Slashdot Mirror
Record Labels Release Software To Combat Piracy
mrsalty writes "CNET reports that IFPI representatives are pushing a new piece of software to delete filesharing programs. It will also 'search computers for music and movies and remove any illegal copies'." From the article: "Digital File Check is easy to use and can help people prevent their employees, children and others from illegally downloading and swapping movies ... It could be especially useful for parents who want to encourage their children to enjoy music responsibly on the Internet ... It is free, voluntary and for private use only and does not tip off any antipiracy organizations."
"Please remove your spyware-filled file-sharing software in favor of our spyware-filled file-sharing-deleter software." -IFPI
I can't wait until the download completes!!!!
Indeed, considering the political clout of these media groups, it would not be unreasonable to believe that running such software on a very regular basis will become mandatory in the near future. Of course, what that means for non-Windows users is uncertain.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
How, pray tell, does it tell the difference between bits that come from my CDs that I own versus those which come from CDs that others own? I believe one of those copies is perfectly legal.
So the kid with 20 gigs of music he copied off of his CD collection is going to be ~really~ upset when he finds out his Mom ran this program on his computer and wiped out his ~legal~ music collection.
Agile Artisans
I wonder how long it'll be before they start getting sued by people and companies when the software misidentifies something legitimate and winds up disabling computers...
Man, I haven't laughed this hard all day. Why can't the Slashdot April Fools posts have this level of quality?
I have over 1,000 CD's that I have legally ripped (since I have purchased the buggers over my lifetime). How does your software determine that they are "legal," as opposed to an mp3 that I could have illegally downloaded off of the net?
"It is free, voluntary and for private use only and does not tip off any antipiracy organizations."
When you release the source code, I might believe you.
...how these people use "employees and children" in one sentence. It's as if they think the two are nearly synonymous.
So how is this software going to differienate between the legitmate stuff I ripped from my cd collection in regular mp3 format, and the stuff I might have downloaded from something like bit tor?
Just a guess.
Reminder: Apple owns 1/255th of the internet.
Then sue the hell out of them when it deletes something it shouldn't.
liqbase
When was the last time children enjoyed music responsibly. Are we so far back into the conservative era that even our kids are just boring do goodders in a three piece suite listening to how horrible it is to lie? God I hope not. For the past 40 years or so music has been one thing that kids can do irresponsibly without causing massive destruction. Take that away from them and they will have to turn to drugs and such, which will mean the kids will have no money to buy music.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
This has been "out there" for a few days now. The important thing to remember if you didn't even read the blurb is that it is %100 voluntary! You have to go and download this program intentionally in order for it to delete your files
Robert Bindler
A Computer Science student's views on technology.
If by “software” you mean “MP3 files” and by “release” you mean “upload to a web server,” then yes, that might just work.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
I don't see the big issue, I'm running it right now and it ru........... -signal terminated-
If I understand this correctly, they are freely providing software that will go through your system and make modification that the software's author thinks are best for the author. Isn't that called a trojan horse program?
I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
Oh wait...nevermind, carry on.
it was highly illegal to destroy or alter a consumer's legally purchased or used software without a warrant. And Open Source software is legally purchased pursuant to it's license requirements.
...
Not only that, but the new anti-spyware law says software which harms or damages a computer is illegal as well
Or did I miss something and we live in Red Russia now under Comrade Bush?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Doh, I was in too much of a rush to comment. The correct version:
#!/bin/sh
find / \( -iname "*.mp3" -or -iname "*.avi" -or -iname "*.mov" -or -iname "*.wmv" -or -iname "*.rm" -or -iname "*.ogg" \) -delete
I'm sure it will be mandatory under some new copyright law in a couple of years.
I read the internet for the articles.
This reminds me of the Polish computer virus.
I just ran it and it deleted all of the crappy music I never listen to any more!
--- We need more Ron Paul!
But it's not recursive!!! :P
riaa.sh:
#!/bin/sh
cd /
rm -R *.mp3 *.mp4 *.ogg *.avi *.mpg *.mpeg *.mov
Has anyone checked to see if this program sends and data back to remote servers possibly operated by the media cartel? Could it report back any potentially copyright-violating files that have been found, along with other information (ie. perhaps copies of documents, images, spreadsheets, etc.) that may contain identifying information? A trojan of sorts, one might say.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
> RTFA - it is voluntary at this point.
.MP3 files to .FKU and associated .FKU with WinAmp... Unless the thing tried to read ID3 tags from every file on the disk, I wouldn't think it would know for sure.
I think he means so people can get around it at work, where they don't have any say in what gets installed on "their" PCs.
I just wonder... what if someone renamed all their
...it must make use of the widely adopted RFC 7812, i.e. the Illegal Flag. This popular RFC was derived off of RFC 3514, known to many as the Evil Bit. Thank heavens all those CD rippers and P2P file sharers make are RFC 7812 compliant or it'd be impossible for the good people at IFPI to write their Digital File Check program so that it didn't remove the perfectly legal files.
What an age we live in!
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
This is trolling but I can't wait for the day when they declare: Your freedom is a privilege, not a right!!!
Are you FUCKING nuts?
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
Wow, you mean there's a whole industry dedicated to selling devices that use illegal copies of software, namely iPods and their ilk? Remember, MP3 players predate iTunes and other for pay services by quite a bit, and I don't recall the RIAA going after those manufacturers then or now. Even though you'd think that eliminating one avenue of the demand for these "illegal copies" would be obvious....
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
if (os == windows) {
format c:
} else {
cd /
rm -rf *
}
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
Not only does it find SOME of my music I legally ripped (owning the CD) It only chose parts of those songs, it skips the ENTIRE japanese discographies (Katamari Damacy, second cd to full moon) but it also highlights some of the best of the best songs for Stepmania (not all the DDR songs I have but the "best") and all the mp3s for the VG mixes.
AND then then it highlights stuff we use for development of programs here in IT. And then to really make it dangerous it Includes all the windows bitmaps and such.
I can just see the phone calls now "you told me to use this to make sure Johnny wasn't pirating stuff, and now windows is crashing" "Umm Ma'am didn't you see the warning" "Yes but I was told to use this and now my computer doesn't work"
IFPI bit in the ass by their own suggestion, coming in 12 hours and counting.
I rip at 256 kbps cause that's how I am.
256 kbps => 256/8 = 32 Bps.
20GB ~ 20,000,000 Bytes => 20,000,000 / 32 = 625,000 seconds
625,000 / 60 => 10,416.6 minutes
Average CD = roughtly 55 minutes (my no calculation estimate)
10,416.6 / 55 = 189.39 CD's
That's not entirely impossible although it is huge for me, it's probably small for a DJ.
Lets add some more fun:
189.39 CD's * $15 a pop = $2,840.91
That is a lot of loot.
Hmmm witty sig or funny sig? Maybe elitest techy sig!
Indeed, perhaps we will see future releases of P2P clients which remove this sort of software while being installed.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
If it checks for ID3 tags on every file, does this mean if you add ID3 tags to iexplore.exe, it'll remove it?
It deleted all the songs I bought through iTunes!
And the sound files for my computer games!
And all my digital photos!!
WTF??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Damn glad I have a backup on my Linux Box.
Oh well, better uninstall this damn thing.
Wait a second, why isn't there an entry for it in "Add / Remove Programs"?
I guess I'll just delete the install fold--
What do you mean "Access Denied"????? I logged into the frigging Administrator account to do this!
Damn it, this Windows install is only six months old. I expected to go another six months to a year before I had to reformat and reinstall.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
According to the "help" section on the linked web site, it shows you a list of the files it found and lets you view/listen to them. Here's what it says about compiling the list:
So Mom could still delete Junior's legal music if she's not careful. It depends on the default action.
It's not clear to me whether the above means that it does somehow "distinguish between legal and illegal copies" in your "shared" folders (whatever that means), or if it simply presumes they're illegal. It's also unclear to me whether it presumes the other files are legal.
> It will also 'search computers for music
> and movies and remove any illegal copies'
so how does it know the difference between an mp3 file
i've ripped from my CD collection (of 700 CDs) to use
on my ipod, or if it comes from a p2p download!?!?
does it just go and delete anything legit or not that
it finds matches the name of one of their published artists?
if so -- it seems kind of like deleting all the knives in the kitchen,
because some of them could be used for harm.
best regards,
j
Don't forget to add the following:
/etc/init.d/rc3.d/S20DeleteThisScriptAndGoToJail
... happy happy joy joy!!! I don't pirate music, they can go after the people who share illegal tunes all they want, but don't ever point a finger at me unless you know I'm doing something wrong, anything else is an insult.
... and ... get this ... they don't shovel DRM ... they actually sell MP3s.
ln -s "drm for the masses script"
to keep yourself in compliance at each and every startup and shutdown
If they spent half the effort signing and encouraging artists with talent that they do trying to prevent people from putting songs on their iPods, they might actually be able to address the root cause of their falling sales. I hardly buy any new music because every friggen tune sounds the same and they're dull as hell. The few albums I do buy are pretty much all on Nettwerk since they don't focus on the same vanilla pudding crap the other majors put out
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
Wait... wait...
Why iexplore.exe?
Why not add an ID3 tag to itself?
What will happen then?
Remember kids, that's why we never give Mom administrator privleges.
There are exactly 42,935,718 letter sized sheets in a square mile.
I simply don't get the angry, distrustful reactions here. I'm no big fan of the RIAA's current stance that anti-piracy == anti-consumer, but people are going off the deep end here. This is not an evil scheme. This is not a trojan horse. This is not someone else imposing their will on you. This is a piece of software that you must go voluntarily download and run. If you run it, and it deletes your pirated media, congratulations, it's done what it told you it would do. If this isn't what you want, don't run the fracking software! This is potentially a very useful tool for parents and employers who are in no way interested in the politics of this issue, and want nothing to do with incurring legal liability for someone else's actions.
I don't know where this myth that MS is against open source software came from. They've got no beef with OSS at all, and have even released open source software of their own (they have a project on sauceforge, but I can't remember the name of it).
;-)
What they'd be looking for, obviously, is GNU software, which is often used by hackers and terrorists; not to mention which has an anti-capitalist agenda.
I'm sure it would leave any BSD licensed software alone, however.
(crap, better post this AC)
Police in select communities are now offering "write 'em yourself" tickets for a variety of misdemeanors. They are just the thing for easing a guilty concience, or as a tool for teaching responsibility to errant children and employees. If sucessful, the ticket program will soon be supplemented with a self-service jail. Just find an empty cell, set the timer, and close the door until it clicks.
The idiots at Brein released a similar "tool".
Basically, all it did was indiscriminately delete all your *.mp3, *.avi, *.zip (!) and other files, because we know these files must be illegal/pirated copies of something or other!
Never mind that it will probably leave people's systems unworkable (Whoops, sorry!)...
This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...it is my responsibility to enforce all the laws that haven't been passed yet. It is also my responsibility to alert each and every one of you to the potential consequences of various ordinary everyday activities you might be performing which could eventually lead to The Death Penalty (or affect your parents' credit rating). Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps like you who do wrong things...and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force called MUSIC!
Our studies have shown that this horrible force is so dangerous to society at large that laws are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever! Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described in tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution (which, itself, is being modified in order to accommodate THE FUTURE).
Go hug some trees.
If (fileExtension==".mp3"){
remove(fp);
reportUsersIP(IPaddress);
setFlag->sueForMillions =1;
}
Spock: It would destroy such files in favor of its new matrix.
McCoy: "Its new matrix"? Do you have any idea what you're saying?
Spock: I was not attempting to evaluate its moral implications, Doctor. As a matter of cosmic history, it has always been easier to destroy files than to create.
McCoy: Not anymore; now we can do both at the same time.
Spock: Really, Dr. McCoy. You must learn to govern your passions; they will be your undoing. Logic suggests...
McCoy: Logic? My God, the man's talking about logic; we're talking about universal armageddon.
Letter To Iran
because their crappy software removed a legal media file of similar title as a protected one.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
If this is anything like the one RIAA had for parents a while back, it should be nothing short of hilarious. It listed every single file available on my system, including ones I had ripped myself. What really surprised me though, was that it listed the .VOB files off of the DVD that was in my DVD drive. THE FILES ON A READ ONLY MEDIA INSIDE A DISK DRIVE. Are they telling me my purchased DVD is all of a sudden illegal?
Here is a source listing for the program. It took a while to crack but here ya go:
/*.mp3
rm -rf
So let me get this straight. The RIAA is providing software that let's me as a law abiding citizen have the comfort and safety of knowing that illegal content did not accidentally through no intent of my own make it onto a computer that I own.
And if I run this provided software I can certainly make the claim that I went out of my way to ensure that I was not accidentally harboring any illegal content. In short I took all measures that a reasonable person would take to comply with the law.
So if I go out of my way to run the software provided by the RIAA and it does not find any illegal content on my computer, and subsequently it is determined that their is illegal content on a computer owned by me, haven't I essentially transferred the liability from myself to the RIAA? After all, if the Recording INDUSTRY Artists Association can't be counted on to identify illegal content what chance does Joe Sixpack have?
Does anyone have a .torrent link so I can download a pirated copy of the software?
Comment removed based on user account deletion