Vaunted RIAA p2p ‘filter’ software
p2pnet.net News:- For some time, now, the RIAA has been aggressively boosting a p2p software ‘filter’ which, as RIAA boss Mitch Bainwol tells anyone who’ll listen, is the answer to unauthorised music sharing.
In fact, so insistent is Bainwol that you could be forgiven for thinking maybe he and/or the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have invested in Audible Magic, the company that makes the ‘filter,’ called the CopySense Network Appliance.
Audible Magic has been, “making the rounds of Washington, D.C., legislative and regulatory offices for the last month, showing off technology it says can sit inside peer-to-peer software and automatically stop swaps of copyrighted music from artists such as Britney Spears or Outkast,” says a March CNET story here.
And helping it make the rounds was, and presumably still is, Bainwol.
“Audible Magic says it can identify copyrighted songs and block illegal downloads,” says CNET. “Its technology is still being tested and could yet prove unworkable, but limited demos are turning heads in legislative offices.”
And there’s the rub.
“Limited demos” and “Still being tested.”
For months the members of the p2p industry trade group P2P United have been trying to get hold of a copy to test in the wild.
Morpheus spokesman Brian O’Neal told p2pnet today that so far, none of the p2p operators have even seen CopySense, let alone tried it out.
Six months ago P2P United hand-delivered a letter to RIAA boss Bainwol demanding access to the Audible Magic ’song-recognition software’ being touted under the aegis of the RIAA.
More than a week after the letter was delivered, the trade group members – BearShare, Blubster, e-Donkey, Grokster and Morpeus – still hadn’t been able to conduct a hands-on trial although Bainwol disingenuously told CNET News he “would be delighted for them to do so”.
Audible Magic quotes RIAA svp of anti-piracy Frank Creighton as saying, “We have joined forces with trade associations and rights holders to combat the theft of intellectual property” and “Audible Magic’s RepliCheck helps protect artists and our business from copyright infringement, and it takes a huge burden off our employees.”
The ‘rights holders’ Creighton is talking about are, of course, the Big Five record labels, which own the RIAA in the first place. And the ‘trade associations’ are other RIAA-like enforcement organs – also owned by Big Music.
CopySense, “has evolved from Audible Magic’s RepliCheck service, which has become an anti-piracy industry standard in the CD/DVD replication business,” says Audible Magic.
One weakness of the filter …
In the meanwhile, a p2pnet reader sent us a .pdf with summaries of four articles which have recently appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
One of them, dated April 16, is slugged Universities Test Controversial Filter to Fight Online Piracy and reads:
“This article examines the use of another technique to stop students from engaging in illegal file sharing: a filter called CopySense Network Appliance, which is sold by the company Audible Magic. Central Washington University is one institution that is testing the filter on its residence-hall network. Unlike Icarus, the filter does not identify individual offenders; instead, it identifies illegal file transfers and cancels them before they can be completed. One weakness of the filter is that it can only identify and cancel the transfer of songs that exist in its database of copyrighted works (currently about four million songs.”
That the ‘filter’ is still being tested suggests its abilities aren’t proven, even though it must be at least a year since it was written.
That being so:
- How are the RIAA and Audible Magic justified in claiming the CopySense Network Appliance is ready for use in real-world, commercial situation?
- When the number of copyrighted works the software can recognise- four million – equals the number of people who are logged onto p2p networks at any given moment (four million) and at least one billion files are downloaded every month, how can the software have any kind of effect on a practice the multi-billion dollar music industry claims is “devastating” it?
We’ll leave out the question of how the Central Washington University (or any other teaching institution) justifies the fact it’s testing a commercial device.
Stay tuned.
June 2nd, 2004 at 9:33 pm
Ha Ha. Provided the thing actually works, it’s the sound of the RIAA slitting it’s own throat. If they think their sales suck now, wait until people stop downloading “RIAA Music”. It’s a try it before you buy it market. Pretty soon the artists themselves are gonna start jumping ship. File-sharing is the new FM, the new MTV, get with the program Big 5!
June 3rd, 2004 at 1:27 am
“Prosecutors can rarely justify bringing criminal charges, and copyright owners have been left alone to fend for themselves, defending their rights only where they can afford to do so,” said Leahy.
Isnt that what hundreds of Americans are facing with the onslaught of RIAA lawsuits? So far none of them has been able to afford to defend their rights, they’ve been steamrolled instead.
qoute from ‘Hollywood, Politics and File-Sharing Technology’
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/34171.html
June 3rd, 2004 at 5:12 am
“This article examines the use of another technique to stop students from engaging in illegal file sharing: a filter called CopySense Network Appliance, which is sold by the company Audible Magic. Central Washington University is one institution that is testing the filter on its residence-hall network.
if it is being sold it could simply be purchased by the p2p trade group. i beleive that quote from the university is wrong.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Sex