Record labels tout program to disable swapping

The music and movie industries are giving people who have swapped songs and other copyrighted material over the Internet a new way to repent for their illicit ways.

A free program released Thursday, called Digital File Check, will uninstall or disable file-sharing programs on people's computers. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a London-based affiliate of the Recording Industry Association of America, helped develop the software with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

The groups are mainly aiming the program at parents and employers in Europe.

"Digital File Check is easy to use and can help people prevent their employees, children and others from illegally downloading and swapping movies," Dan Glickman, the president of the MPAA, said in a statement.

"It could be especially useful for parents who want to encourage their children to enjoy music responsibly on the Internet," the IFPI said in a statement. "It is free, voluntary and for private use only and does not tip off any antipiracy organizations."

The software, available for download, will also search computers for music and movies and remove any illegal copies, the group said.

The IFPI also announced plans to publish and distribute a guide for employers called "Copyright and Security Guide for Companies and Governments," outlining the liabilities of leaving corporate networks open to copyright infringement.

The new campaign is one of several fronts in a war the recording industry is waging on peer-to-peer networks that facilitate the free sharing of music and movies. Last week, the RIAA sent warning letters to seven peer-to-peer companies, asking them to stop encouraging users to circumvent copyright laws.

The organization won a Supreme Court fight in June with file-sharing service Grokster and has filed thousands of lawsuits against individuals who allegedly used such networks and violated copyright laws.

[Bob Brinkman]

Brilliant

Anyone want to take gueses on what this software will do to back ups/rips of albums you bought a gold old fashioned store?

[Bob Brinkman]

I read the help file

It doesn't know the differnce between stolen and bought music. Along witht the big "install at your own risk" disclaimer.

[markdoiron]

Why Guess?

why guess what this will do to properly purchased (ie, "legal") music? the online demo makes it clear that the computer user is in full control of what's deleted, both file sharing software and shared data files. on top of that, the deletion of the file sharing software is done through the uninstall routines of the original software itself. so, if those uninstall routines leave "remnants" (malware/trojans/etc), it won't be the fault of this little program. personally, i think it's a good approach for a business or a parent who wishes to control what they might consider to be inappropriate use of their computers.

mark d.

[Bob Brinkman]

Brilliant

Anyone want to take gueses on what this software will do to back ups/rips of albums you bought a gold old fashioned store?

[Bob Brinkman]

I read the help file

It doesn't know the differnce between stolen and bought music. Along witht the big "install at your own risk" disclaimer.

[markdoiron]

Why Guess?

why guess what this will do to properly purchased (ie, "legal") music? the online demo makes it clear that the computer user is in full control of what's deleted, both file sharing software and shared data files. on top of that, the deletion of the file sharing software is done through the uninstall routines of the original software itself. so, if those uninstall routines leave "remnants" (malware/trojans/etc), it won't be the fault of this little program. personally, i think it's a good approach for a business or a parent who wishes to control what they might consider to be inappropriate use of their computers.

mark d.

[heystoopid]

Curses

More trojanware!

[heystoopid]

Curses

More trojanware!

[corelogik]

What the hell,...

gives them the right to do anything TO my computer?

While p2p apps gained the fame, nae and noteriety from
swapping music, tis is not the only thing they are used for.
Also, as previously stated, what about the music or videos I
bought? How do they tell, that the copies I have are or are not
legal?

The RIAA and the MPAA are the new incarnations of the 'Military
War Machine' of the 60's, huge lumbering conglomerate's that
need to be stomped before they destroy society,...

Whoever thought this was a good idea is braindead.

[markdoiron]

The Computer Owner Gives The Right

i'm not a big fan of the riaa and their ideologies on music. however, the program is run by the computer owner (presumably), who therefore is authorizing it to take certain actions. and it only authorizes deletes of what the computer owner tells it to, both file sharing software and the shared data files themselves (as best as i can determine, it does not inventory data files that are not shared).

mark d.

[corelogik]

What the hell,...

gives them the right to do anything TO my computer?

While p2p apps gained the fame, nae and noteriety from
swapping music, tis is not the only thing they are used for.
Also, as previously stated, what about the music or videos I
bought? How do they tell, that the copies I have are or are not
legal?

The RIAA and the MPAA are the new incarnations of the 'Military
War Machine' of the 60's, huge lumbering conglomerate's that
need to be stomped before they destroy society,...

Whoever thought this was a good idea is braindead.

[markdoiron]

The Computer Owner Gives The Right

i'm not a big fan of the riaa and their ideologies on music. however, the program is run by the computer owner (presumably), who therefore is authorizing it to take certain actions. and it only authorizes deletes of what the computer owner tells it to, both file sharing software and the shared data files themselves (as best as i can determine, it does not inventory data files that are not shared).

mark d.

[SteveBarry687]

Okay, let's inject some reality

When will people learn that most kids know a hell of a lot more about PCs than there parents. Most PCs are probably setup and configured with the kids having the admin rights and the parents as the users. That wouldn't surprise me one bit. Of course, this will all change when the current crop of kids are the parents, but that just isn't reality right now.

Not to mention the fact that this just puts more barriers between parents and their children.

"Hey mom, where is all of my music?"

"I downloaded a program from the RIAA that got rid of all of those illeagal songs you had."

"Ummmm, mom. I downloaded all of those songs from iTunes."

"But, according to the RIAA, all digital music is bad and should be deleted."

"I hate you mom!"

"But I love you."

"I think I will go start using drugs instead of downloading music."

What a stupid waste of R&D and money. Stupid RIAA/MPAA.

[SteveBarry687]

Okay, let's inject some reality

When will people learn that most kids know a hell of a lot more about PCs than there parents. Most PCs are probably setup and configured with the kids having the admin rights and the parents as the users. That wouldn't surprise me one bit. Of course, this will all change when the current crop of kids are the parents, but that just isn't reality right now.

Not to mention the fact that this just puts more barriers between parents and their children.

"Hey mom, where is all of my music?"

"I downloaded a program from the RIAA that got rid of all of those illeagal songs you had."

"Ummmm, mom. I downloaded all of those songs from iTunes."

"But, according to the RIAA, all digital music is bad and should be deleted."

"I hate you mom!"

"But I love you."

"I think I will go start using drugs instead of downloading music."

What a stupid waste of R&D and money. Stupid RIAA/MPAA.

[M C]

"remove any illegal copies"??

They likely mean "remove any music that is not rights-managed."

Meaning people's entire ripped CD collections may go "poof."

The RIAA strikes again.

[M C]

"remove any illegal copies"??

They likely mean "remove any music that is not rights-managed."

Meaning people's entire ripped CD collections may go "poof."

The RIAA strikes again.

giving handcuffs to a criminal to arrest himself

as mush as i understand this so-called "step forward in combating piracy" it will never work! why? beacuse the idea is nothing ingenous. it's a sign of frustration from those in admin. piracy won't b stopped that way & it will certainly not stop as long as software/games/vids prices r up there. here i'm talking 4 those pirates in low income countries... ask urself, wat country has the highest level of piracy? thought so.

Actually, it will work for a few...

About a year ago I was working on a contract job, and recieved an e-mail from the company I was contracting to complaining I had P2P software installed on my computer, and informing me I either had to uninstall the software immediately, or return my secure token. Since it was my own computer, and my own internet token it was my choice. Except for the fact I was working remote from another company, and if I returned the secure token I would not be able to complete the project and would be in breach of contract...

So basically, I was exstorted to remove the P2P software I use to share public domain and open source materials. Now at the time I came up with the idea to move both the P2P software and VPN software onto USB drives, so I would never have the two installed at the same time and would not be in breach of the company's security policy.

However, this software just makes it even harder. Not corperations will have a program they can force you to install on your personal computer to remove anything that could potentially be illegal... Don't think they won't do it. Big corporations are deadly afraid of lawsuits. It is only a matter of time before the RIAA figures out a way to force ISP's to the same measures with there customers.

giving handcuffs to a criminal to arrest himself

as mush as i understand this so-called "step forward in combating piracy" it will never work! why? beacuse the idea is nothing ingenous. it's a sign of frustration from those in admin. piracy won't b stopped that way & it will certainly not stop as long as software/games/vids prices r up there. here i'm talking 4 those pirates in low income countries... ask urself, wat country has the highest level of piracy? thought so.

Actually, it will work for a few...

About a year ago I was working on a contract job, and recieved an e-mail from the company I was contracting to complaining I had P2P software installed on my computer, and informing me I either had to uninstall the software immediately, or return my secure token. Since it was my own computer, and my own internet token it was my choice. Except for the fact I was working remote from another company, and if I returned the secure token I would not be able to complete the project and would be in breach of contract...

So basically, I was exstorted to remove the P2P software I use to share public domain and open source materials. Now at the time I came up with the idea to move both the P2P software and VPN software onto USB drives, so I would never have the two installed at the same time and would not be in breach of the company's security policy.

However, this software just makes it even harder. Not corperations will have a program they can force you to install on your personal computer to remove anything that could potentially be illegal... Don't think they won't do it. Big corporations are deadly afraid of lawsuits. It is only a matter of time before the RIAA figures out a way to force ISP's to the same measures with there customers.

as if!

how stupid can a multi-trillion dollar industry be. geez. firstly, no one is going to be stupid enough to let you into their computers. secondly the solution to the problem is actually the ridiculous pricing on cd's. seriously, in australia, $30 for an album of 25 songs. u only really want 5 of those songs (the rest are crap), so ur paying like $6 for one song. what a rip-off! and thats exactly what people using p2p networks think also.
lets do sum maths here. a record label releases lets say 100 albums a year (im being conservative) and sells on average 100,000 of each at $30 each. thats at least 300 million dollars. ($300,000,000.00) yet they cry poor in courts about kazaa etc stealing their money. poor diddums. cant u live on 300 million. stop giving your "stars" so much bling-bling.

as if!

how stupid can a multi-trillion dollar industry be. geez. firstly, no one is going to be stupid enough to let you into their computers. secondly the solution to the problem is actually the ridiculous pricing on cd's. seriously, in australia, $30 for an album of 25 songs. u only really want 5 of those songs (the rest are crap), so ur paying like $6 for one song. what a rip-off! and thats exactly what people using p2p networks think also.
lets do sum maths here. a record label releases lets say 100 albums a year (im being conservative) and sells on average 100,000 of each at $30 each. thats at least 300 million dollars. ($300,000,000.00) yet they cry poor in courts about kazaa etc stealing their money. poor diddums. cant u live on 300 million. stop giving your "stars" so much bling-bling.

[ScifiterX]

Anyway you look at it, this software is a sick joke.

Assuming for a minute the is limited to the scope the RIAA
claims, it's unecessary and redundant. Anyone with two
braincells can tell bootleg music on their computer without
software, not that everyone operating a computer has two
braincells. Bootleg music often tends to sound like garbage, lack
or have strange critical tags (like missing or merged album and
title tags) and/or not be found on any CD you own. Legitimate
Music has obvious signs like you have the right CD or such, it
has a Title, Album, Artists & Protected Format Tags, then even
though it is tecnically digital music it's you can usually tell its a
copy of a copy of a copy by how it sounds.

Granted cerain Operating Systems tend to isolate you from your
files but it's not really that hard to remove media files from ones
hard drive either. Run a search for the file (Many music players
will give you a file name and/or file path) and drag it to the
Trash/Recycle Bin and empty it.

If the public in charge's fears are accurate then I see no reason
to volutarily download another piece of trojan/spyware when I'm
frustrated enough with the ones I'm trying to keep off my system
and I'm even less likely to want to do business with a company
with such underhanded business practices. Lord knows I've
already bought more import CDs than domestic.

[ScifiterX]

Anyway you look at it, this software is a sick joke.

Assuming for a minute the is limited to the scope the RIAA
claims, it's unecessary and redundant. Anyone with two
braincells can tell bootleg music on their computer without
software, not that everyone operating a computer has two
braincells. Bootleg music often tends to sound like garbage, lack
or have strange critical tags (like missing or merged album and
title tags) and/or not be found on any CD you own. Legitimate
Music has obvious signs like you have the right CD or such, it
has a Title, Album, Artists & Protected Format Tags, then even
though it is tecnically digital music it's you can usually tell its a
copy of a copy of a copy by how it sounds.

Granted cerain Operating Systems tend to isolate you from your
files but it's not really that hard to remove media files from ones
hard drive either. Run a search for the file (Many music players
will give you a file name and/or file path) and drag it to the
Trash/Recycle Bin and empty it.

If the public in charge's fears are accurate then I see no reason
to volutarily download another piece of trojan/spyware when I'm
frustrated enough with the ones I'm trying to keep off my system
and I'm even less likely to want to do business with a company
with such underhanded business practices. Lord knows I've
already bought more import CDs than domestic.

New filesharing DOG in Town

What are the gonna do about peer2linking? Check out www.peer2link.com . Don't they realize that there will always be another way to share files? THis one doesn't even require a download

New filesharing DOG in Town

What are the gonna do about peer2linking? Check out www.peer2link.com . Don't they realize that there will always be another way to share files? THis one doesn't even require a download

[eliotvb]

Absolutely impossible

How does this software tell the difference between a legitimate and a protected MP3 file? It's worse than vaporware... it's a malicious, arbitrary bludgeoning tool that only the most confused and underinformed parent could ever entertain using... from the sounds of things anyway.

-evb
mp3.com

[eliotvb]

Absolutely impossible

How does this software tell the difference between a legitimate and a protected MP3 file? It's worse than vaporware... it's a malicious, arbitrary bludgeoning tool that only the most confused and underinformed parent could ever entertain using... from the sounds of things anyway.

-evb
mp3.com