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NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Programmers at the file-sharing firm Aimster said on Tuesday they had found a disarmingly simple way for Napster users to avoid recent restrictions imposed on the service by a federal judge: an encryption scheme based on Pig Latin.
Aimster, whose software lets users trade files by piggybacking on instant message networks, released the free Aimster Pig Encoder program Sunday on its Web site (http://www.aimster.com/pigencoder.phtml).
Under the terms of the injunction against Napster, the company must remove songs within three days of receiving notice by copyright holders. It's the file name, not the file itself, that is screened: Early reports suggested that copyrighted songs with slight misspellings in the file names were undisturbed.
With the Pig Encoder, "'Music' becomes 'usicM,' 'Hello' becomes 'elloH,' the Aimster Web site says.
Aimster Chief Executive Officer Johnny Deep said that changing file names with encryption makes it illegal to systematically remove the altered files.
Deep said Napster might be able to remove encrypted file names one by one, but it couldn't "reverse engineer" the Pig Encoder to remove all songs that had been encrypted -- even though the encryption is so simple that anyone can deduce the real title of an encrypted file name.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act outlaws the reverse engineering of encryption schemes, Deep said. Encryption is defined as "the scrambling and descrambling of information using mathematical formulas or algorithms."
Deep said his company's encryption uses an algorithm, albeit a simple one, and thus qualifies for legal protection. "It has that beautiful irony," Deep said, adding that the program took him and his team "about six hours" to complete.
This just keeps getting better and better as time goes by.
What a beautiful example of the failure of the judiciary to understand the system which it is trying to control. It's not as appalling as the Electronic Signature legislation or as vapid as all of the anti-spam bills which politicians use to woo ignorant voters, but it has a certain elegant charm.
This falls along the same lines as when Congress tried to "censor" the Internet. They didn't understand that as designed, ARPANET was a military system, designed to repair/reroute itself in case of damage. Any attempt to censor the system (block sites, etc) was interpreted by the system as damage, and it simply would reroute itself to reacquire the site.
They also fail to take into account the people they are dealing with...the quote that it only took about 6 hours to come up with the code is quite telling...it's a challenge to them to come up with a way to circumvent the system. Continue to challenge them, and they'll continue to respond to the challenge...
"It has that beautiful irony," Deep said, adding that the program took him and his team "about six hours" to complete.
BWAHAHA! That is what the authors of the DMCA get for writing onerous and overbroad copyright protection.
Go Here before the Rich and Powerful Shut it down!
Go Here before the Rich and Powerful Shut it down!
Safest place to swap music: Offshore?
IMPORTANT WARNING: DO NOT TELL ANYONE how the Aimster Pig Encoder works. Disclosing how the Aimster Pig Encoder works may be a violation of a federal law called the DMCA and subject to up to a $500,000 fine and 5 years in prison!
This is beautiful.
You s'pose "ubbi dubbi" would work, also?
"Hubbellubbo, hubbow ubbare yubbou?". . . . if I still remember it right (if you don't use it, you lose it.)
Umpb
Looks more like how Mushmouth on Fat Albert spoke...:-)
umpB
God bless technology
God bless technology
More like God bless creative ingenuity.
I think that would be "Umpbay". ;-)
A beautiful example of how the RIAA and the judicial system underestimate the digital generation. Maybe they could learn something from the average 14 year old.
I think it's hysterical.
Ok, let's practice. Ettalicamay, Astermay foay Uppetspay. I think I need more Igplay Atinlay practice.
Go to AudioGnome.com.
It's Napster plus some, and as far as I can tell they are outside the lawsuit.
Yes, AudioGnome is the best I have used so far. If you really want to go into a downloading frenzy, download Wrapster. It is a tool that disguises ANY file as an mp3. PhotoShop 6, Office 2000 Pro, Soundforge, and a TON more applications can be downloaded for evaluation. It works like WinZip.
PhotoShop 6, Office 2000 Pro, Soundforge, and a TON more applications can be downloaded for evaluation.
I'm an Agent man myself.
I've found the alt.binaries.* groups to be the way to go when it comes to getting everything other than MP3's.
BUT, I do also use Usenet extensively for getting my music as well. Try alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.*. You will find more complete compilations there than anywhere (no missing ends of songs, complete albums). The data also comes down at a much faster clip than shared access, as most broadband ISP's have a much smaller pipe for the upload.
Try Usnetserver.com. They've been most reliable for me.
This is silliness to the max. Napster has to honor whatever list of files is furnished by the record companies. They'll just add Pig-encoded versions of the names to the list. Game, set, match.
"Napster has to honor whatever list of files is furnished by the record companies. They'll just add Pig-encoded versions of the names to the list. Game, set, match."
By no means—it's "game" at most, and more like "point." The record companies provide Napster the Pig-encoded list, which Napster duly blocks. Meanwhile, Aimster's team creates the Kewld00d encoding scheme ("Who Let the Dogs Out" becomes "Wh0 L3t th3 D0gs 0ut"), then the Umlaut scheme ("Whö Lët thë Dögs Öüt"), then the Fonix scheme ("Hoo Lett Da Dawgz Owt"), then the sdrawkcaB scheme ("tuO sgoD eht teL ohW"), et cetera, et cetera, et cetera—human ingenuity is boundless. Every new scheme buys another few days until a completely automated system is established.
Blocking copyright swapping by filename matching is doomed to failure, but no other scheme is technologically feasible. So within a month or two, Napster will be forced to shut down entirely, halting the swapping even of non-copyrighted files. This of course will be a violation of freedom of the press, which will ultimately result in the Supreme Court throwing out the flagrantly unconstitutional Digital Millenium Copyright Act. That's the "match," and it really doesn't matter how many "games" or even "sets" the RIAA wins between now and then.
Copyright law worked just fine when all copyrighted materials had to be encoded into physical objects. Technology has overtaken the law, and it is now time to come up with a different legal framework to accomplish the Constitutional goal of "promot[ing] 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."
Napster isn't the only nexus for sharing these files, and there will soon be offshore versions that no law can touch (piracy on the high seas?).
The record companies will have to go after the individual users offering the files, but this will probably produce a big political backlash. At most, however, there will be a legal provision for compulsory licensing of music files for download. Congress isn't going to want to look sympathetic to piracy.
What a great story. Federal law will prohibit napster from complying with the court order. It's quite clever, indeed.
For it to work, everyone has to use it.
Aimster would do itself great marketing advantage if it were to offer software that would change the names of all files inside a folder to pig latin. Many people have hundreds and some people thousands of files. They sure aren't going to retype every title in pig latin.
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Napster should not be shut down; what should happen is making backup copies of CDs should be illegal. That would solve the _entire_ problem, then Napster would not be to blame but the individual music traders would be. The RIAA could then go after individuals, make a few examples out of them, and cut down drastically on piracy. The problem is that it is legal to "rip" CDs into MP3 format.
the problem is that the ones that the schemes that can be encoded by a computer algorithm could also be decoded, and the ones that require human meddling, like the Fonix scheme, would have different spellings for individuals, interfering with their ability to search. But yes, these are only minor shortcomings, people will get around it.
If Napster charged $20 to register, and then automatically yanked people who uploaded/downloaded copyrighted material, they would be able to control illegal sharing. The risk of losing $20 would be too much for most people, and Napster would pick up income from the cheats.
The music industry should smarten up. Cut CD prices to $3-$5 and take away the desire to steal by making their product more affordable. Sales would go 4-10 fold by doing this.
My music budget a year is about $150-$200, mostly due to the fact that I feel a CD isn't worth $13-$20. If the prices were reduced, I'd probably spend $500-$800 per year and probably attend more concerts because I knew the bands better.
If I need a lawyer, I'm calling you.
...an encryption scheme based on Pig Latin.
That's nuthin' new.
Translate anything into: Pig Latin, Redneck, moron and others.
If you really want to go into a downloading frenzy, download Wrapster
Yes, Wrapster will do the job, but many users appreciate the simplicity of Peer-to-Peer file-sharing tools such as Bearshare, Limewire, Toadnode or even iMesh.
Napster should not be shut down; what should happen is making backup copies of CDs should be illegal.
Except this legal issue has already been settled regarding video tapes and the application to CDs is obvious. As long as people aren't selling the copies its legal. There is no rule against giving it away and such a rule wouldn't pass constitutional muster.
There is no rule against giving it away and such a rule wouldn't pass constitutional muster.
Because people have a constitutional right to "free speech," which extends to passing along intellectual property? Wouldn't that mean pirating video games was constitutionally protected, if they weren't sold?
If you haven't been to Napigator you're missing out.
Check out www.napigator.com
"If I need a lawyer, I'm calling you."
LOL! Thanks, but the lawyer is my mother, not me, and there's no point calling her—she's long since retired from practice to teach constitutional law. Everything I know I learned by growing up in her office. Call me if you need a software engineer. ;)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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