Company claims ability to wipe out file-sharing

the INQUIRER ^ | 18 APRIL 2005 | Paul Hales

[rdb3]

Company claims ability to wipe out file-sharing

Music, movie sharing doomed, say Finns

By : Monday 18 April 2005, 12:13

A FINNISH COMPANY, Viralg Oy, says it can wipe out file-sharing in an instant.

The company says it has developed digital rights protection software that can be incorporated into digital movie, music or software releases and set to play havoc with P2P networks on which releases may appear.

Viralg says it has a "virtual algorithm" which is capable of, "mixing together files in P2P networks in a way that the illegal downloader will end up downloading useless garbage instead of real music, movie or game content". In a statement, it claims its technology can also destroy already shared files on peer to peer networks.

The company says the technology has been used sucessfully by BMG's Finnish subsidiary, BMG Finland and it is now actively seeking new clients in the entertainment industry.

It says its technology can be used on any of the existing P2P networks without damaging the networks, any ISPs or the downloader's PC. It claims it'll simply corrupt the downloaded file so it cannot be viewed.

[rdb3]

I know, short article. This is it.

Anyway, this is nothing new. It's been beaten before. What makes the Finns think they'll do better?

[muawiyah]

Hasn't it been Finns and Icelanders who spend those long winter nights writing up viruses?

[TomGuy]

It claims it'll simply corrupt the downloaded file so it cannot be viewed.

And some 13-year-old whiz-kid will have a fix on the web with days of the release of the corrupter program.

[FreedomNeocon]

I'm all for their efforts, but if theres one thing I've learned over the past 20 years it is that if you can code it, *someone* can and will hack it.

[sirchtruth]

What about legally traded files, are these nambies going to corrupt them too?

I hope this happens and the RIAA buys into it big time and sales just plummet to rock bottom!!

[Para-Ord.45]

No need for all that.I`m all too good at crashing my own computer and losing all my files at least twice a year.

[pabianice]

WASHINGTON, DC -- Wednesday, November 22, 1895 -- Today at a speech in National Hall, Dr. John Winthrop, Head of the US Patent Office, stated that, "Everything that can be invented has been."

In explaining his remarks, Winthrop noted that there were sure to be other inventions, but "nothing of any great consequence on the level of the gasoline engine or the telephone. Science has simply reached its natural end. Devices of fancy, such as heavier-than-air flying machines and trains that can travel at several hundred miles per hour, bear little serious consideration."

[John Valentine]

In a statement, it claims its technology can also destroy already shared files on peer to peer networks.

It says its technology can be used on any of the existing P2P networks without damaging the networks, any ISPs or the downloader's PC. It claims it'll simply corrupt the downloaded file so it cannot be viewed.

Can somebody tell me how this company's software is going to get onto my computer, corrupt my downloaded files (as if I had any), and do this without damaging "the downloader's PC"?

I would really like to understand how this software would tell the difference between a downloaded AAC and one I ripped from my CD collection.

Frankly, it sounds like a bunch of corporate hype.

[FreedomNeocon]

To prove the point... people are already 'looking into' what this protection does and how to 'beat' it, just on this story today.

http://slashdot.org/articles/05/04/18/1831256.shtml?tid=95&tid=188

[Ragnarok105]

This won't even get off the ground in the USA.

[TomGuy]

Some of the industry tried this with CD's a few years ago....and some smarta** had a crack on the web before the industry even released the CDs. lol.

[tubebender]

I won't repeat what he said to me when I applied for a patent for fire...

[PokeyJoe]

You got the fire patent? Geez. I only got the ice patent.

[Born Conservative]

It probably will work - for about 2 days, and then someone will figure out a way around it.

[tubebender]

I know! Why do you think I invented fire???

[NewRomeTacitus]

WinMX has been crippled. Apparently they weren't the bullet-proof, totally-job-distributed network they said they were, as the core group of server-minders cut and run after being found out and threatened by the RIAA. Meanwhile, outraged volunteers with server capabilities are stepping up and reorganizing under new strategies that will put them out of reach of the RIAA.

WinMX (who I was a member of) was always about fair use and opposed commercial use of it's content. While it did put a small dent in the corporations' profits the people wanting the files were already attacked by those corporations deluging the site with fake files that discouraged all but the most dedicated hunters. I'm just saying that WinMX, while wrong on the fine print level, were actually no worse than the industry people seeking to thwart them with even more underhanded tactics. The industry drones even went so far as to weave vicious computer viruses in their fakes.