Recording companies fighting software with software in anti-piracy war
Sun May 4, 1:05 AM ET Add Technology - AFP to My Yahoo!



NEW YORK (AFP) - Major recording companies which have thus far battled online piracy with lawsuits are now turning to technology in a ratcheting-up of their fight to protect copyrighted music, a report here said.
The companies are financing development and testing of software that would sabotage the computers and internet connections of people illegally downloading copyrighted music, the New York Times reported Sunday.


Some of the tactics being developed by a handful of technology firms for unnamed clients may not even be legal, the report said.


Source: Yahoo News For more info :http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...internet_music

how? even if an mp3, ogg, wma, mpg, avi, or any other media file, has executable code embedded in it, the only way it would ever get executed on a computer is if the player has a flaw in it, and that would have to be patched by microsoft, winamp, etc. because it would be one more way for virus writers to spread viruses

the only way would be to do what virus writers normally do on kazaa or any other file sharing program, double the extension, ie, .mp3.vbs, .mp3.exe, etc. , and then they would have to hope that they get antivirus companies corroperation, because anything that locks your computer like that, trojans it, deletes files, etc. is a virus, no matter who makes it

what's to say that if you have personal mp3's of your own work that you made digitally that their software wouldn't tag it as pirated and delete it? i can see a thousand lawsuits now from musicians over stuff like that

I believe that this was a bill that was already introduced and voted down. This is never gonna happen because it's no better than hacking which is obviously illegal. The courts will never let the RIAA turn to vigilanteism.

Firstly, it is technically impossible for them to get you infected by an application through a p2p app if you download an MP3 file. Unless you are a newb who will download "Eminem Best Song.RIAAFix.REAL!.mp3.EXE.VBS" I dont think you have much to worry about. I guess the worst case would be if they put an autorun EXE on every music CD they release, but itll never happen. Firstly its blatently illegal, and theres no way for them to ever be able to distingush between MP3s of songs you have bought, and songs you dont own. I see nice class lawsuits if they ever attempt to delete a file of another persons PC. Itll never happen.

I dont believe for a second they plan to unleash a virus on the world, however their warefare is psychological. They conveniently leak information on how file sharers will have their PCs disabled etc. Whilst the tech-savvy will laugh at it - I cant see them rooting my PC if they cant even keep their own website w/o being hacked for 20 mins, but the average John Doe wont see this. The more rumours the RIAA spreads, the more people will be discouraged from sharing.