MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-05-03 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Re: [fairuse] NY Times Suprise
|
Hmm
I wonder if this guy is related to TW lawyer Barry Sorkin
On 2003.05.03 16:54 Ruben I Safir wrote:
>
> May 4, 2003
> Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy
> By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
>
> Some of the world's biggest record companies, facing rampant online
> piracy, are quietly financing the development and testing of software
> programs that would sabotage the computers and Internet connections of
> people that download pirated music, according to industry executives.
>
> The record companies are exploring options on new countermeasures, which
> some experts say have varying degrees of legality, to deter online
> theft: from attacking personal Internet connections so as to slow or
> halt downloads of pirated music to overwhelming the distribution
> networks with potentially malicious programs that masquerade as music
> files.
>
> The covert campaign, parts of which may never be carried out because
> they could be illegal under state and federal wiretap laws, is being
> developed and tested by a cadre of small technology companies, the
> executives said.
>
> If employed, the new tactics would be the most aggressive effort yet
> taken by the recording industry to thwart music piracy, a problem that
> the IFPI, an industry group, estimates costs the industry $4.3 billion
> in sales worldwide annually. Until now, most of the industry's
> anti-piracy efforts have involved filing lawsuits against companies and
> individuals that distribute pirated music. Last week, four college
> students who had been sued by the industry settled the suits by agreeing
> to stop operating networks that swap music and pay $12,000 to $17,500
> each.
>
> The industry has also tried to frustrate pirates technologically by
> spreading copies of fake music files across file-sharing networks like
> KaZaA and Morpheus. This approach, called "spoofing," is considered
> legal but has had only mild success, analysts say, proving to be more of
> a nuisance than an effective deterrent.
>
> The new measures under development take a more extreme ? and
> antagonistic ? approach, according to executives who have been briefed
> on the software programs.
>
> Interest among record executives in using some of these more aggressive
> programs has been piqued since a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled last
> month that StreamCast Networks, the company that offers Morpheus, and
> Grokster, another file-sharing service, were not guilty of copyright
> infringement. And last week, the record industry turned a "chat" feature
> in popular file-trading software programs to its benefit by sending out
> millions of messages telling people: "When you break the law, you risk
> legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL
> MUSIC."
>
> The deployment of this message through the file-sharing network, which
> the Recording Industry Association of America said is an education
> effort, appears to be legal. But other anti-piracy programs raise legal
> issues.
>
> Since the law and the technology itself are new, the liabilities ?
> criminal and civil ? are not easily defined. But some tactics are
> clearly more problematic than others.
>
> Among the more benign approaches being developed is one program,
> considered a Trojan horse rather than a virus, that simply redirects
> users to Web sites where they can legitimately buy the song they tried
> to download.
>
> A more malicious program, dubbed "freeze," locks up a computer system
> for a certain duration ? minutes or possibly even hours ? risking the
> loss of data that was unsaved if the computer is restarted. It also
> displays a warning about downloading pirated music. Another program
> under development, called "silence," scans a computer's hard drive for
> pirated music files and attempts to delete them. One of the executives
> briefed on the silence program said that it did not work properly and
> was being reworked because it was deleting legitimate music files, too.
>
> Other approaches that are being tested include launching an attack on
> personal Internet connections, often called "interdiction," to prevent a
> person from using a network while attempting to download pirated music
> or offer it to others.
>
> "There are a lot of things you can do ? some quite nasty," said Marc
> Morgenstern, the chief executive of Overpeer, a technology business that
> receives support from several large media companies. Mr. Morgenstern
> refused to identify his clients, citing confidentiality agreements with
> them. He also said that his company does not and will not deploy any
> programs that run afoul of the law. "Our philosophy is to make
> downloading pirated music a difficult and frustrating experience without
> crossing the line." And while he said "we develop stuff all the time,"
> he was also quick to add that "at the end of the day, my clients are
> trying to develop relationships with these people." Overpeer, with 15
> staff members, is the largest of about a dozen businesses founded to
> create counterpiracy methods.
>
> The music industry's five "majors" ? the Universal Music Group, a unit
> of Vivendi Universal; the Warner Music Group, a unit of AOL Time Warner;
> Sony Music Entertainment; BMG, a unit of Bertelsmann; and EMI ? have all
> financed the development of counterpiracy programs, according to
> executives, but none would discuss the details publicly. Warner Music
> issued a statement saying: "We do everything we feel is appropriate,
> within the law, in order to protect our copyrights." A spokeswoman for
> Universal Music said that the company "is engaging in legal technical
> measures."
>
> Whether the record companies decide to unleash a tougher anti-piracy
> campaign has created a divide among some music executives concerned
> about finding a balance between stamping out piracy and infuriating its
> music-listening customers. There are also questions about whether
> companies could be held liable by individuals who have had their
> computers attacked.
>
> "Some of this stuff is going to be illegal," said Lawrence Lessig, a
> professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in Internet copyright
> issues. "It depends on if they are doing a sufficient amount of damage.
> The law has ways to deal with copyright infringement. Freezing people's
> computers is not within the scope of the copyright laws."
>
> Randy Saaf, the president of MediaDefender, another company that
> receives support from the record industry to frustrate pirates, told a
> congressional hearing last September that his company "has a group of
> technologies that could be very effective in combating piracy on
> peer-to-peer networks but are not widely used because some customers
> have told us that they feel uncomfortable with current ambiguities in
> computer hacking laws."
>
> In an interview, he declined to identify those technologies for
> competitive reasons. "We steer our customers away from anything
> invasive," he said.
>
> Internet service providers are also nervous about anti-piracy programs
> that could disrupt their systems. Sarah B. Deutsch, associate general
> counsel of Verizon Communications, said she is concerned about any
> program that slows down connections. "It could become a problem we don't
> know how to deal with," she said. "Any technology that has an effect on
> a user's ability to operate their computer or use the network would be
> of extreme concern to us. I wouldn't say we're against this completely.
> I would just say that we're concerned."
>
> Verizon is already caught in its own battle with the recording industry.
> A federal judge ordered Verizon to provide the Recording Industry
> Association of America with the identities of customers suspected of
> making available hundreds of copyrighted songs. The record companies are
> increasingly using techniques to sniff out and collect the electronic
> addresses of computers that distribute pirated music.
>
> But the more aggressive approach could also generate a backlash against
> individual artists and the music industry. When Madonna released
> "spoofed" versions of songs from her new album on music sharing networks
> to frustrate pirates, her own Web site was hacked into the next day and
> real copies of her album were made available by hackers on her site.
>
> The industry has tried to seek legislative support for aggressive
> measures. Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat of California,
> introduced a bill last fall that would have limited the liability of
> copyright owners for using tougher technical counterpiracy tactics to
> protect their works online. But the bill was roundly criticized by
> privacy advocates. "There was such an immediate attack that you couldn't
> get a rational dialogue going," said Cary Sherman, president of the
> recording industry association. He said that while his organization
> often briefs recording companies on legal issues related to what he
> calls "self help" measures, "the companies deal with this stuff on their
> own."
>
> And as for the more extreme approaches, he said, "It is not uncommon for
> engineers to think up new programs and code them. There are a lot of
> tantalizing ideas out there ? some in the gray area and some illegal ?
> but it doesn't mean they will be used."
> --
> __________________________
> Brooklyn Linux Solutions
> __________________________
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>
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> ____________________________
> New Yorkers for Fair Use -
> because it's either fair use or useless....
>
--
__________________________
Brooklyn Linux Solutions
__________________________
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS http://fairuse.nylxs.com
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting
http://www.inns.net <-- Happy Clients
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories and articles from around the net
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/downtown.html - See the New Downtown Brooklyn....
1-718-382-0585
____________________________
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