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Kazaa Forced To Modify Search Engine

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the can't-find-that-here dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Eminem, Madonna and Kylie Minogue are just some of the popular artists whose songs are to be blocked from being illegally distributed on the peer-to-peer network Kazaa following Federal Court orders in Australia yesterday. Sharman Networks, the owner of Kazaa, was ordered by the courts to modify the file-sharing software to block a list of search terms -- primarily artist and song names. The search terms are also to be supplied by record companies. The directive follows the record companies' court victory in September against individuals and organizations associated with Kazaa."

5 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. what next? by hug_the_penguin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps the banning of the keyword phrase `fuck the riaa`? In case they haven't noticed, there are so many fakes on there anyway that a name isnt an accurate guarantee of what a file contains. But of course this matters not so long as the RIAA can line their pockers with consumers' money.

    --
    ~HTP~ Hug that tux ;)
  2. Let the syntax war begin! by file-exists-p · · Score: 5, Funny

    So what are the standard rewritting rules to evade dumb pattern matching ? Writing backward ? L33tsp33k ? doubling characters ? Cockney Rhyming Slang ?

    The W3C should set up a list of standardized procedure.

  3. Arrogance of the RIAA by martinmcc · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Yet again, we have the RIAA showing their complete ignorance of technology, and applying bullish tactics that will only succeed in irritating.

    10,000 words list? I can pretty much bet that most of these will be very general i.e. 'Kylie' instead of 'Kylie Minogue', so any artist named Kylie who want to bypass the grabing hands of the record industry and distribute themselves will now have a much harder time.

    It is absolutely crazy how this can happen. RIAA get a levy on blank media because some might end up with their copyright material. They install software on you machines becuase you might try to copy one of their cds. They now block 10,000 search terms on Kazaa because they might be used to 'steal' their copyright material. And for the many people who wish to use those terms for ligitimate reasons? Tough luck.

    Have a look at the riaa web site, and you will read much about how they see themselves as the protectors of culture and music. What a load of crap. They are just middle men, and middle men that have no purpose, now that technology can provide the functionailty that they have in the past.

  4. Re:A simple solution. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    *shrug* Just like every other form of copy protection this inconveniences Average Joe but doesn't stop a dedicated attacker. Remember the old C64 days with software that would check for bad sectors on the floppies they were distributed on? Remember "fast hack'em" which copied discs bitwise to avoid the trap? Remember codewheels and how folks dis-assembled the app to provide the answers the game would actually ask for? Remember manual checks and how folks just shared photocopies of the relevant portions of the manual? As I recall SimCity originally had a copy protection screen which required you to hold a small red lens against the page in order to read the right answer -- I seem to recall that the solution was to wrap the entire manual in three wraps of the pink Reynolds wrap before copying it with the brightness turned down a touch.

    And notice how many games I haven't mentioned which have been hacked by dis-assembly alone and JMP instructions to bypass the copy protection checks.

    The world is now a world where digital information is passed from point to point without any real interference. A "recording industry" is a relic of times gone by -- if they'd slim down and offer cheap recording to all then they'd be able to make a tidy profit 'cause _everyone_ wants to record something these days and studio space is not that expensive to maintain...

  5. Control by KitesWorld · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Like you said, it's about lining their pockets. One method : Deliberately add words to the list that end up with independant artists (who might release their music on Kazaa themselves) getting blocked.

    Prevent your competition from getting exposure = preventing them from becoming 'real' competition.

    Me? Paranoid? naaaaaaa.