Can P2P Filter Copyrighted Content?

scubacuda writes "DRMwatch reports that technologists acting on behalf of porn publisher Titan Media reported to Congress that P2P networks could (if they wanted to) use "fingerprinting" (aka "hashing") to detect copyrighted works and then filter them with the "spyware" installed on all nodes in the network."

Comments

Didn't AudioGalaxy try this?

[MarsBar]

The courts decided that it wasn't enough to remove works known to be copyrighted: rather they must know that works were not copyrighted.

This *is* possible...

[Anonymous Coward]

... at least in the music genre.

I used to work for a small company called Relatable (http://relatable.com/), which was working with Napster back in the day to identify the music being traded over the network.

Relatable's technology recognizes music by the acoustic properties of the audio itself regardless of how it was recorded, encoded, etc.

Obviously there are still ways around this, but it is a fairly solid solution.

It is important to recognize that "fingerprinting" does not equal "hashing". We all know that hashing will *not* work. But there are other techniques, at least for audio, that can work.

Josh

Re:A DRM Parable

[danila]

This may be offtopic, but anyway. The original words are by Pastor Niemoller (1938)

First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out ?
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
And I did not speak out ?
Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out ?
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me ?
And there was no-one left
To speak out for me.

P.S. It is an important reminder to stand for the rights of others, to stand for the rights of terrorists, murderers, child pornografers, P2P programmers, christian fundamentalists, and for the rights of everyone else. We may disagree with people, but only in a free and tolerant society can we expect to be safe ourselves.