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Safeguards For RIAA Hard Drive Inspection
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In SONY v. Arellanes, an RIAA case in Sherman, Texas, the Court entered a protective order (PDF) that spells out the following procedure for the RIAA's examination of the defendant's hard drive: (1) RIAA imaging specialist makes mirror image of hard drive; (2) mutually acceptable computer forensics expert makes make two verified bit images, and creates an MD5 or equivalent hash code; (3) one mirror image is held in escrow by the expert, the other given to defendant's lawyer for a 'privilege review'; (4) defendant's lawyer provides plaintiffs' lawyer with a 'privilege log' (list of privileged files); (5) after privilege questions are resolved, the escrowed image — with privileged files deleted — will be turned over to RIAA lawyers, to be held for 'lawyers' eyes only.' The order differs from the earlier order (PDF) entered in the case, in that it (a) permits the RIAA's own imaging person to make the initial mirror image and (b) spells out the details of the method for safeguarding privilege and privacy."
Besides that I avoid knowingly listening to and downloading anything that RIAA can claim rights too. I'd tell them to go fuck themselves. But then again I shouldn't have anything to worry about. Still the invasiveness of it all would piss me off. Give them a drive that is filled with random data and claim it's encrypted and you forgot the key. But that might insinuate you're trying to hide something, so I'd just tell them to go fuck off and try to extort protection money from some other shmuck...
and it seems to be in vogue/season/fashionable to go on a shooting sprees lately... any one wanna make a bet if the RIAA reps will become targets soon? Not that I would encourage such behaviour, but I'd have a hard time coming up with reasons to feel sad if such a thing were to occur...
1. Who pays for the neutral expert?
2. Who makes the deletion of the privileged files?
3. How are the privileged files going to be deleted?
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Digital forensics is a very tough issue as laws are somewhat immature and judicial precedence over what is acceptable and what isn't, isn't set yet. What is considered in plain sight on a hard drive? These questions haven't been fully answered yet and it is going to take at least one high profile case before it is done. And always remember to use a write blocker when examining somebody else's hard drive. Even booting into Windows will change the timestamps on a lot of files which might allow the theory of the evidence being planted.
Sounds like an RIAA troll to me. Yeah, like the RIAA is trying to help small business.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Copy&Paste trolls suck... expecially when spewing the EXACT SAME thing in each topic about similar issues.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
Yay, anonymous propaganda trolls.
Too bad I have no mod points.
>> "I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market."
;-)
>> "I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of."
Damn those lieing stealing Christians!! I'll bet the mormons are twice as bad. I mean, they believe in Jesus twice, once in the Old World and once in the New World!
I'll bet those "Marilyn Manson" or "cop-killer rap" listening kids probably aren't smart enought to even use a computer. So maybe you should think about changing your "demographic" again if you want to make money?
I wanted to tell them the truth - it's because they wear old clothes and have cheap haircuts.
This is great stuff.
Is it an RIAA troll or is it someone parodying an RIAA troll?
Only the RIAA knows.
Last time on slashdot, "iTunes is a monopoly". This troll got a (Score:4, Funny).
To take your post seriously (though I think it is a troll) you seem to imply that the nice "family" demographic you cater to are predominantly pirates, who thus have no use for your store except when purchasing a cool disk that is not yet online. There are other possibilities. Perhaps some of your erstwhile customers find merit in being able to cheaply purchase the specific tracks they like online rather than purchase expensive albums full of dross, in which they have no interest, aggregated with the one or two tracks they actually want.
It's like reading a procedures document from the Ministry of Information Retrieval.
You just KNOW that the creepy bureaucratic gnomes who write up this stuff are going to have a hand in designing the "revised Internet" that's made the news lately.
Your computer has been used to violate article IV of the The Working Artists' Protection Act. Please unlock your front door, sit on the ground, place your hands behind your head and wait quietly. Attempts to flee, contact the press, or hire legal counsel is a violation of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. III Act and may result in detention in an Overseas Protective Facility.
That's only if other RIAA trolls get mod points.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Still somewhat of a win for the RIAA. If defendants during discovery had to produce a list of documents that "we don't want plaintiffs to see" and produce everything else, that'd be a prohibitively expensive task for the defendants and still presents a huge pressure to settle.
"Hey ol' buddy ol' pal ol' chum. We didn't find the songs we were looking for. But we DID find some neat info about you in your cache..."
And notice that it's an off-topic troll, to boot.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
There is one thing you could do to solve your problem. Go find a cliff or a bridge somewhere, then take your entire fucktarded family. Have all of them jump off to their deaths, and after that jump to yours. Problem Solved.
Think they'd buy it?
Isn't MD5 "broken"? Why choose such a hashing method when SHA-224, 256, 384 or 512 are all available and safe from collision attacks?
I know lots of people who could take an image of a disk and come up with an MD5, but I can maybe think of one person who i know that is sufficiently recognized that he could be considered a computer forensics export.
:)
I'm sure if I suggest someone as a neutral expert, the RIAA will discredit them and likely leave one of their guys as the only choice.
There may well be a market here though. I'm available for a small fee and largely neutral
It's very clearly an instance of sustained irony.
Definitely troll. The exact same post has been posted and reposted for years.
There is a recent article on the Toronto Sun website - it reminded me of the Slashdot as soon as I read it. Sam the Record Man still exists on Yonge Street, despite the implication in the article that it doesn't.
God, this is beautiful stuff. Keep on posting you crazy diamond.
Oops, article's at http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Bonokosk i_Mark/2007/04/20/4078973.html
How many times will the Anonymous Cocksuckers repost this fake "confession" VERBATIM ? Every single RIAA article on /. gets at least one copy of this made-up filth.
... and child services shut you down for abusing a minor.
... because your dad's a cheap excuse for a man
... how can you sic-quote a spoken conversation ?
... the only people who'd pirate Christian rock would be Christian believers, how's that for hypocrisy ?
:)
"I grabbed the little shit by his shirt."
"Why do the other kids laugh at us?"
"Yeah, dude, that's really lete [sic]"
"I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of."
It's sad enough that someone feels the need to publish such bullshit. It's even worse when supposedly wise and literate community members regurgitate the same hogwash week after week. Maybe slashdot should have some kind of high-IQ Captcha... something to weed out the highly-opinionated lowly-educated myspace/facebook weenies. We've always had trolls, but at least the old trolls were funny, like me
-Billco, Fnarg.com
To me, this just illustrates the absurdity of the whole thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Moved_My_Cheese
Change Happens
They Keep Moving The Cheese
Anticipate Change
Get Ready For The Cheese To Move
Monitor Change
Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old
Adapt To Change Quickly
The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese
Change
Move With The Cheese
Enjoy Change!
Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!
Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again & Again
They Keep Moving The Cheese.
Anybody who finds any of this in any way, shape, or form to be even remotely acceptable is truly mad. Neither the RIAA or anybody else has any right at all to search the victim's hard drive. Make no mistake, the "defendant" here is a victim of what any normal, reasonable person would call a criminal act. And this time I believe the perpetrators should be locked up. Unfortunatley, that might mean cutting loose some dangerous pot smokers, and we can't have that, can we?
What?
I'm wrong - in fact I get the feeling that it's now important that MD5 is NOT used. NIST (an authority when it comes to forensic investigations) do *not* recommend the use of MD5 checksums. The grandparent was perfectly correct. A decent summary (sorry PDF) is here
Well, this comment has been posted since 2005 on Slashdot. Exactly the same in 2 other /. news posts:
r e+owner,+my+business+faces+ruin.+CD+sales+have+dro pped+through+the+floor.+People+aren't+buying+half+ as+many+CDs+as+they+did+just+a+year+ago.%22&hl=en& client=safari&rls=en&filter=0
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22As+a+record+sto
Well, you cold have at least updated your 12 year old record store and 'last year'.
Next to you being an RIAA shill, if you DO have a store, you deserve to be out of business. Or bring some Dimmu Borgir into your 'christian' store.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Assuming you really do have something to hide, using an encrypted volume embedded within another encrypted volume could be very useful. TrueCrypt supports nested encrypted file systems and since TrueCrypt uses no headers to demarcate its volumes, it is not possible to determine if an additional volume is embedded within a TrueCrypt volume. In effect, it provides plausible deniability of the existence of a 2nd embedded volume if you're forced by court order to decrypt the main volume. (stick some Creative Commons licensed mp3 files in the main volume though, just to throw the RIAA the middle finger a little more.)
Better yet, support non-RIAA artists at sites like Magnitune. The quality of music I've found there is proof positive that the RIAA no longer has a legitimate purpose in the music industry.
My tips for installing TrueCrypt on Fedora Core 6.
RIAA employees were discovered with a "significantly disturbing" volume of porn on their own machines. When questioned they denied that the material was sourced from hard drive mirror images..
encrypt the filesystem, claim the drive is cactus and thats the reason it won't read. anyone have thoughts on this? would it be a fesible defence and is there a way to pull it off on a technical level. i'm guessing encrypted filesystems identify themselfs, would it be possible to hide the fact it's encrypted?
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
1.A loaded S&W .357 for use on the RIAA trolls trying to gain access to my house.(Under Ky Law I may defend my personal property using deadly force if I deem it necessary)
2.A good self destruct device (easy to built and arm) for the hard drive(renders it absolutely useless to any forensic expert,since it physically destroys the platters.)
3.I use an external drive to store the MP3 and other multimedia files on.Easily hidden,(like the old Varmit XL1000 CB Linear amps of decades past)
Anyone wanting to seize my machine will pay dearly for trying.I just don't give a damn anymore since I had the nervous breakdown last year.
That way,If the RIAA does get the machine,it will turn to scrap before they can get it 2 miles away.Paranoid? Sure,but with the corruption of the courts these days,these steps are needed.
Geek Hillbilly
1. Who pays for the neutral expert? 2. Who makes the deletion of the privileged files? 3. How are the privileged files going to be deleted?
If media files are all the RIAA trolls are interested in, it would be easy enough to make a script to extract them. Standard tools like find and tar do exactly that and do it well. Fancier tools could be made to look for id tags if the RIAA is paranoid about people changing filenames. It is this list of files that should be agreed on and only that should be coppied for examination beyond the "neutral" party.
Asking for more is just abusive but that's what this is all about, isn't it? "A few dollars a song is all we ask," they tell us, "isn't everything we can take away worth more than that?" Muggers use similar logic when they brandish their weapons.
While the change from "The RIAA gets everything it wants, so shut up." in these tiny details is nice, there's a long way to go before anything like justice is served and these searches start to look reasonable or lawful. Everyone in my house has a computer or two. The burden of identifying each and every file that might be embarrassing or abused is well beyond the average user. Even if you can do that, the details of the deletion are still troubling. I'd say that the RIAA system that makes the original mirror is something that can't be trusted to begin with and all bets are off from the first step.
Unreasonable searches are disruptive and dangerous. The easiest way to see what a powerful weapon this can be is to imagine if MLK were alive today. The kinds of people who tapped his phones and told him to commit suicide would be demanding his computers. Those who want to avoid harassment must give up many modern conveniences and efficiencies. The threat of revocation make the tools useless anyway. All it takes to end up on the list is an ISP.
The only thing less reasonable than the "evidence" or motivation for these trials are the harsh penalties provided by law. Everyone of us faces the complete loss of property and livelyhoods at random, all to protect an industry from obvious technical obsolescence.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
The new order says agreed upon expert [makes the copy] and I agree, it does actually sound pretty reasonable.
What's reasonable about being threatened with the loss everything and your reputation at random? All to protect some big rich music publishers. Bin Laden is loving it.
Even if you can defend the witch hunt, this detail is still abusive. They are only interested in specific files and should be able to make a tool that extracts them transparently. Just imagine making a list of all the files that you want to delete.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Look moron, I legally pay for TV shows off of iTunes, and I save myself the hassle of not having to watch inane commercials. I also now legally download the one or 2 good tracks off of iTunes instead of wasting my money buying overprices CD's at your BS shops. Can you blame me? The world is changing and CD is dead. DEAD DEAD DEAD. Time for you to get a real job when you are done filing for bankruptcy. (If you have any ACTUAL skills)
Horns are really just a broken halo.
Sure, here's my hard drive (trips over chair leg)...
WHAP! (Noise made as hard drive is dropped and violently falls onto floor)
Of course you would want to make your OWN image of the drive beforehand, and store it somewhere safe, like a safety deposit box at your bank or somewhere....
PK: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish?
One's a scum sucking bottom-dweller, the other one's a fish.
and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of.
You mean that people are actually ripping and sharing Christian rock??
Thats just *sick*.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Who reads this bullshit? It's god damned insulting to anybody with an IQ over 30.
It should be:
Shit happens.
Who removed my brain?
drive nuker
And since when a has feeding the trolls and brining them to more attention been considered a good thing?
Copy&Paste trolls suck... expecially when spewing the EXACT SAME thing in each topic about similar issues.
Some shit about exact comment previously being posted...
Look moron, first of all, stop feeding the goddamn troll.
Second of all, how exactly is the CD dead? For some smaller labels and independent bands this may not be an issue, but I'd like to know one place where I can legally obtain CD-quality, DRM-less music downloads complete with high quality liner note scans of any major label artists (not that there are many who I like, but enough to justify buying the occasional CD). Because if such a thing existed, then I would have no need for CDs.
That article absolutely reeks of bullshit.
Copyright infringement would be the distributing of a work that you aren't authorised to distribute.
Having the data on your harddrive doesn't prove that you were distributing it.
The only way to prove that your were distributing it would be to catch you while you are distributing it.
...and that is all I have to say about that.
http://jessta.id.au
Reminds me of a really bad band called "The agnostic mountain gospel choir". Nobody, but nobody, will ever rip and share their music...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them...
I also once had a business idea that revolved around selling crap that nobody needs. I didn't go as far as to actually buy a boutique, but still I feel your pain...
This is not a windows bashing post. XP has become a decently stable OS after SP2, but my point is about its trustworthiness. Could a closed source operating system that phones home and over its inner workings the user has zero control be used to hide something from Microsoft, therefore from the governments MS is tied to?
The answer is obviously no.
Users should realize that most governments around the world aren't pushing Windows only because they are bribed by Gates or fear Ballmer throwing chairs at them, but because thanks to agreements with Microsoft they can have access to tools that put them in control of what users do with their PC. This has nothing to do with dictatorships, enslaving people or other tinfoil-hat theories: every government wants to stay in control, and uses the best tools available to achieve that goal.
While this practice could be useful to catch lowlives such as potential killers, heavy drugs dealers or pedophiles, I'd suggest to fight it in any possible way when it's used to damage the average citizen with absurd fines for downloading music or movies.
So, want to dl and share files on the net? Install Linux or BSD, learn how to cover your tracks with them, and be happy.
No, OSX won't help either: it's neat and powerful, but closed source, therefore not trustworthy.
+5 Funny!
thx e
Wherever, however you get your favorite songs and videos into your computer is your own business. If you choose to use less-than-forthright methods, that's up to you. I recommend using legal copies. However, all that aside... once you DO have the music and videos on your computer, why not simply go through each one and tweak some values a little here and there? Doesn't need to be much, just a +/-1 or 2 away from the original-- you'll never notice it (if you do, you really should be buying high-end audiophile gear anyway). Then if the RIAA ever tried to hash it, it wouldn't add up to anything they could complain about. And if everybody did it the RIAA would be so busy computing hashes they wouldn't have time for any other bullshit.
In the end they should receive any MP3 files that are on their list of infringing files, and Online Media Distribution System (P2P file sharing program, for the rest of us) files for the OMDS they've claimed they've identified (e.g. KaZaA) if present, AND NOTHING MORE!
As I understand it (IANAL), you are allowed to remove personal files that have no relationship to the case at hand. The RIAA can object if you try to protect files they say have a direct bearing on their case, however, they should find it an impossible task to justify why they need to see anything other than specified MP3 and/or OMDS files. Don't give them a byte more than they're entitled to.
And most importantly of all, perhaps, wipe all the unused file space. Let them try to prove why they deserve access to areas of the hard drive not included in any files.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
One could make the case to a judge that with all the drives the RIAA has unethically examined using their wide, pervasive and invasive techniques, there is a better chance than not that they have CHILD PORN on their own computers, and that a low-level forensic examination of the RIAA's computer disks would likely reveal CHILD PORN was there even if it is now erased. My understanding is that is a federal crime no matter HOW the CHILD PORN got on the RIAA's computers or whether the CHILD PORN on the RIAA's hard disks is now erased. I firmly believe that CHILD PORN is wrong and the RIAA has no business engaging in CHILD PORN for any purpose whatsoever. Furthermore I think the slashdot user community should petition the court to appoint an appropriate forensic expert to look for the CHILD PORN on the RIAA's computers.
Well, in one case they are demanding to image and search the hard drives and all MP3 players of the son of a defendant, who lives miles away, and claims to only have a desktop system at home that he uses for his job as a legal assistant (i.e. large amount of confidential files there). They're trying to do this because, having searched his mother's harddrive and found ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE of illegal activity on it, and only assumed that they were given the wrong hard drive, and are now on the hunt for the correct one that they're sure exists.
In the RIAA's twisted logic, he has either taken his desktop (not notebook/laptop computer) to his mother's house miles away to do illegal filesharing on her Internet broadband account, and then taken it home again, or REMOVED HIS HARDDRIVE and transported it over and back to infringe on record company copyrights. This theory, they feel, allows them to now search his hard drive -- or, I would expect, anyone within 4 degrees of separation from the defendant -- and all music players as they wish. While I believe this was finally ruled unreasonable and unlikely to produce admissible evidence, they now are fighting their best to avoid paying his legal bills that he entailed explaining this bit of common sense to them.
So in answer to your question: Yes!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
You feed me, you feed the Troll by proxy, Moron.
CD sales dropped about 50% first quarter 2007 vs first quarter 2006. Ok, the CD is not dead, but the mortal wound has been applied. CD will go the way of record - it's only a matter of time. Download services are catching up to quality; EMI is not quite offering CD quality downloadable music, but they are beginning their push into "quality DRM-less music" in case you have not actually read the news lately: http://www.emigroup.com/Press/2007/press18.htm
You are a fool if you think the CD is going to last much longer.
Horns are really just a broken halo.
... a virtual OS install for all your 'illicit' downloads.
i.e. - VMWare, where the installation is hosted within a single file. For tin foil hat level security you may choose to keep the file on an removable device. The first hint that the RIAA is persuing you, you disconnect/erase the device/file.
Ooops, the cat's out of the bag now !
What if you have a system with multiple drives, one of which has all of your less than legal stuff- you get subpoenad and you simply submit the OS drive, unaltered and/or destroy the other drive? If you're vigilant about preventing recent files lists from building up- is there any way to detect there was another drive?
Is there some way that Nancy Pelosi could charge the RIAA a royalty for using U.S. courts to gain profit?
Thats why I have a little switch on my box that automatically self destructs the hard drive if anyone tries to open or move the case. Maybe I've played too many hacker games. ;-P
Oh come fucking on people :)
You can't be taking that seriously, the post is practically filled with clues.
If I dragged someone into court, saying they sent me poison pen emails, would I be allowed access to their computer to search for evidence? Isn't that lunacy? So how come a trade group gets that privilege?
If I get a letter from the RIAA, my hard drive goes into the furnace. Fuck 'em all and smile, baby. Scorch the Earth. Attica! Attica!
They can mirror my SECTOR ENCRYPTED drive all they want :)
Good luck with reading it.
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
Use an external USB disk for your warez then hide it when they come a knockin'.
No sig today...
Files RIAA is interested in :
1) kazaa.log
2) spyware.log
3) $sys$sonyrootkit.log
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Do people prefer to watch TV, see films, read books? I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - Internet piracy is mostly to blame.
This self-contradiction is so concise, it's remarkable.
Its too bad that the day i got the complaint i was so flustered on getting accused of somehing i didnt do, i accidentally blew up my harddrive, and it had to be completely reloaded..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
ln -s /usr/share/goatse.jpg $HOME/stuff_I_got_from_limewire.mp3 /usr/share/goatse.jpg $HOME/movie2007.avi /usr/share/goatse.jpg $HOME/awesome_concert.mpg
/usr/share/goatse -type f`; do
ln -s
ln -s
or maybe for more fun..
for file in `find
ln -s "$file" $HOME/$RANDOM.mp3
ln -s "$file" $HOME/$RANDOM.mpg
ln -s "$file" $HOME/$RANDOM.avi
done
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Zombie lawyers may be a neat feature of Discworld, but they don't really exist, especially if you require that a zombie must be 'undead'.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
There are lots of progs that wipe your disk to this Dept of Defense standard. If it doesn't work then advertise that fact that the US government is using an insecure data protection standard.
The whole point of using TrueCrypt is that you have a second encrypted volume inside the first which is effectively hidden because it is impossible mathematically to prove that its there. You simply place some reasonably confidential personal information on the first layer of encryption like your personal financing, photos, (legal) porn collection etc. providing you with plausible deniability. In the second inner layer of encryption you place stuff you don't want RIAA or anyone to actually find.
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
Or 'get a Mac' as a second PC to claim it's your only computer since we know kazaa and a bunch of those other evil p2p apps don't run on an Apple, unless it's Mac hardware with Windows. Or get a used laptop and a larger hdd, paying cash for both so you might be able to try to deny even owning it. Then change the mac addr to match your primary PC so any network traffic from it will appear to come from your main and clean PC. Clean as in free of anything the MAFIAA may consider to the 'infringing' material. Or if you want to pass it off as a backup use full disk encryption with a hidden partition and store it on one of those fancy fire and water resistant safes and tell the judge that you're a little concerned about backups and security. But for the cost of doing all that you can get a few dozen used CDs and movies from amazon.com(new&used for...) or ebay and probably many other places. Even with as much as the MAFIAA may not like it, buying used media is still legal.
You'll probably get into some kind of trouble if you tell the court you only have one computer and it turns out you had a second hidden somewhere. An examination of windows logs can probably determine that an external drive was used and the presence of p2p software on the computer will probably be enough for the MAFIAA to cry WITCH!!! or was that 'pirate' but you could claim that it belonged to someone else.
F7 doesn't work, ignore spelling and grammar
If anyone wants to look up that case it's UMG v. Lindor.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
I know it's a troll but I can't help with replying: 'Here's £1000. Go buy this album for me, and you get to keep the change.' Or on amazon.com, 'yes, my name really is Mr Buttwinkle. Honest!' I'd love to see a blacklist implemented. I could spend a whole year laughing about that one.
09F9 1102 9D74 E35B D841 56C5 6356 88C0
(1) Own more than one computer
(2) Never store anything "contraband" on your "main" computer
(3) Setup and hide a server which uses an encrypted volume for file you wish to keep private. (While technically to comply with the law you would have to divulge the existence of said computer if asked, but one need not volunteer anything)
(4) The encrypted volume should be an external storage system that has no entry in the log files of disk configuration.
(5) Assuming Linux or Mac, create a folder, say Music or Movies, and put home movies and indie music there.
(6) Mount the encrypted volumes on Music and/or Movies.
(7) Clear the logs every hour.
(8) Always backup your data and store it off site where it can not be tracked with billing records. (Small steel box buried in the back yard or something like that.)
The purpose is to eliminate any sort of record or smoking gun. Their first subpoena will be sloppy and something you should be able to comply with easily enough. They won't have any legitimate evidence. They court will eventually tell them to shove off.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but what's the point of making an MD5 hash of the imaged drive if the defence team is then able to delete the "privileged" files before giving it to the RIAA team? The hash will be different and won't tell the defence team if the RIAA has subsequently planted files.
Surely there has to be at least ONE firm that is circling around the people getting sued by the RIAA looking at ways they can counter-claim. One firm with a lot of expertise in this area would get a lot of business from thousands of defendants, by the sounds of things.
As a record store owner who has failed to diversify or pay attention to industry trends , my business faces ruin. CD sales have dropped through the floor just like the previous obsolete formats before them . People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago. Revenue is down and costs are up. My store has survived for years, but I now face the prospect of bankruptcy. Every day I ask myself why this is happening when I should be researching current trends and alternatives to restructure my business instead of wallowing in misery .
I bought the store about 12 years ago. It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market. My store specialized in family music - stuff that the whole family could listen to. I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of.
The business strategy worked. Buying an existing profitable store and changing nothing was simpler then I ever imagined. People flocked to my store, knowing that they (and their children) could safely purchase records without profanity or violent lyrics. Over the years I expanded the business and took on more clean-cut and friendly employees. It took hard work and long hours but I had achieved my dream - owning a profitable business that I had built with my own hands, from the ground up. But now, this dream is turning into a nightmare.
Every day, fewer and fewer customers enter my store to buy fewer and fewer CDs. Why is no one buying CDs? Why is no one buying cassette tapes, 33s or singles on 45s? My wax cylinders are literally covered in dust! Are people not interested in music? Do people prefer to watch TV, see films, read books? I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - Internet piracy is mostly to blame. The statistics speak for themselves - one in three discs world wide is a pirate. On The Internet, you can find and download hundreds of dollars worth of music in just minutes. Millions of people are finding and downloading any music item they want. It's so easy some people are downloading stuff they never would have listened to before just to check it out. It has the potential to destroy the music industry, from artists, to record companies to stores like my own. Before you point to the supposed "economic downturn", I'll note that the book store just across from my store is doing great business. Unlike CDs, it's harder to copy books over The Internet. Except for audio books. And it's really just as easy to copy the books - it's just a little harder to encode them and not as convenient to read them using a computer right now.
Pirates are the worst. They are not as easy to identify as you would think. They almost never wear those little triangle hats. A week ago, an unpleasant experience with pirates gave me an idea. In my store, I overheard a teenage patron talking to his friend.
"Dude, I'm going to put this CD on the Internet right away."
"Yeah, dude, that's really lete [sic], you'll get lots of respect."
"I just hope it will work in my CD player. I haven't bought a CD since the last two wouldn't work in my CD player and this guy refused to give me a refund for the defective discs."
I was fuming. So they were out to destroy the record industry from right under my nose? F
does anyone know what they would do in the event that a piece of malicious self-distributing software that specifically attacked mp3's and other audio files were to attack your pc? and in the attacking corrupt the files?
surely if they were to then remove the virus this would be tampering with the evidence?
worse still if the virus was such that it created copies of itself using the names of well known songs.
Use Linux and learn how to use it with a crypt partition.
Wipe logs.
Do nothing on any computer except yours. Never at work, school, or a public computer.
Do random downloads at various time.
AND: Dump data to a remote USB drive and keep it separate from your other computer. As in not available to be found in a casual search.
AND: Post the following on your computer room's door, "No one has permission to be in this room besides [your name here]. No person in this home has permission to allow others to enter or search this room without my written permission and me being present at the time of the search. Any questions may be directed to [my attorney name and phone number] or to me at [cellphone]."
ABOVE: Place on your computer startup screen, too.
If "they" come WITH a warrant, SHUT your mouth, be nice, get names and paperwork, and offer them something to drink. It is hard work doing a proper search. Or, If they come WITHOUT a warrant refer to the previous item. Except: do not let anyone in the house. NEVER NEVER EVER
AND REMEMBER: Be nice and shut up. As is said, "Name , rank, and serial number only."
How exactly would the wireless signal get through the house with a (full) metal shield around it ?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Hard drive magnets are super-strong rare-earth magnets... Some of the strongest you'll find commercially available. No sense in wasting them by sending them to the land fill. They're useful for all sorts of things. Just don't pinch your skin between them, because they *can* draw blood.
If you keep offsite backups, just keep 2 hard drives on an easy to yank tray with a "standard disk" that's just never used and one with your actual mp3's and mpg's. When the RIAA comes knock-knocking, just yank the hard drive with the "perfectly legitimate" content and toss it into the wood chipper you happen to have sitting in your living room next to your desk for shredding your..... sensitive documents! 15 noisy seconds and one quick switch later, they can't prove nuthin'.
This signature is lame.
If Windows logs indicate stuff about external drive and stuff, use Linux and rewrite the software to not write logs about such things. Pay cash for anything. I don't use, own, or plan to own a credit card. Or use your game console system, VCR, DVD player, or whatever to store stuff like that. I don't have a lot of warez (actually I hardly even have 1 or 2), and even the stuff I do have isn't stuff I could pay for if I wanted to (or had the money)! P2P software isn't illegal anyways, most of the files downloaded are illegal. You could encrypt all of your communications. Write a BIOS that stores stuff in the hard drive so that it seems to be something else if viewed from another computer or if the correct password isn't entered. Make the password change automatically and use a calculation to enter it. Somebody looking at your password will confused.
Because the government is stupid, that's why.
Set the date backwards 2 days, and open up the windows box to 'net... i mean without any protection....
Wait and watch it get infected in 12 mins so much it cannot reboot.
Shutdown and give it to the 'expert'.
Watch him cry while the fully VD-infected PC boots up...
If he claims to find the offendng file, simply say the evidence was planted.
Ask judge to subpoena M$FT for expert testimony to how easy it is to hack a WIndows PC left unprotected.
Watch the judge do a slow burn as it dawns on him the case is a sham since the PC is so slow and has been infected...
!PRofit !
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer