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Macrovision Applies for P2P Interdiction Patents
schmecky05 writes "From Macrovision, the folks whom recently mandated "Thou shalt delete content promptly from thy Tivo" come the following 2 USPTO patent applications for Peer to Peer interdiction methods: "Interdiction of unauthorized copying in a decentralized network" and "System and methods for communicating over the internet with geographically distributed devices of a decentralized network using transparent asymetric return paths."
These patent applications describe (in pain staking detail) how Macrovision interdicts on Peer to Peer networks to prevent illegal copyrighted file sharing from many locations across the globe and avoid ban lists as well."
Say what?
I still don't get it. They have applied for patents to ban filesharing?
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
The patents were filed March 18, 2004 and June 16, 2004. Obviously tons of prior art exists. Oh wait! It is the US we are talking about, the country where tons of obvious prior art does not matter, the US patent office has time and time again demonstrated that it only cares who gives them the biggest pile of money.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
I wonder if this can be considered illegal because it causes destruction and harm to a computer network. I mean tall those 9/11 related computer laws have to be good for something.
My understanding is that some of the hash spoofing isn't spoofing cryptographically-strong hashes; not all networks use them.
If my interviewer's claims were correct, then this technology is v. effective at taking down certain files on certain networks. I unfortunately can't say more, because my interviewer declined to say more until I signed a NDA.
Hash spoofing? We've had this discussion before. I call shenanigans on this.
Unfortunately the USPTO accepts patents on anything the patent reviewer doesn't understand. Hash spoofing may not be usefully possible now (oh sure, you can brute force it, but by then everyone looking for the file will be long dead anyway), but in 10 years, 15 years, who knows? All Macrovision cares about is that if it becomes possible, THEY'LL be the ones doing it.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
This is not exactly new technology, it's just that Macrovision is trying to monetize it. Of course, who's going to protest the patent?
But then again, it is Macrovision, and Macrovision has a long and sordid history of injecting 'security' technologies that do much more harm than good, and at the end of the day are bypassable except by the painfully incompetent. Even the painfully incompetent were able to find the filter for the original Macrovision videotape "protection" -- and this before the internet had been commercialized. At the end of the day, it just annoyed more than hurt folks who were pursuing "novel" uses of content.
Look at this way: Adobe uses Macrovision's SafeCast to protect Photoshop CS and now CS2. It does not take too much looking around to find 1) the applications and 2) numerous ways to get around it.
At the end of the day, Macrovision is a slow, old cat, and the mice they chase are not only faster, they are smarter too.
I don't get music or movies from p2p (now). But what I don't approve is this attempt by the big corps to stymie the technology. What essentially Macrovision is saying that it would sabotage a p2p network, thus rendering the network unusable for legal use.
,my cable provider Insight is artifically capping BT downloads for me. People should realize what dirty tricks RIAA & MPAA are upto.
Now, almost 80% of p2p traffic is of wrong nature, you might say, so whats the issue if it is stopped. Fair queston. Now, if you put a cap on innovation, then the common people suffer. let me give you an example. When Replay TV announced that their DVRs had the capability of auto-advancing commercials. Thsi was was far superior to Tivo's 30 second manual skip. Older ReplayTVs would AUTOMATICALLY detect a commercial break & advance the program.
What happened then? MPAA sued & forced Replay TV to disable this feature. Now, what there's virtually no advancement in DVRs, they now serve nothing more than glorified VCRs. The auto commercial advance in older Replay TVs would allow you to move from one program segmnent to the next, similar to the chapter system in DVDs.
Why do I quote this example? It is because MPAA/RIAA in trying to stomp out p2p are stymieing technology & innovation. On my dual boot machine I try a new linux distro almost every other week. If these people succeed in poisoning the networks, I would definitely be not happy.
And
This isn't about copyrighted material at all, in my opinion. It is about distribution.
The problem is that a distribution industry has been built up by otherwise worthless leeches who have convinced artists that they are necessary in order to dole out the artist's works to a wider audience of people.
These leeches, like the RIAA and MPAA, have no value other than their mechanisms of mass distribution. The web now threatens that controlled distribution because it is as far reaching as the industries distribution mechanisms, only it is free.
That is what this is really about and that is why these groups are fighting P2P so hard. They don't lose when their copyrighted works are shared, they lose when people realize that these industry relics are no longer necessary.
Joe: Hey Bob! Did you pick up the new one from Metallica?
Bob: I sure did, buddy! Got it on CD. I ripped it and put it my iPod. Wanna borrow it?
Joe: Sure! I've got my iBook right here, this will just take a second. CDs rock! They're CD quality and no DRM!
Bob: (hands CD to Joe)
(Just at the moment, a masked man in tights with the log "MV" runs out from behind a bush, nearly tripping over his cape)
Joe: Egads!
Bob: Yowza!
Man: Wait kids! Don't copy that floppy!
Joe: Uhm, I'm 35? What floppy?
Man: I mean, I'm here to INTER-DICT in your PEER to PEER music swapping! (grabs the CD from Bob and quickly replaces it with a roughly-cut cardboard disk). You've been INTER-DICTED!
Bob: Wha?
Joe: Say, wouldn't it be easier to jump out from behind bushes if you weren't wearing that weird cape? I'm just sayin'.
Man: Don't laugh, Metallica's label paid me $10 Million to do this!
Bob: Wait a minute.. you work for Macrovision?
Man: (puffs up chest) The #1 Leader in Content Protection(tm)!
Bob: (Kicks "macrovision man" in the testicles, grabs metallica CD)
(Joe and Bob run away)
Joe: Whew, thank goodness it was Macrovision, I thought for a second I might not be able to copy your CD!