you come across them?

    Oh, also too lazy to listen to the music you download? Why didn't you say so?

    You must be one of those people who download stuff for your "Collection" because it's the size that matters, not what you do with it!
  4. the price you pay by the_rev_matt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That's the price you pay for not paying for your music. I'm quite serious about that. If you are getting music for free, why bitch about the fact that it isn't perfect? If you're getting music for some cool indie band that doesn't have a label, then chances are they aren't spoofed files. If you're getting music from todays top 40 charts, then you obviously haven't paid for something that is generally not free. The labels are just taking advantage of that fact and trying to promote the track you are trying to get without paying for it.

    Note, I'm not preaching about how you "shouldn't steal music" (see my rant about what's wrong with DRM). I'm just saying if you get something free, don't bitch that it isn't perfect.

    --
    this is getting old and so are you

    blog

  5. oh really... by paradesign · · Score: 5, Funny

    and i thought they were just boring repetitive songs, you know, like the ones they play on the radio too. i think the RIAA is to blame for those as well.

    --
    I want 2D games back.
  6. Salon says... by doorbot.com · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, Salon quotes Eric Garland, CEO of peer-to-peer measuring service BigChampagne:

    "What you want to do is excite the consumer and titillate and create demand." He notes, however, that the "danger of try-before-you-buy" is that if a user doesn't like a previewed track, "then the industry and that record would have benefited from [that user's] ignorance."

    Hmm. Now isn't that interesting.

    So...

    RIAA doesn't want Joe Consumer listening to the crap (Top 40 I guess) they release before he buys the album, because then he might realize it's crap and the RIAA is just liberating money from a fool.

    OK, so let's go with that for just a moment here...

    That means that what the RIAA releases as "today's hottest bands" are really just a bunch of second-rate hacks (not even first rate!) who've been blitz-marketed into every teenager's record collection. So, as Bono (right?) said on that VH1 special (paraphrased), "It's not casette copying that's killing the music industry, it's crap music killing the music industry."

    Frankly, I think that has always been true.

    What I want to know is... if the band is so unbelievably fantastic, why do they need all the heavy marketing? Sure, some marketing to appeal to the fence-sitters, but you don't preach to the choir.

    So, the RIAA is spending billions to market Britney Spears to make us believe she's the best thing since sliced bread (or better yet, to make us think it more than we already do it seems), when Britney fans will buy the CDs anyways. And somehow they claim they're losing money here. Hmm.

    All the word games, legal lunges, and slight of hand gets old after a while. Is anyone else getting a vision of the RIAA as another Ross Perot jumping in an out of the "race" all the while annoying us with lots of charts and a funny voice?

  7. The music industry finally has the right idea. by CurtisRWC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think this is a really good tactic for the music industry to use in their struggle against P2P piracy. Yes, piracy. I mean, regardless of whether or not you personally are downloading music or other files in a legal fashion, there are tons of other people (likely the majority) of people who are using this to do something which is considered illegal by law. Is it a good law? Doesn't matter. It is the law.

    So, when Joe College Student downloads the latest MTV-hyped band that sounds like metal, grunge, and rap all thrown together in a blender, he gets a 20 second clip and an advertisement. What is Joe going to do? This is kinda/sorta like the highschool kid who spends $60 on a bag of off-the-shelf herbs and spices.

    Now, here's the thing that really makes this a Good Thing. If this becomes common practice amongst the music industry, it could very well have the unexpected side effect of thwarting legal attempts to get P2P services shut down. I'm not a lawyer, etc, etc, but I'd think that you would be hard pressed to present a case to shut down a service that you use yourself.

    And of course, now that the ante has been upped, I'm sure the P2P community will respond by improving their software to add features to combat the music industry's latest tactics. I'm not sure what form this will take, but perhaps some sort of public key watermark by trusted encoders or preview features or something even better.

    In an odd, preverse sort of way, this is almost the first step in making peace between the P2P community and the music industry.

    1. Re:The music industry finally has the right idea. by Kanasta · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually, wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity to raid the RIAA HQ for 'pirates'?

      Since they've told us everything that's on p2p is illegal, I think this counts as organised crime!

  8. Freenet's solution to this problem by Sanity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We have been thinking about this problem for some time. Our solution is a mechanism called "subspaces", where users can effectively vouch for the authenticity of data, even though that data might be anonymously inserted into the network. Even those vouching for data can remain anonymous, they will be motivated to stay honest to maintain the reputation of their anonymous identity. You can learn more about subspaces here.

  9. Surprised this hasn't been taken to the next level by SlashChick · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article: "MetaFilter's Haughey says 'record companies would love it if people were frightened of file-sharing networks and never touched them again.'"

    I'm really surprised the record companies haven't taken advantage of this to advertise their pay services. Why play just a looping 10-second piece of the song when you can play a clip and then say, "To get the whole song legally for just $1.95, visit Pressplay.com" or something to that effect? I know that eMusic and some other services used to advertise their presence in the ID3 comment tag of the MP3, but this would seem to be wholeheartedly more effective.

    The real question is, do the music companies really want these for-pay services to succeed, or do they want them to fail so they can frame Internet users as thieves? I'd say that both viewpoints exist in the RIAA. That's why these services aren't even advertised, especially not in a means such as the above, which IMHO would be quite effective.

    I worry sometimes that all this "music revolution" will give us is uncopyable CDs. This would be a huge disappointment to those of us who don't want to gyp the artists -- we just want music in a more flexible format than a CD can offer. I, for one, am hoping that the potential of mass music distribution via the Internet can become a reality. If the record companies only squash the P2P networks without providing an alternative, this will only serve to alienate customers. On the other hand, if the record companies work with us to provide a low-cost way to distribute music legally (with rights to copy it to other devices), both the record companies and artists have a chance to become much more profitable while continuing to make their customers happy. I sincerely hope the latter will occur.

    --
    Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
  10. Re:The real question is... by PepsiProgrammer · · Score: 5, Funny

    So this explains why 'Who let the dogs out' sucked so bad when i downloaded it, surprisingly after months of trying, I still cant seem to find a legitimate, nonrepeating copy. The RIAA must be pretty serious about all this

    --
    "The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." - Bush 05
  11. Re:Subliminal? by GrandCow · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd find it even more clever if they put subliminal messages in the repeated tracks. Way to use technology against people to do your evil bidding ;-)


    Yvan eht nioj...
    Yvan eht nioj...
    Yvan eht nioj...
    Yvan eht nioj...
    --
    "Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
  12. Re:Movies, too? by groke · · Score: 5, Informative

    actually, the reason for these file sizes is that they're meant to be burnt as VCD -- video CD -- (or sometimes SVCD (the S is for super)).. said movie is most likely a VCD-compliant (happens to fit the bitrate and resolution requirements) MPEG-1. (S)VCDs are in mode II, which allows for about 740 meg on a 74-minute CD, and 800 meg on an 80 minute one. This is all spec-happy, and just about any recent burning software will be happy to burn said mpegs to VCD (I know Roxio EasyCD creator does (starting with version 5) and Nero, of course). The added space comes from less error-correction in the data tracks, so it's slightly less robust.. but it allows for more data to be burned.

    as a side note: almost all regular DVD players (you know, the ones for your TV) will play VCDs, some will play SVCDs (which are VCDs but with MPEG2 instead of MPEG1, and a bit more advanced menus possible). Some will play them off of CDRs, some not so much. visit http://www.vcdhelp.com for more information on players and how to make VCDs.

    And for the record, centropy tends to release pretty damn fine quality screeners. It's true that many suck, and they do make me want to wait for theater (or just until the DVD comes out, and then get a DVD rip :) ), and I won't discount the possibility that the studios play games with bad released from time to time.

    That is all, thank you for your time.