MPAA College Toolkit Raises Privacy, Security Concerns

An anonymous reader writes "The Motion Picture Association of America last month sent letters to the presidents of 25 major universities (pdf), urging them to download and install a 'university toolkit' to help identify students who were downloading/sharing movie files. The Washington Post's Security Fix blog reports that any university that installs the software could be placing a virtual wiretap on their networks for the MPAA (and the rest of the world) to listen in on all of the school's traffic. From the story: 'The MPAA also claims that using the tool on a university network presents "no privacy issues — the content of traffic is never examined or displayed.' That statement, however, is misleading. Here's why: The toolkit sets up an Apache Web server on the user's machine. It also automatically configures all of the data and graphs gathered about activity on the local network to be displayed on a Web page, complete with ntop-generated graphics showing not only bandwidth usage generated by each user on the network, but also the Internet address of every Web site each user has visited. Unless a school using the tool has firewalls on the borders of its network designed to block unsolicited Internet traffic — and a great many universities do not — that Web server is going to be visible and accessible by anyone with a Web browser."

Comments

Which 25 universities?

[mdmkolbe]

I don't see the universities listed anywhere in the article. Which ones are they? We need to know so we can write them letters.

Re:Which 25 universities?

[PatPending]

I've noticed that some articles elsewhere used 40 universities in 25 states.

Re:Which 25 universities?

[nametaken]

Funny... the question I was asking was, who are these "great many universities" that apparently allow unrestricted access to their networks from the outside. And how many universities don't already see reports of their network traffic that aren't at least this detailed? I don't want to be an apologist for the MPAA, but c'mon now...

Re:Which 25 universities?

[bubblah]

No but it is interesting, I brought it up on a server at http://71.216.0.210:8180/peerwatch/advance.jsp if you want to go take a look, also wrote about it here, http://techwag.com/index.php/2007/11/23/thank-you-mpaa-for-the-university-toolkit/ technically this tool has some really interesting security implications, and privacy implications, but it is a 1 for 1 relationship between the nic and the tool. In other words, I have not figured out yet how to slip the thing into promiscuous mode, so it would have to be on a span port, or on its own port off the firewall with everything being forwarded. There are some issues with how it works, but there are also some limitations, you are free to check out the install if you want. In all, interesting, but there are some things that need to be worked out first to make this into a prime network monitoring tool.

MPAA Chasing the Money?

[purpledinoz]

This makes no sense. What are they going to accomplish by going after college kids, who really don't have that much disposable income? It seems counter-productive to me. You piss off a bunch of college kids, who can't afford to spend money on movies anyway, and who are going to earn money in the future, and will probably chose not to spend their money on movies, since the MPAA were being dicks. Not to mention the horrible invasion of privacy and security issues.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[Spy der Mann]

These are kids who should know better, and are committing lots of infringement (and worse than that, think it's OK).

You must DEFINITELY be new here!

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[shark72]

"This makes no sense. What are they going to accomplish by going after college kids, who really don't have that much disposable income? It seems counter-productive to me."

they're trying to scare them into not pirating. The MPAA is scared to death that it will simply be ingrained in our culture (as it has in some other society's cultures) that piracy is perfectly OK.

We'll see how this plays out. Back in the 80's I pirated lots of software, and I heard stories of other teenagers being caught for it. Now that I'm an adult, I'm no longe a pirate. The prosecution of software pirates in the 1980s didn't push me into a life of hoisting the Jolly Roger; on the contrary, once I got a job and learned more about how the real world works, I prefer to respect the copyright of others.

I agree with you that many of the college kids who are pirates today will continue to be as they enter adulthood, but that percentage may not be as high as we might think.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[gstoddart]

This makes no sense. What are they going to accomplish by going after college kids, who really don't have that much disposable income? It seems counter-productive to me. You piss off a bunch of college kids, who can't afford to spend money on movies anyway, and who are going to earn money in the future, and will probably chose not to spend their money on movies, since the MPAA were being dicks. Not to mention the horrible invasion of privacy and security issues.

They're not chasing the money. They're chasing the people who can be made examples of.

They're not trying to find people who can pay the settlements -- they're looking for people they can establish the legal precedent and scare the crap out of people. In their mind, if they can stop it in the places where it happens most, and instill in people a great fear, then people will dutifully line up and buy tickets. This is all about the low-hanging fruit and those that can't easily defend themselves.

The MPAA doesn't give a flying fuck about privacy and security, at least not yours -- they care about their products, their revenue stream, and their business model.

You'll notice that just a few days ago we say a story of how an *AA sponsored bill is working its way through Congress which would require all universities to buy subscriptions for every student to Napster or risk losing federal support. In other words, they want to get paid for every single university student on the rationale that since they're all pirating, then the *AA's should get paid. Of course, they'll eventually want to extend to high schools, and then eventually to the rest of us.

What they're looking for is laws to reinforce their monopoly, government agencies to police their copyrights, and federally assured revenue streams. They don't give a rats ass about customers or the risk of how they might be perceived. They're incapable/unwilling to look at the bigger picture. I can understand their point to an extent -- they simply cannot fathom how to 'monetize' all of these digital things, and they're fighting back the only way they know how.

In their collective minds, if you can't afford to pay to see/hear/hum their products, you should simply do without. And, since they haven't been able to stop it, they're perfectly willing to shit in everyones shoes to get it stopped. If they can get government to do the heavy work, all the better for them.

Cheers

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[KaptajnKold]

Scarcity is a necessary economic principle even for intellectual items, and without it, you won't see anyone interested in producing intellectual works.

This of course is where we all disagree. I happen to believe - strongly - that you're wrong about this. Already we're seeing smart people (e.g. Madonna) distancing themselves from the labels and signing contracts with concert bookers instead. There will always be people interested in producing intellectual works, and there will always be people who will find a way to profit from it. With or without IP.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[purpledinoz]

In theory I agree with you, but college students really don't care about such minor things such as copyright infringement, just like they don't care about breaking the law by puffing some weed. The MPAA isn't going to be teaching any lessons to college students.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[Truekaiser]

the disturbing part and the best example to date that the united states is now a fascist state(merger of large corporations and the government), is that they want the state and your tax money to pay for the police doing their dirty work.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[Jason Levine]

You're not thinking like a MPAA/RIAA executive. MPAA/RIAA executives don't think logically with a long-term outlook. They think in terms of control and monetization over the short term. Will Action A have repercussions 5 years from now? Who cares? I (hypothetical RIAA/MPAA executive) will have made enough money to retire by then anyway.

Illegal downloads take music/movies out of their control. They won't admit this, but this issue is more important to them than the money. They don't care if the film downloaded was one that was otherwise sitting in the vault, available only on a dozen VHS copies left over from a network broadcast ten years ago. It's their property and if they want it to sit in the vault gathering dust, we the public should kiss their feet thanking them for that decision.

As far as the money is concerned, they think that these actions will make pirating movies less attractive which will drive more people to buy/rent movies and/or watch movies in the theater. No, don't argue back that pirated copies versus legal copies that would have been bought isn't a 1:1 ratio. Stuff like "ratios" sounds ominously like math to these executives. The only math they care about is the rate at which money is flowing into their pockets.

And speaking of "rate at which money is flowing", they feel entitled to constantly increasing profits year after year. After all, they've given us such quality works as Boy Band #34 and Third Sequel Of Generic Action Movie - Now With More Explosions. Why aren't we, the public, rushing out to the stores and shoving money into their pockets for this stuff? After all, Boy Band #7 did really well and they were basically the same guys as #34. Also, Generic Action Movie did pretty well in the box office. Why shouldn't the third sequel pull in even more money? (After all, the studio executives made sure the director added more explosions since they [the execs] knew that is what the public wanted.) Any appeals to logic about how spending money is tighter, how people have more options (online entertainment, video games, etc), or how quality is declining fall on deaf ears. After all, they got profit in the past and that means they should get bigger profit now. The only explanation has to be those dirty, rotten Internet pirates.

Of course, all of this isn't meant to excuse downloading something without the copyright owner's permission. I still think that you shouldn't do that. At the same time, however, I don't think that the MPAA/RIAA are living in the real world with some of the actions they have taken (and some of the things they have tried to get done). At best, they've lost whatever moral high ground they would have had. At worst, they've become so criminal that people committing massive copyright infringement actually have a degree of moral high ground over them.

In addition,

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[gstoddart]

Not fascism. That's not the right term.

Properly, you're describing an oligopoly (or maybe an oligarchy).

The US hasn't gotten anywhere near fascism yet, and not even where the ideology would take them. Just because companies are tied closely to lawmakers, that doesn't make you fascists. People like to bandy that term about, but it's not applicable in this context.

Cheers

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[saintsfan]

uhm.. people's consuming habits change over time, and their reletive economic situation influences that greatly. the way i see it: worst case scenario (to the corporate interests)- they never buy a movie or cd in their life and just "steal" them all. so what? they were apparently never going to anyway so they aren't actually losing anything other than the right to say - "hey you didnt pay me so you cant watch or listen". thats not much. at least they arent taking them out of the stores.. "the other option" best case- they become avid movie and music fans and when they get good jobs after school they start buying lots and lots of it. likely case- they'll download a bunch of crap and lose it over time between drive failures and lost ipods. they'll fall out of the scene or get distracted by other stuff and be normal consumers the companies like. they (the hellbent company police) need to be careful. if they alienate everyone by spying on them (and subjecting them to invasion by the truely dark spots on the internet), getting their schools financial aid pulled, getting their right to use the internet taken away, suing the pants off broke people, they could start an underground revolution that seeks only to destroy them back. as a matter of fact, it sounds to me like this might have already begun. that is the only real long term threat to their businesses i see, but they won't unless it bites them on the ass.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[king-manic]

Sometimes it's not about the money. Sometimes, it's about right and wrong. These are kids who should know better, and are committing lots of infringement (and worse than that, think it's OK). It's a self-reinforcing behavior to see lots of people around you pirating, but if instead you see people suffering the consequences for their illegal downloading, that activity will be deterred. I agree, Right and wrong must be considered. So you have a very minor wrong of college kids viewing content without paying for it, and a very major wrong of sacrificing peoples privacy and introducing a new potential source of security compromises. It's very clear this initiative must be rejected on the ground you specified.

There is also a bit of thorn here. People who consume more will often consider it more important. There is a very strong correlation with "Frequent Copyright infringer" and "good customer". So the MPAA wants to reduce one without reducing the other. The RIAA completely botched it and didn't see the correlation. Their sales may hurt as people try to find alternatives. MPAA is slightly more fortunate that since movies are larger infringement is less casual and high quality products mroe difficult to produce (for music the difference between a $1500 recording and a $5 million recording isn't always obvious. But the difference between a $1500 movies and a $5 movie sis blatant).

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[rolfc]

"Scarcity is a necessary economic principle even for intellectual items, and without it, you won't see anyone interested in producing intellectual works."

Since Copyright is relatively new, you are actually saying that no intellectual works were produced before somone invented the Copyright law?

The scarcity is produced by the state, with help of Copyright law, to help producers of intellectual works recieving monoy for their work. What is actually happening is that the Copyright law has been kidnapped by the media industry and is used against the most part of intellectual producers to the benefit of a few ant to the benefit of media industry. Less than 10 % of what you pay for a song, end up in the hands of the producer of the Work.

Copyright law is flawed and should be reviewed in the interest of the society instead, as now happens, in the interest of media industry.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[jamar0303]

I don't pirate, I buy CDs. However, I do not do so while I am in any industrialized country. Why? They charge too much. That's a core reason behind piracy. Sell singles for $2 and albums for $5-$8 like in China (I'm talking legit albums with jewel case and the works, not those commercially pirated ones that go for $.50) and WITHOUT DRM (I cannot say how many times I've had to boot into Mac OS just to get around some stupid Copy Control scheme and actually copy the CD I own to my cellphone- thank god for OSx86) and you'll see people turn away from piracy.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[shark72]

"You're not thinking like a MPAA/RIAA executive. MPAA/RIAA executives don't think logically with a long-term outlook."

Oh, no, quite the contrary. While we may not agree with the MPAA's reasoning, they are going after the universities because of the long-term implications. It's the very same reason that car companies and cigarette companies go after the young-adult market: to create customers for life. In this example, the MPAA is distributing this network monitoring tool because their concern is that once children go to college and start getting heavily into piracy to acquire their movies, they'll keep doing it as they become adults. They are very much taking a page from the automobile, cigarette, and countless other industries.

"The only math they care about is the rate at which money is flowing into their pockets."

Which is what most companies care about... even not-for-profits. The MPAA represents the economic interests of the film studios, and the film studios -- like all companies -- must continue to make money to survive. It's tough to play the greed card here when most of us work for companies that also strive to make a profit each quarter.

"At best, they've lost whatever moral high ground they would have had. At worst, they've become so criminal that people committing massive copyright infringement actually have a degree of moral high ground over them."

Agreed; many people subscribe to the "two wrongs make a right" philosophy when coming up with rationalizations for piracy. But, this is a given: most people who pirate don't feel particularly bad about what they're doing. Throwing around words like "criminal" when describing copright holders is an effective way to make piracy feel okay.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[arth1]

This makes no sense. What are they going to accomplish by going after college kids, who really don't have that much disposable income?

It makes hasbeens[1] like Gene Simmons happy?

Seriously, it has one positive effect -- it increases the loathing the public feels for the MAFIAA, and helps hasten to change to different and better creative arts distribution models.

[1]: In my opinion, artists are entitled to pay, like the rest of us, as long as they create. Once the creating stops, the money should stop too. If Gene Simmons doesn't make music and doesn't perform, he should live on his savings or starve.
The whole point of copyright laws was to promote the arts and sciences, which you don't do by giving an artist so much money that he doesn't have to create anything more. Chop the copyrights down to two or three years, and you'll find that the artists will have to continue creating while still being protected while making more money than anyone else on their work, and still have an income while creating their next work, which was the whole point of copyrights in the first place.
Alternatively, they can keep the ownership to their creations indeterminably, as long as they don't release it to the public in exchange for copyright protection, but find other distribution models (like contracts). They have that choice now, but few if any exercise it, because copyrights are mandatory and take place anyhow.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[king-manic]

We'll see how this plays out. Back in the 80's I pirated lots of software, and I heard stories of other teenagers being caught for it. Now that I'm an adult, I'm no longe a pirate. The prosecution of software pirates in the 1980s didn't push me into a life of hoisting the Jolly Roger; on the contrary, once I got a job and learned more about how the real world works, I prefer to respect the copyright of others. Piracy did wonders for Microsoft and likely photo, Maya, Lightwave, and many other programs. The cost of these programs puts them out of reach of kids, and kids are the ones who will pick up these essential skills fastest. So if you acclimatized children to your software you basically create future customers. A kid may find he loves 3d work and set his life on a course as a Maya guru. Anyone else will think it's insane spending $3,000 on a box and a CD. So it's int he best interest of people to ensure some version of their software is pirated or provide a non business free non-expiring demo but to also ensure businesses are prosecuted for use without paying. This way you get the benefit of more paying users.

The thing with piracy is once you get enough money (first job) it's less attractive to spend 2h filtering through torrents to download a season 30 min TV show then it is to spend $80 on the box set. So Piracy may set up the appetites the same way it does for software and convenience and economics convert them to customers.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[arevos]

It's the only way to stop this disturbing trend where a whole generation is growing up believing that the only things with value are physical items. Leaving aside all other arguments, I don't think this can be prevented. Increases in bandwidth and storage space make it easier to share information, and consequently, more difficult to limit the spread of information. This trend shows no signs of slowing, and so I can't see copyright infringement becoming any less prolific.

Scarcity is a necessary economic principle even for intellectual items, and without it, you won't see anyone interested in producing intellectual works. The open source movement produces plenty of intellectual work without having to resort to artificial scarcity, and I doubt that everyone interested in music or writing is motivated by financial interests alone.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[foobsr]

Scarcity is a necessary economic principle even for intellectual items, and without it, you won't see anyone interested in producing intellectual works.

Up until now I thought that 'intellectual work' most — if not all (which is an issue of definition) — time is happening in a space rather detached from (normative) 'economic principles'. Of course *AA trolls might think otherwise.

CC.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[shark72]

"Piracy did wonders for Microsoft and likely photo, Maya, Lightwave, and many other programs. The cost of these programs puts them out of reach of kids, and kids are the ones who will pick up these essential skills fastest."

Which I believe is EXACTLY why the BSA (the software industry's equivalent of the MPAA) hasn't made college kids their primary target. They tend to go after the businesses, which have the money and should know better.

"The thing with piracy is once you get enough money (first job) it's less attractive to spend 2h filtering through torrents to download a season 30 min TV show then it is to spend $80 on the box set. So Piracy may set up the appetites the same way it does for software and convenience and economics convert them to customers."

It's less attractive now, but I believe the MPAA's fear is that the larger thir "culture of piracy" boogeyman gets, the easier it will become (with more people writing better tools and seeding the content).

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[ScrewMaster]

Sometimes, it's about right and wrong

Couldn't agree more. The problem is that you seem confused about who is right. Your comment indicates a certain lack of awareness of the real societal issues (check out some of Ray Beckerman's writings if you want to get a handle on them.) Perhaps you work for a media company. Regardless, there's a lot more going on here that meets the eye.

I would also recommend reading the relevant portions of the Constitution, the history of copyright and its true purpose, current copyright law (what I was able to understand of it as a non-lawyer is depressingly unbalanced), and most important of all discover what the Founders (Jefferson in particular) believed is the proper role of copyright in our society. Once you understand that, you will see just how damaged we have been by the recent divergence in purpose, from promoting "the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries" to "securing endless revenue streams for companies that have effectively stolen rights to the works whose authors they claim to represent." The power of Copyright has been conscripted by some particularly evil individuals, with the willing complicity of certain members of Congress. I presume you're an American: given our traditions of freedom and respect for individual rights I am amazed that you could take the position you have. Bankrupting college kids is not a solution: if you think it is you are in error, and are part of the problem.

The problem here is not copyright infringement: it's media companies setting themselves up as private police forces, with unchecked surveillance and enforcement capabilities, and no due process. That goes very much against the grain of, well, pretty much every civilized nation on the planet. These are powers that should be reserved for legitimate government, not the private sector. And don't even start with "they'll have their day in court" or "if they're innocent they have nothing to worry about." Would that were true, but of the thousands of people sued by the RIAA, how many people have actually fought back? How many had the resources to even try to fight back? A tiny fraction: the rest settled out-of-court regardless of actual guilt, the RIAA having served as judge, jury and executioner, using "evidence" (and I use the term loosely) that is largely manufactured out of thin air. Furthermore, the RIAA (and the MPAA) is much like the Internal Revenue Service ... it's composed of a bunch of bad dudes, not the kind of people you want having any power over you whatsoever. The facts are thus: the media companies and their "trade organizations" have behaved very irresponsibly all down the line, and have hurt a lot of people. They absolutely should not be granted one iota more power. If anything they need to have their wings clipped. Period. END OF STATEMENT.

Furthermore, you seem to have forgotten that this is supposed to be a nation by, of and for The People. If we, as a nation, have decided that extended copyright and strict enforcement is not something we need or want then nobody, certainly not a bunch of mere copyright holders who themselves have created nothing have any moral high ground here whatsoever. It's a blind, unfounded assumption on your part that we need to get tough on copyright infringement, indeed that we need such extreme laws in the first place. I would argue that we never have, and do not now.

What we have here is a classic example of unenlightened capitalism, the kind of no-holds-barred screw-everyone-but-ourselves school of business management that does nothing but enrich a few at the expense of everyone else, causing a fair amount of collateral damage in the process. Worse yet, our entertainment industry (which at the present time is composed largely of foreign-owned corpor

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[ScrewMaster]

Unless you were making copies and selling them, you weren't a pirate anyways. No need to make yourself sound worse than you were, unless you just like the notoriety. No argument that you were committing a crime ... it just wasn't piracy.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[mr_josh]

If the MP/RIAA had handled this differently, the whole situation would be different. IF they weren't such obviously scummy, underhanded organizations, the whole situation would be different. If they hadn't escalated what was essentially one P2P network's activity (Napster) to the level of a full-scale war, fought with frivolous lawsuits which rather much made mockery of the American legal system, the situation would be so very different. YES taking someone's IP without paying when money is demanded is stealing. And I don't condone it. At the same time, I so completely understand why people are able to relax their moral center just a tick when they see how completely prickish and stuck in the stone age that the MPAA and RIAA are. When million of dollars are spent on ads that are hurled in your face from billboards, web ads, TV ads, and radio ads, day-in, and day-out, and at the same time the mouth pieces for the MPAA and RIAA are essentially telling their customers, "Fuck you, you need us, and we'll make consuming our product as painful as we want it to be, you're all fucking criminals." Well that tends to make people feel just a smidgen less guilty about downloading a song or two. FWIW, I pretty much buy everything from band websites or iTunes.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[Sique]

Scarcity is a necessary economic principle even for intellectual items, and without it, you won't see anyone interested in producing intellectual works. 1. I am producing lots of intellectual works and never got paid for them. I just happen to like to create them.
2. If the only reason to limit access to a resource of plenty is creating the ability for a few to profiteer from it, then I would call this theft. That's like putting soldiers around a well to allow a person to sell more bottled water.
3. The intrinsic value of information lies in the fact that it is connected to other pieces of information, and the value of information increases if it can be connected to more information. Limiting the ability to interconnect information is thus degrading the value of said information.
4. There is always the famous quote (sometimes attributed to Isaac Newton or Robert Hooke, but both were also just quoting, thus pirating valuable intellectual property!): "If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." There is no work of Art or invention or other intellectual work that stands all for itself. It is always the result of a huge body of knowledge and art it builds on. Limiting access to this body of knowledge is limiting the ability to create new intellectual works.
5. Thus, while the argument that a creator should be able to somehow get rewarded for his creation, has something for itself, it's not the sole reason for the creation itself. There are many others, and limiting access to creative works is in fact reducing the ability or the joy of new creation. Encouraging creative works thus has to take other things in consideration, and access to already created works is one of the most basic things.
6. Most economies were growing fastest at the moment, when limits of access to the body of knowledge were lifted, when duplication of works was getting cheaper, when monastry libraries were opened to the public, when access to universities was facilitated, when the number of people learning a music instrument by playing music works was increasing, in fact when creative works were turned from a scarce resource to a nearly unlimited source.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[MightyMartian]

Right or wrong, the distribution model these companies are using is dead in the water. Attacking their consumer base, even if that consumer base is acting badly, is only going to hasten their demise. From the very beginning they have refused to adapt, demanding the government and the courts keep an outmoded business model going. The technology is such that no matter what they do, they can never stop it.

Oh, and before we start moaning about poor old RIAA and the MPAA, let's remember that it's RIAA's members who spent decades ripping off artists (go look up Bo Diddley and payola sometime to see just how vile and repugnant the record companies have been), and the MPAA whose members have accounting practices that should lead just about every Hollywood producer and studio head being sent to jail. These guys are crooks themselves, and so far as I'm concerned, when two groups of crooks get into a turf war, I say let 'em fight it out without any government or court involvement. At the very least, the government should be demanding that RIAA immediately start paying with interest to all those artists they fucked out of royalties for years, and the MPAA go back two decades and audit their collective books on movie profits, and pay, with interest, all the taxes they scammed and pay back all the investors they screwed. Then, and only then, should anyone even give these crooks the time of day.

As to the artists, well, there are other ways of doing things. As I said a day ago, Shakespeare and his theater company did quite well without the benefit of copyright laws.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[Anonymous Coward]

In the 80's i also pirated lots of software. Nowadays i still download pirated software.

The difference is that nowadays, if i actually continue to use the software i download beyond testing it, I'll buy it, even if the CD will forever sit in a shelve at my place never to be used.

The only reason i don't outright buy the software (mostly games) and skip the download, is that I've been burned once too many when i bought over-hyped software that turned out to be one big, steamy pile of bug-ridden shit.

With music, I've stopped buying CDs when the first "copy protected" CDs started coming out: I'm not interested in a CD which i cannot rip into MP3s for playing in my MP3 player and i don't have the time to go check which CDs are copy protected and which are not, so i simple stopped buying CDs altogether. I still download MP3s once in a while ... wouldn't mind buying the tracks as MP3, but since i the record companies don't seem to be interested in selling me the MP3s, i can't buy them.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[Sparks23]

This is very true, and also why smart companies now release limited versions of their software free or cheaply. To use your example, Maya now has Maya Personal Learning Edition, which is a free download. Does everything Maya does, but puts a small watermark in the corner of renders. For kids looking to toy with 3D software (or people just curious), Maya provided a way for them to do so legally.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[db32]

He was right, but it is irrelevant. In digital "objects" scarcity is artificial. This assanine idea that noone will produce is "economic thinking" coupled with poor judgement. TRUE economic thinking would show the supply/demand curve shift, and the price adjust accordingly and there will still be a huge supply of artists because the cost of entry has become so insanely low. So the little popstar boyband or rockstar lifestyle of 16 cars, 5 hookers, and all the drugs you can shoot, snort, or smoke dies. Oh boo freaking hoo. You mean artists might only make enough to make a middle class lifestyle off of their work? Oh the agony, the horror, the defeat... Soldiers, policemen, firefighters, etc all risk their damned lives on a day to day basis and don't get megamillions, why should some coke snorting junkie that can't take care of her kids get more?

So I agree with you, but the GP is absolutely correct about scarcity. The "industry" crews want to enforce artifical scarcity to drive prices up, the real world wants normal scarcity that deals with the fact that not everyone likes all types of music, nor will everyone become a musician. The this market WILL sort itself out when unburdened from so much silly regulation. The problem is, after the market balances, it will be closer to perfect competition rather than the monopolistic competition we have today, and the fat bastards in big offices and their greasy lawyers don't like that.

Remember kids...the RIAA has struck a deal so they get paid royalties for music they don't own the copyright to. They have been beating the drums of war and lobbying like crazy to make sure THEY are the only method of distribution. If you think this has much to do with the consumer you are deluded...this has everything to do with making sure no one can compete with them.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[jank1887]

I would like to summarize you're well thought out, but long-winded post.

See: Lawful Neutral
See: Neutral Good

Compare. Discuss.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Had to butt in here to correct you.

It's not illegal to download the file. It's illegal to upload it.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

So if I burn a CD, print up a copy of the album art, put that on the CD with a sticker, print a copy of the little booklet and stick it in a jewel case (total cost: .15 tops) you'll pay $5. But if I just burn the CD, write "QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE" in sharpie on it you wouldn't pay $.50 for it?

And even if the one you buy for $5 is legit there's a huge chance that it's stolen.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[ScrewMaster]

Yes, well, the more hung over I am the longer I tend to run on, mainly because my head hurts too much to be doing any of the things I should be doing.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[wift]

Yes, the wonders are an even more expensive piece of software. That's got to be worse way of looking at justifying piracy that I've read so far. Hey, we all did it at one time I got loads of software that I got 'free of charge' when I was young but I don't use it anymore. I grew up and know the cost of the piracy is worse DRM and higher software costs because right or wrong the companies that sell this stuff see it available on the internet/p2p and need to make money to stay in business. So up go the costs and on goes the DRM/copy protection that screw it up for the honest folk.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[skeeto]

These are kids who should know better, and are committing lots of infringement (and worse than that, think it's OK).

Is copyright infringement wrong? Along the same lines: is drinking alcohol on the day before your 21st birthday wrong? Assuming you say yes, why are these wrong? Is the act of breaking a law wrong? What happens when there are two contradicting laws?

Legal/illegal and right/wrong are two very different beasts that have little to do with each other. If copyright infringement is wrong, then sharing with your neighbor must be wrong too.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

They're not chasing the money. They're chasing the people who can be made examples of.

They're not trying to find people who can pay the settlements -- they're looking for people they can establish the legal precedent and scare the crap out of people. In their mind, if they can stop it in the places where it happens most, and instill in people a great fear, then people will dutifully line up and buy tickets.

You were going so well until...

This is all about the low-hanging fruit and those that can't easily defend themselves.

No, it's really about what you said earlier. They need examples to scare students away from piracy. They need to get in there nice and early, while their opinions about the world are still forming, and they're building the routines and habits that will last for years to come. Who knows, it might actually do some good?

As a side note...

In their collective minds, if you can't afford to pay to see/hear/hum their products, you should simply do without.

Yeah, that's pretty much the way it is with any product or service. I don't really see why the MPAA is obligated to be the exception.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

Stuff like "ratios" sounds ominously like math to these executives. The only math they care about is the rate at which money is flowing into their pockets.

I think I've read just today enough executive-bashing for a lifetime. These people are human beings. They aren't some money making machine who's only concern is their bank account (that's what the corporation is for). They have concerns, pride, reputations, futures, fears, friends and families. They can't all just care about money flowing into their pockets. I'm willing to bet that most of them are decent, hard-working people.

It's gotta be tough job, if you really think about it. Why would the shareholders permit an exorbitant salary for one person if there were cheaper alternatives out there? Because there are no cheaper alternatives out there. It's the kind of job that you wouldn't want to work in for less than a multimillion dollar salary.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[C0rinthian]

One could argue that before the advent of recent technology, scarcity was not an artificial thing. If you wanted to produce good music, you had to be able to play it. Noone else played like Bach, therefore Bach performances were scarce. (and he made his living as a performer, not a composer)

The technology to record and duplicate those recordings easily changes things fundamentally. Some form of copyright is a good thing. But what we have now is not it.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[C0rinthian]

Umm, yes it is. It's just more profitable to go after the uploaders as the 'value' of their infringement is much higher.

"You downloaded 10 songs, equalling 10 violations" vs. "You distributed 10 songs to 100 people, equalling 1000 violations"

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[C0rinthian]

Okay, lets get something straight: Just because you didn't plan to buy something doesn't mean you can get it by other means. It's not a justification. The "It doesn't matter because I wasn't going to buy it anyway" line is total bullshit.

Notice I'm not saying "DONT PIRATE" or anything, as frankly I don't care. But at least stop deluding yourself with half-assed justifications.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[hxnwix]

It's the only way to stop this disturbing trend where a whole generation is growing up believing that the only things with value are physical items. Scarcity is a necessary economic principle even for intellectual items, and without it, you won't see anyone interested in producing intellectual works. Indeed. It is for this reason that Linux does not exist, that Rembrandt died a rich man, that artists are not generally starving, that musicians make money from CDs, that the novels displaying virtuosity are best sellers and pulp drivel is not, that art house cinema attracts the massive profits and attention that it does and that poets continue to write.

Without money, there is no inspiration. Of this, above all else, there can be absolutely no doubt.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[piojo]

Actually, until recently, scarcity was caused by the expense of content distribution [citation needed].

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[digitrev]

Well, performances by each artist are as scarce as the artist lets them be. Let them take a lesson from Bach and make their living as a (live) performer, not as a composer.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[digitrev]

Ahh, but there's a difference between making a profit and pissing and moaning when your profit isn't as high as you expected.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[jamar0303]

I'm pretty sure that no big, tourist-frequented department store (where I shop) would risk selling pirated/stolen goods. The possibility's there, but I feel much safer about buying. Oh, and I think you'll find that the stuff that goes into a jewel case costs more than $.15- probably... $1?

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[thisissilly]

The problem here is not copyright infringement: it's media companies setting themselves up as private police forces, with unchecked surveillance and enforcement capabilities, and no due process. That goes very much against the grain of, well, pretty much every civilized nation on the planet. These are powers that should be reserved for legitimate government, not the private sector.

Don't worry, the *AA are trying to fix that, via making copyright infringement a criminal offense, or passing laws to allow the Department of Justice to file civil suits on their behalf. Those private police forces cost money, so the *AA would much rather put the bill on the taxpayer's dime, and then it *will* be the legitimate government with unchecked surveillance and enforcement. As to due process, we'll see. Of course, there are those in the Department of Justice who agree with wanting to be able to prosecute copyright infringement on a corporations behalf, because they see with dollar-signs in their eyes the new increases in budgets and manpower such actions would confer, not to mention getting to spy on everyone's traffic, because hey, you might be "pirating" something.

If possible, I'd like to keep the *AA member companies footing the bill, because then there is a slight chance they will eventually realize that suing your customers is bad for business. If they get the government to do the dirty work for them, it will be public costs for private gains.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[C0rinthian]

While I don't disagree, I would prefer both to be viable professions. (With proper protections for fair use, of course)

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[excelblue]

It could get worse for the companies: people simply lose all interest in music and movies. For example, I tend to avoid them with the ideology that watching movies is a waste of time, and I happen to find music distracting. Although unlikely, if this train of though catches on, the industry is dead.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[1336]

"The MPAA is scared to death that it will simply be ingrained in our culture (as it has in some other society's cultures) that piracy is perfectly OK."

Replace the word "piracy" with "sharing" and I think you have a more accurate description of what's going on...

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[MacWiz]

What are they going to accomplish by going after college kids, who really don't have that much disposable income?

It's not their disposable income that the MAFIAA is after; it's their tuition money.

When the RIAA lawsuits started four years ago, they started with Princeton and schools with "Polytechnic" in their names. I thought that attacking those kids in particular -- future lawyers and techno-geeks -- was pinnacle of stupidity on their part. I was sure that, given the collective intelligence of the RIAA, those were exactly the kind of students capable of coming up with a technical/legal way to whack the RIAA real hard on the side of the head with a blunt object.

But here we are four years later, the RIAA has sued about 30,000 people and the movie biz decides it's time to get their cut.

Re:MPAA Chasing the Money?

[Vombatus]

I'm pretty sure that no big, tourist-frequented department store (where I shop) would risk selling pirated/stolen goods.

You may wish to reconsider...

When I was in Bali, Indonesia a couple of years ago, there were a few shops at the airport which sold DVDs for around $1. Granted, not a department store, but a place frequented by thousands of tourists every day.

Any university that installs that has a problem.

[Chrisq]

Any university that installs that has a problem. University networks are constantly "played with" by students, so the IT department has to be on the ball. Any dumb enough to install this probably have had many student hacks already...

Xubuntu

[pipatron]

Nice. For those of you that didn't read TFA, the toolkit is basically Xubuntu, with some tools like Snort preinstalled.

Re:Xubuntu

[Hanners1979]

An MPAA tool that runs on Linux... I can see a few Slashdot heads exploding from that conflict this very minute.

Re:Xubuntu

[msuarezalvarez]

I hope they are making the sources available, so as to comply with the license of the software they are distributing...

Re:Xubuntu

[plover]

Hmm. All of the MPAA tools I can think of ran on liquor and steak (Jack Valenti)

Re:Xubuntu

[PatPending]

Here's the link: http://universitytoolkit.com/ Note that it's in beta. Hell, they can't even get the name of the "MPAA" correct--the website uses "MPA" (sic).

Re:Xubuntu

[Hanners1979]

When the RIAA were asked if they'd be providing their own tool to deal with college kids, they responded by stating that Gene Simmons would be available for interviews shortly.

Re:Xubuntu

[someone300]

http://universitytoolkit.com/

They don't appear to have a link to the source. Quick! Someone send them a DMCA takedown! ;)

Re:Xubuntu

[HangingChad]

The MPAA running open source tools to spy on university networks pegs my irony meter.

What a fun time hackers would have borking this tool kit. It's a treasure trove of information.

I wonder if the buggy whip manufacturers were this retarded trying to undermine the horseless carriage?

Re:Xubuntu

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone have a torrent file for these iso's?

Re:Xubuntu

[Jehosephat2k]

Wow, I'm downloading it now. Can't wait to play with it on my LAN! I can use it to spiez on people at my workz!

Never examined?

[IBBoard]

Hang on, that's an interesting quote:

...the content of traffic is never examined or displayed...

Given that the aim of the toolkit is supposedly to

...help identify students who were downloading/sharing movie files...

then how do they manage it without examining traffic? If the toolkit monitors BitTorrent (and other) ports then that would tell you who is using P2P, but not who is sharing movies. Maybe all that traffic is from students internally torrenting various Linux distros or their garage bands' MP3s.

Thank goodness I never lived in University halls.

Re:Never examined?

[pipatron]

then how do they manage it without examining traffic?

Easy, they do what they do best. Lie.

Re:Never examined?

[c]

> Given that the aim of the toolkit is supposedly to
> > ...help identify students who were downloading/sharing movie files...
> then how do they manage it without examining traffic?

We're talking about the wonderful corporations who brought us fine tech documentaries such as "War Games", "Hackers", "The Net" and "Jurassic Park". I'm sure their expert technical advisors are simply unable to effectively communicate the details to mere normals such as ourselves.

c.

Re:Never examined?

[Ano Nimus]

I presume that this is a scare tactic, if nothing else. Realistically, no one can expect a university to install said *toolkit*. Tapping the internet connection is a scary concept anywhere else, but in a place with hundreds of CS students all with some/a good bit of tech-savvy...well that would be terrifying. The IT techs already have their arms full with all the network problems they can handle, and bolting on an Orwellian toolkit would send them out the door so fast, I can't even come up with a good-car/bad-car analogy for that one. I believe that the said-techs would be sufficiently worried enough to crack down even more on the internal P2P network, so that they don't have to install said piece of malware. That said....I find it very ironic that something we fight against is powered by something we support. (toolkit is run off Xubuntu)

Re:Never examined?

[Frostalicious]

...the content of traffic is never examined or displayed...

then how do they manage it without examining traffic?

The secret is in this function patented by the MPAA:

private bool isInfringing(IP IPAddress)
{
return true;
}

Media failure

[gruntled]

It just amazes me that no other large news organization has a reporter devoted to covering this stuff full time, as Krebs does. Hell, Krebs isn't even part of the paper; he's attached to the Web site. I guess that says it all. Keep up the great work Brian.

Re:Media failure

[sortia]

Most large news organisations have a parent company that are either movie studios, or have large share holders that represent the interests of movie studios!

Re:Media failure

[gruntled]

I can only think of a single large news organization whose parent company is a movie studio. Which ones are you thinking of?

Washington Post? No
New York Times? No
Los Angeles Times? No
Wall Street Journal? Not until it was just bought by Murdoch..

CBS? No
NBC? No
ABC? Disney
CNN? No

Which ones are you thinking of? The shareholder thing, well, maybe, but what evidence is there that this is true?

In fairness, I spent much of life as a journalist, and I did once encounter, late in my career, internal corporate objections to my position on intellectual property (for the record, I'm for it, so long as Fair Use remains available; my masters disagreed with the Fair Use obligation...).

Re:Media failure

[sortia]

CNN is owned by Time Warner, to me that counts as a media studio or an affiliate of! NBC as in NBC Universal, Vivendi Universal being a film company? FOX and every organisation that Rupert Murdoch/News Corp owns or is a large share holder of and thats quite a few in Europe, Sky, ITV, The Sun, The Times To name just a few...

Re:Media failure

[gruntled]

Yeah, I think of NBC as being owned by General Electric, but I think your point is well taken. Likewise Fox, a Murdoch company (although i don't even think of them as a news source). CNN and Time Warner, well, in my experience CNN operates as its own little fiefdom, but again, I see your point. But none of this explains only the Post among large papers covers computer security issues with any regularity.

Data Storage

[AtomicSnarl]

I wonder how much of the data collected will be burnt to disks and sent to Britain.

Give kids a break

[jihadist]

They're about to become corporate serfs. Give them a four year break from corporate dominance, so they have that much more psychological trauma when they exit school, which will make them the perfect mentally broken spiritual voids who need to buy our products.

Thanks,
The NWO

Re:Give kids a break

[garcia]

They're about to become corporate serfs. Give them a four year break from corporate dominance, so they have that much more psychological trauma when they exit school, which will make them the perfect mentally broken spiritual voids who need to buy our products.

While my mind was "corrupt" regarding corporate control, copyrights and IP infringement long before entering college, the vast majority of those in college learn about it as soon as they step foot into their dorm room and their geek roommate/hallmate/etc shows them BitTorrent.

I can see why the MPAA wants to stop it there as college is a breeding ground for thoughts of freedom from copyright and that scares the living fucking shit out of them. Once they leave college, with the knowledge they've learned "on the inside" they are less likely to pay for movies, music and other IP when they leave.

I say end the monopolies, produce shit worth paying for that don't costs millions to produce to cover the lack of good writing and get over yourselves.

we want to identify what?

[3seas]

This toolkit in comparison to instead installing a filter system that the MPAA (slashdot lame filter see this as junk characters) would then maintain a database off site from the university ...

But students would find ways around the filter?

vs.

Their toolkit wrongly identifies students as illegal down loaders who actually aren't.

In other words, how is the toolkit going to verify an illegal download or is it just passing all traffic to the Motion Picture spys?

Somehow this sounds more Hitleronian tell on you family, then its supports education.

Just because the entertainment industry has found interest in attacking its customers, should the universities follow suit?

Re:we want to identify what?

[shark72]

"Their toolkit wrongly identifies students as illegal down loaders who actually aren't. In other words, how is the toolkit going to verify an illegal download or is it just passing all traffic to the Motion Picture spys? Somehow this sounds more Hitleronian tell on you family, then its supports education. Just because the entertainment industry has found interest in attacking its customers, should the universities follow suit?"

It's a tool, not a judge. Its intended user is the university IT guy; it shows him how much BitTorrent traffic is going on but doesn't identify which files are being traded or make an attempt to assess legality. The kit phones home when it's installed but, according to the writeup, does not send the actual monitoring data to the MPAA. The article's contention is that as this data is presented via an Apache server, if the IT guy's box just happens to be outside the firewall, then third parties could visit that web server and see how much BT traffic is going on at the school.

You are correct that the university IT guy could run the server outside the firewall, and could make the assumption that all BitTorrent traffic is of infringing content, and I suppose said IT guy could pass this info along to the MPAA. But is this likely? I think you're slippery-sloping here a bit too much.

Sure, this will work....

[Bullfish]

All this will be is another challenge for people to find work-arounds. Has any of this stuff actually ever worked? Has any attempt to stifle people downloading ever resulted in anything other than increased downloading? How many times has the RIAA for example, declared victory and "great strides"? Funny that a week or so after a record executive says the RIAA going after consumers was a mistake, the MPAA shows up to take up the gauntlet. And again, down the RIAA path of going after college students. We'll see how that works out for them.

It's elementary, dear Watson...

[talon_262]

it's all about control and flexing their legal muscles to intimidate the rest of the public into towing the line. The MPAA is using this to gather more ammo in order to sue the people who are old enough to know what P2P is, who tend to use P2P apps to get music/movies/etc. on a regular basis, and who tend to have limited resources to fight back in court.

Anyone want to make a bet....

[8127972]

.... That schools that do not install this "tool" will get the lion's share of RIAA lawsuits?

I want to thank...

[LingNoi]

... the hacker team MPAA for this great social engineering attack.

Everyone please remember to distribute those IP addresses of the kit downloaders so we can hit these colleges HARD!

Here's an idea...

[Spy der Mann]

install an anti-MAFIAA toolkit!

1) Install a firewall that sniffs traffic
2) See if it's not bittorrent or bittorrent sites
3) if it is, BLOCK IT
4) Put the MPAA toolkit in a machine behind the firewall! Ta-da! :D

Re:Any university that installs that has a problem

[Pazy]

Thats true, I Spent the majority of my first week at college figuring out how the firewall worked and bypassing to so me and the other guys in my class can play Quake 3 and stuff :D
Then I reconfigured the network boot process to not load up the (local) firewall so we can download new games to play, it also booted up a hell of a sight faster. I told the IT guys id messed with it, left it to them to fix it :P Lots of fun.

Don't worry about the kids...

[BPPG]

College kids may be portrayed as dorky and drunken, but they're smart. And chances are CS students will find a way around this.

Re:Don't worry about the kids...

[scubanator87]

MITM attack would probbably prove effective that or a few students DDOS the server whenever they please. Wireshark, nmap, hping, scappy, Nessus and ettercap are all great tools.

Open letter to the MAFIAA

[Spy der Mann]

Dear MPAA and RIAA:

You've noticed that the number of students who think downloading movies and music via the internet is OK. Well, here's some news for you:

Vox populi, vox Dei.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[Anonymous Coward]

'Vox populi, vox Dei.'
I hope this applies to paying taxes too.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[nuggetman]

Vox populi, vox Dei.

Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[Daimanta]

leges sine moribus vanae

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[Spy der Mann]

I hope this applies to paying taxes too.

Good point. Perhaps i should clarify. MAFIAA prices are insanely high. You don't expect consumers to just sit there and buy obediently, right?

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[base3]

Nice.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[fredklein]

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

Utinam coniurati te in foro interficiant.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[base3]

It means exactly what he thinks it means. The maxim was spoken first well before Charlemagne's advisor referred to it.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[gooser23]

Romanes eunt domus

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[Ambvai]

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[Fuzzums]

Marcus et Cornelia in horto ambulant. Cornelia subito serpentem videt et clamat: "Marce! Marce!" Marcus rogat: "Quid est, Cornelia? Cur clamas?" Puella clamat: "Serpentem video!" Marcus rogat: "Ubi serpentem vides?" Cornelia serpentem indicat. Tum puer et puella clamant: "Pater! Pater! Serpentem in horto videmus!" Pater Marcum et Corneliam audit et cito in hortum venit. Rogat: "Ubi serpentem videtis, Marce et Cornelia?" Sed puer et puella serpentem non iam vident; serpens iam procul est.

(Redde Rationem)

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[meringuoid]

Please tell me you had the book right there... you didn't actually remember the whole text?

(I vaguely remember an episode where Gaius Cornelius's brother came around for a party and got pissed...)

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[Fuzzums]

Actually i cheated. But this was the very first lesson in Latin at my school and everybody who used our book will remember at least a part of this lesson :)

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[quanticle]

I hope this applies to paying taxes too.

Indeed it does. Here in Minnesota, the public has abandoned its normally understanding view of taxes, and has voted in politicians that promise to cut taxes, even those tax cuts cause future harm (e.g. I35 bridge collapse). Fortunately, this is starting to change, as people are seeing that they are not benefiting over the long term from low tax rates, and that the costs, in terms of degrading infrastructure and decaying public services are outweighing the small benefit the average citizen gains from a low tax rate.

Re:Open letter to the MAFIAA

[TheMidnight]

"I didn't know Gloria was sick."

It sounds like...

[niceone]

The MPAA got the same people to write this "tool" as they get to write those super-realistic computer scenes in the movies!

mpaa urges students to install mpaaBuddy, too

[transporter_ii]

mpaaBuddy is an on-screen "intelligent software agent" created by the MPAA, and based upon Microsoft Agent technology. The goal of the program is to help users enrich their online movie experience as they discover digital movies together with the included "mpaaBuddy," which is an animated, purple Tom Cruise. Users can interact with Tom by asking him questions, get recommendations on new movies released by MPAA members, as well as be politely informed when unapproved websites are loaded.

Other features include, an integrated download tracker, movie-related themes, desktops, screen savers, and cute, animated emoticons, bearing a resemblance to top-selling actors. Also included is a desktop search utility that indexes a hard drive's contents in order to allow the user to easily perform searches.

While initial response to the program has been positive, a few early users complain that the program is buggy. "The program keeps changing my home page to a crappy MPAA home page," said one teenager who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of a MPAA-sponsored lawsuit. There have also been complaints of an increase in pop-up advertising.

Re:mpaa urges students to install mpaaBuddy, too

[Nom du Keyboard]

Users can interact with Tom by asking him questions, get recommendations on new movies released by MPAA members, as well as be politely informed when unapproved websites are loaded.

One problem is that Tom only recommends his own movies.

Another is he keeps yakking about how getting Audited will solve all your problems, and get you a Real Doll Katie Holmes Bot of your very own.

Harvard

[gilesjuk]

This is why they don't sue anyone at Harvard, they know in the long run that would create lawyers who dislike them.

and worse than that, think it's OK

[oliverthered]

but it is ok comrade.

Wonder if they would bond univ from lawsuits

[Jeff1946]

If university said ok, but MPAA must bond them against financial losses from lawsuits etc, would MPAA do it?

Will they abide by GPL?

[Tatisimo]

Will they distribute the source code with it? Will they allow people to freely copy and modify that toolkit? I say, download it, get the tech department to modify it to their liking, and install it! That's what the open source spirit is all about, fixing broken software. I suggest they get fixing that privacy issue first...

Re:Will they abide by GPL?

[happyslayer]

LOL...I can see it now. The next court case will be Stallman, FSF, EFF, and a million GPL-code authors suing the MAFIAA for copyright violations because they haven't released the source code. And, all the arguments that the MAFIAA have made in court previously will be dropping on them like a ton of AOL cd mailers. BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!

To the language nazis out there: if the MAFIAA gets hoisted on their own copyright petard, is that irony?

Here's some information about the software.

[Gossi]

The software is available to download here: UniversityToolkit.com in ISO format. The software 'pings' this server on boot for this file. If you want to crack a load of university networks, just crack that server and you're away (it's a flat Redhat Enterprise Server boxen).

Also, the software developer is breaking the law. They haven't shipped the modified code they've made (eg ntop).

Re:Here's some information about the software.

[samwichse]

Why crack the box when you could just poison the DNS.

I'm sure it's not going to be looking for the IP.

Sam

Re:Here's some information about the software.

[Epsillon]

What is ironic here is just which law they're breaking: They're committing copyright infringement (distributing GPL software without source which, in turn, means they have no right or licence to distribute, making that action a breach of copyright) to tackle copyright infringement.

Of course, it's alright for them to rip off "some damn pinko commie's" code to save themselves from the spectre of "new media," free thinkers and falling revenue, isn't it? After all, given the content they produce is such good quality, one can hardly expect them to create a new, fairer, sustainable business model. It's easier to simply blame piracy for their dwindling customer base and invent some method of proving it like suing college kids, already in debt for a substantial portion of their lives for getting an education in the first place. We owe these people their revenue, dammit, and the college kids and the GPL are just acceptable collateral damage.

Think twice before you download that KDE-Four-Live image over BitTorrent, undergrads. With no "content of traffic examined" you'll probably end up regretting it.

Does this tool put a lot of load on the network?

[Joe The Dragon]

Does this tool put a lot of load on the network like what port scan and other Brute force hacking tools do?

Does it try to suck up network bandwidth?

Naive much?

[SmallFurryCreature]

You wonder why no large media companies (fixed it for you) have a report devoted to this, or even report on it much or do anything but rehash the RIAA/MPAA press statements and never ever examine it.

Follow the money. You might as well ask, why do popular entertainment shows like Futurama show a dislike for things like napster and filesharing in general? Because they are the ones whose files are being shared!

Geez, name a news company that isn't part of some huge media giant. You might start to realize that those who should report on the RIAA/MPAA are in fact its members. Geez, you might as well expect Dell to launch a survey, computers, do we really need them.

What next, do you expect the tabaco industry to report on the dangers of smoking?

Follow the money, who is the person you expect to report on something paid for. There was an issue a few years ago around Oprah when she said something bad about meat. That was just the advertisers complaining. Reporting on the RIAA/MPAA tactics, that will get you a letter direct from the head office "STOP IT".

What next, Ruport Murdoch writing a story "Why it is a bad idea for one guy to own a lot of media"?

Re:Naive much?

[gruntled]

Certainly possible. However, as a guy who spent over two decades producing content for media companies (although back in my day we used to call it writing for the newspaper) I never, ever had anybody stop me from writing something. Heck, I rarely had anybody telling me what to cover, since as the designated expert, I was the guy telling my bosses what was important. But do go on...

Re:Naive much?

[king-manic]

Certainly possible. However, as a guy who spent over two decades producing content for media companies (although back in my day we used to call it writing for the newspaper) I never, ever had anybody stop me from writing something. Heck, I rarely had anybody telling me what to cover, since as the designated expert, I was the guy telling my bosses what was important. But do go on... The problem isn't so much blatant censorship int hat fashion it's more like this: Neo-con journalists tend to write Neo-con articles. Neo-Con editors tend to hire Neo-con journalists. Neo-con paper owners tend to hire Neo-Con editors. Thus The guy at the top influences the content being output through editorial/selective means. A story of "Man dies after police taser him" can be spun as "Belligerent suspect dies after struggle with police" or "Unarmed immigrant murdered by police."

This tyep of spin is true for Marxists, Conservatives, Liberals, Moderates etc...

It's not a huge problem if there is a diversity of media but major media is held by very few parties.

Re:Naive much?

[gruntled]

I think your analysis certainly identifies a factor, but I would suggest that the larger problem is this: media organizations are run by middle aged (or even old) white guys. They use a computer for email and Google; that's it. Online banking? Are you crazy?

Media coverage (outside the local level, where it's mired in "if if bleeds it leads") generally fits into the following cubbyholes: National (political) news, local (political) news, sports, and business. "Features" is everything from restaurant reviews to comics. Where exactly does coverage of computer security fit?

Re:Naive much?

[king-manic]

I think your analysis certainly identifies a factor, but I would suggest that the larger problem is this: media organizations are run by middle aged (or even old) white guys. They use a computer for email and Google; that's it. Online banking? Are you crazy?

Media coverage (outside the local level, where it's mired in "if if bleeds it leads") generally fits into the following cubbyholes: National (political) news, local (political) news, sports, and business. "Features" is everything from restaurant reviews to comics. Where exactly does coverage of computer security fit? I certainly agree that the "journalist" demographic doesn't frequently overlap the "tech guru" demographic and the lack of overlap likely leads to poor or infrequent reporting on that topic.

Let's sue 'em!

[The Breeze]

Anyone want to download the kit at universitytoolkit.com and make sure all the source is being distributed as well? If they are not making the source available for their little Linux distribution someone should get the GNU to sic their lawyers on them.

Question...

[AlXtreme]

Does anyone have a .torrent for the iso?

Trademark and GPL issues?

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone pointed out upthread, the kit is simply Xbuntu with a some network tools pre-installed like Snort and ntop. This leads to a few questions:

1. Since the kit is a derivative of the default Xbuntu install, is the MPAA still allowed to ship the kit with Canonical's trademark (Xbuntu) prominently displayed as boot splash?

2. Since the MPAA is distributing GPL'd software aren't they obligated to provide source code for the kit upon request?

3. Is there any MPAA written programs included in the kit? Is it based on GPL software and thus required under the licensing terms to have its source code available upon request?

4. IIRC, Canonical products ship with some proprietary drivers. Since the MPAA kit is a derivative of Xbuntu, does it have permission to distribute the same drivers, or did Canonical get special permission which the MPAA does not have?

5. If the MPAA does not supply any source code that the may be legally obligated to do under GPLv2 license, then can individual copyright holders of the multitude of programs included with Xbuntu, give notice that they are revoking the MPAA's right to distribute their software under the provision of Section 4? Section 4 states:

4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

Note that Fyodor terminated SCO's right to distribute Nmap in any of their products under that section, which SCO complied with.

Re:Trademark and GPL issues?

[mungewell]

The following prominent page sums up the situatuion:
http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/trademarkpolicy

In particular:
---
Therefore, if you are creating a derivative of Ubuntu, you may use the Trademarks in association with the software product provided:

        * the changes are minimal and unsubstantial, as described above
        * there is no commercial intent associated with the new product
---

I guess we should encourage Mark to have a few words with them.
Mungewell.

Re:Trademark and GPL issues?

[mungewell]

2. Since the MPAA is distributing GPL'd software aren't they obligated to provide source code for the kit upon request? The are only obligated to provide source (or patches) to any GPL (and possible other licensed) code which they have modified. They are entitled to have included their own propriatory code in this distribution, they should clarify the licensing restrictions of their own code.

From the 'user guide' it appears that they have coded in Python. Original scripts may be available in the disk '.iso'

Mungewell

Disclosure

[fishbowl]

When some research organization loses a federal grant because their institution forced them to violate disclosure rules, the door will open for a much more powerful voice than the MPAA to enter the debate.

Even If

[Nom du Keyboard]

Even if there is a firewall at the perimeter of the school network, all of the students are inside of it!

1984! 1984!

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop oppressing me with words you commie nazi fascist!

Hitting the Wrong Targets - as Usual

[Nom du Keyboard]

the content of traffic is never examined or displayed

This looks certain to hit the wrong targets, as is wont for the RIAA. All this would identify (if the truth is being told here) are heavy Internet users. That's even worse than their current method of sending questionable IP addresses and times. College should be teaching how the Internet will be a valuable part of your whole life because you can speak to to the entire World through it, but now it would seem you'll be in danger if you ever use it much at all.

Re:leet

[Tuoqui]

You know what they say... If it looks like a rootkit and smells like a rootkit, it's a rootkit.

Re:leet

[Rukie]

This is ridiculous. I went to universitytookit.com and there's an iso there, but is this a toolkit that is windows only? If universities required this would students not be allowed to use *nix derivatives? If so I think that could be a monopolization situation... But thats just a small arguement vs the invasion of privacy. Socialism at its best right? Oh wait, this is communism! I can't seem to find the list of universities either..

Hidden Content

[KingEomer]

http://universitytoolkit.com/ (mentioned in the pdf) seems to have some hidden content. The page displays a link to: http://universitytoolkit.com/MPAA_University_Toolkit_Admin_Guide.pdf. If you look at the source, you can notice a link at the bottom which isn't displayed: MPAA_University_Toolkit_Administrators_Guide.pdf (it's a relative link in the source).

This version is slightly longer, with what looks like a section detailing development goals. Can anyone see anything incriminating there?

Re:Firewall

[ThinkingInBinary]

Most of academia (at least MIT and CMU, where I've been as an intern and a student, respectively) seems to hand out public IP's with almost everything open to the world. The only thing that's not open is usually Windows networking ports, because of the major problems it would cause if anyone had open shares. But port 80 is definitely accessible from anywhere.

The hypocrites!

[maciarc]

They are distributing software designed to gather evidence of copyright infringement in violation of copyright! The verve! The audacity! We know they know about copyrights. We know they know the penalties.
I hope every contributor to the GPL'd software that they are distributing without a valid license sues them for the maximum legal statutory amount of $150,000 for each of these willful violations. Since the Linux core contains at least 6,000+ files, which would be 6,000+ violations for one copy, I'm sure being hit with a possible judgment of $900,000,000+ per copy would wake them up.

P.S. I downloaded the .iso. Add one to the number of copies.

How would this work?

[el_chupanegre]

I've read the article but it's a little thin on details. All I can see is that it has something to do with Xubuntu and installs an Apache webserver on your machine

However, if it installs Apache, what's to stop me just trashing the config file, setting up VirtualHosts that screw with it etc? Or creating some kind of loopback so that when it tries to phone home, it goes nowhere etc etc. Are these things taken into account?

Nice Tool

[nurb432]

Too bad its tied back to the industry, as a free and easy to setup network monitoring tool like that would be nice.

Got mine, get yours...

[Roskolnikov]

I just went out to http://universitytoolkit.com/ and grabbed my own copy for evaluation purposes...... looking forward to playing with this 'toolkit'

Re:Got mine, get yours...

[N7DR]

And I trust that you have also asked them for a complete copy of the source, since they are required to make it available. They even tout the fact that it's "Open Source", apparently without a clue as to the obligations this puts them under. We should all enlighten them.

Re:Got mine, get yours...

[Roskolnikov]

as a matter of fact, not yet, I will install it, checksum the executables against their respective versions and anything that shows as 'different' will get a request, makes it easier to be specific and highlights
anything unusual.

paranoia can be a healthy state of mind at times.

I used to buy music online...

[eiapoce]

I used to buy music online...DRM Free and legally. But the RIAA lobbyed the US President to make him ask the Russian President to close allofmp3 or else... I suppose Putin was kinda of relief. Can you imagine? He's planning to rebuild and strengthen all the nuclear arsenal and Bush instead of questioning on that matter goes on and ask to close a small internet store! FUNNY to the brim of ridicolous!

Since then I stopped buying Mp3s legally online, note that they were on piracy before and after the above mentioned events. And of course later on the charges against allofmp3 were dropped because they were inconsistent http://www.allofmp3.ru/press.shtml

The RIAA has closed a market opportunity with lobbying (at least one lost a consumer) Those in charge there are really IDIOTS. They just are donkey heads that can't do the math.

Here is the math:
I spend 15$ online get 8 albums = 50% profits estimated (And I suppose they go to Russia, anyway RIAA is known not to be fairer to the artists, see the article below)
I spend 0$ anywhere because of high prices = profits?

Here is the math of Courtney Love online since 2000: http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/06/14/love/index.html

Have a good read

Direct Link

[urcreepyneighbor]

http://www.universitytoolkit.org/peerwatch-1.2-RC5.iso

dun-dun-dun... If you dare! ;)

Don't whitewash allofmp3...

[argent]

We all understand the legal jujitsu that allofmp3 used to find a loophole in the law. The fact that soemthing is legal doesn't make it ethical. It's no more ethical for allofmp3 to bypass copyright law than for the RIAA to abuse it. If you want to be consistent, you should approve of both or neither.

Re:Don't whitewash allofmp3...

[eiapoce]

I loved allofmp3 :) It's not whitewashing! It was one of the few online shops with reasonably priced DRM free music! That not only convinced me but I am sure several others dropped P2P during the period.

Also if you break down the PRICE of a DRM-Free Itunes download and compare it to a former allofmp3 download you see a 1400% difference (1,70 to 0,12) how can Apple justify the difference? (Please do not pretend the difference really goes to the artist!!! We know it doesn't http://downhillbattle.org/itunes/ ).

Then you can argue that the extra money is needed by the majors to produce actual commercial music. So go on and digest one of Madonna CDs or Britey Hits... and compare against the perfectly free music composed without a major that is awayable here legally: http://www.jamendo.com/en/

So summing up: The price of allofmp3 was fair to me and is possibly enought to compensate the artists. The majors are unneeded because good music comes out of itself and jamendo is the proof.

I see no actual problem in backing up all of mp3: I see problems not for backing it up! The allerged economists at the WTO should think about enforcing free trade instead of blocking exports from Russian Websites. Several "institutions" as the DVD REGIONAL CSS are obviuosly devised to erode consumer suplus and stop trade, those should not be tolerated by the WTO but indeed they get enforced by the very same organization. By IP right enforcement the south of the world is incapacitated to produce cheap drugs for the population and the result is death.

So open your eyes, realize that copyright legislation is extremely bad, it is rotten to the bone by the lobbying of several pigopolist american corporations. Allofmp3 is just a indicator of the bad things to come and standing for it means standing for the rights of humanity against corporativity.

Enrico

Re:Don't whitewash allofmp3...

[skeeto]

The fact that soemthing [sic] is legal doesn't make it ethical.

The fact that something is illegal doesn't make it unethical. I don't believe copyright infringement is unethical. Sharing with your neighbor is not unethical.

Re:Don't whitewash allofmp3...

[argent]

The price of allofmp3 was fair to me and is possibly enought to compensate the artists.

Whether it's enough or not is not your decision nor AllOfMP3's decision to make. It's the artists and their representatives.

The question of whether the major label system is adequate representation or not is a separate issue, and it's down to the artists to decide to sign or not.

If you want to encourage artists to bypass the majors then you should support distributors and labels that give the artists a better deal.

But going with a service that doesn't, in practice, compensate the artists at all (and the fact is that they don't, outside Russia) is not doing anything to support the artists nor independent labels and distributors who are more artist-friendly.

As for the WTO, it's the WTO that make the legal loophole that AllOfMP3 uses to sell outside Russia possible. Yeh, the WTO's been caught with their pants down, they accidentally globalized music more than they planned on, but that doesn't justify AllOfMP3 selling outside Russia either, nor does it justify supporting them.

The bottom line is, as far as artists outside Russia are concerned, the only difference to them between AllOfMP3 and Kazaa is academic. They don't get anything from it. It's MORE honest and ethical of you if you rip them off directly using one of the peer-to-peer networks than paying the Russian Mafia to do it for you.

Re:Firewall

[TerranFury]

Most of academia [...] seems to hand out public IP's with almost everything open to the world

The same goes for the schools (one Ivy, one big Tech) I've attended. And I wouldn't have it any other way! The Ivy was especially nice; I loved the fact that, anywhere in the world, I could ping "machine.residentialnetwork.schoolname.edu." Knowing I could ssh into my box from anywhere was really great, as was knowing that I could run an ftp server whenever I wanted to share some large files. Really, it's how the Internet (e.g., pre-NAT) was supposed to work.

Re:leet

[EddyPearson]

I think you may have got this completely wrong.

University Toolkit is server software, presumably to be run between the LAN and the WAN to log and analyse packets, much like a firewall. It wouldn't need to be installed on the client machines.

Want us to stop copying?

[Splab]

How about releasing the movies in a timely manner on a product we want to buy?

Surfs up hit torrent sites at least a month ago, just about to appear in Danish cinemas, that means at least another 4-5 months before we can buy it on DVD.

Yeah they want to get as much money from us as they can by forcing us to go to the cinemas, I did just that tonight to watch beowulf - my first trip to a cinema for 3-4 months and I got reminded why I hate it there - the stink of popcorn, the constant yabbering and 25 minuttes of commercials before a movie I have paid premium to watch!

Want us to buy your product? Sell one we want to buy!
(P.s. I don't copy music, I don't copy movies - I do however read books and buy music from indie records (see other thread from yesterday) - I will buy movies when they sell a product that gives me value for my money).

Taosecurity Analysis

[blast3r]

Some interesting facts.

http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2007/11/examining-mpaa-university-toolkit.html

They are using an old version of snort that has vulnerabilities. I didn't realize the version of snort they are running is from over two years ago!

I sure hope this version they are running isn't vulnerable to this. http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/175500 If so, someone could totally own the box and sniff whatever traffic they want to. All of it including the content.

How could this NOT present privacy issues?

[nog_lorp]

How could anyone believe for a second this wouldn't be a privacy issue? How the fuck do they intend to discover and then report information that would identify someone sharing files illegally WITHOUT violating those people's privacy?

Re:leet

[Nullav]

But then, how many switches/routers do you see running Windows? For that matter, how many universities do you think will be happy to buy more hardware to appease their corporate overlords?

RE: Your letter regarding digital piracy

[Intrinsic]

Dear Stewart D. Mclaurin,
What our students do on the campus network is really none of your fucking business. Comparing physical theft to COPY RIGHT INFRINGEMENT is utter nonsense and holds no basis in reality. I find it amusing that you are trying to impose your limited view on us. I pity anyone who fights the tide of a new understanding. An understanding that if you do provide what people want the way they want it at a low cost with minimal hassle you will find yourself out of a job as others that are not limited by your constraints will take over for you. The very reason this situation has reached the point of insanity is because your belief system is drenched in a deep sense of greed. Your organization and affiliates have lost all touch with the very people you are trying to serve.

Your actions show that you are unable to understand and accept a long standing unexpected shift in the ideas and values of our society. Its time to either alter your perception of the situation or pass the decision making on to the next generation.

Sincerely yours, Presidents from all collages and universities across the country.

RIPA

[tengwar]

Interestingly, this would probably be illegal in the UK under Part II of the "big brother" RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act). Usually we hear about it as an egregious violation of privacy, but on the one occasion I've had to deal with it, I was able to tell a US business partner that there was no way I was going to add in a monitor that they wanted, and give them chapter and verse.

Re:RIPA

[Vinny77]

Why not just get your stuff via news with ssl, problem solved.