p2pnet.net News:- On its web site, Denmark’s DtecNet Software ApS says it’s, “developed a unique range of software to monitor illegal Internet piracy within the areas of Peer-to-Peer systems, ISP News Servers and and within the intranets of companies and organizations etc.”

More to the point, “DtecNet has recently launched its Parental File Watch program,” it says.

“The program is aimed at parents to help them clean up their own or their children’s computers by removing infringing music and movie files through an easy to use interface. The program further allows a search of the computer, to see if any of the popular Peer-2-Peer file sharing programs have been installed on the computer.”

Interestingly, the link (http://www.dtecnet.dk//DEMO/ParentalFileWatchSetup.msi) leading to a free download demo was disabled when we tried to hook it for a look at 10:17 am, Pacific.

Anyway, of equal import, “DtecNet further assists in producing technical and legal reports on the different areas of Internet piracy (e.g. on P2P file sharing systems) to be used in legal proceeding,” its says, going on:

“Accordingly, in our experience, it is of the utmost importance that the courts are presented with a detailed description of how piracy systems works, in order to fully understand their technical and legal background.

“We therefore have a special legal and technical team, that has experience in producing reports to be used in legal proceedings or for the internal use of Intellectual property organisations, in order for them to get an insight into these highly technical systems.”

All of the above is, undoubtedly, why DtecNet was chosen by the Not-So-Magnificent-Seven movie studios to spearhead their privacy invasion which is, apparently, integral to their new sue anyone you can lay your hands on war against file sharers.

One wonders if the firm will fare any better than the RIAA’s (Recording Industry Association of America) Audiomagic, an ineffective software item from a private firm aggressively hyped by RIAA boss Mitch Bainwol as the answer to unauthorised music sharing.

Significantly, very little has been heard of Audiomagic of late.

In the meanwhile, parents will be encouraged to download the ‘free’ DtecNet software so they can snoop their kids’ computers on behalf of Disney, Warner Bros, MGM, Universal, Fox, Paramount and Sony.

Their MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) swears it won’t use Parental File Watch to scarf confidential information from systems on which it’s installed. But assurances of any kind from any of the entertainment industry’s many and various faux police agencies, such as the MPAA, always have a hollow ring.

Panda Software CTO Patrick Hinojosa told NewsFactor, “unless I saw the code, I would not trust it. Many of these organizations’ past behavior has been borderline legal as they try to fight copyright infringement.”

He also mentions blogs posted by people running p2p programs who realized servers traced back to the RIAA had been scanning their Web sites for user data through an open port. “It is doable,” Hinojosa says in the NewsFactor story.

The MPAA doesn’t say whether or not Parental File Watch can tell the difference between bought-and-paid for software used for ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ downloads, or how, and under what criteria, the status would be defined.

But whether or not the software rats out users, parents who use it will become little more than movie industry cops, finding ‘illegal’ movie and music files.

As MPAA boss Dan Glickman phrases it, “Many parents are concerned about what their children have downloaded and where they’ve downloaded it from. They will find this tool to be an excellent resource.”

This statement is rather like another from RIAA president Cary Sherman who describes the music cartel’s scandalous sue ‘em all campaign against p2p file sharers, from which the MPAA’s program is derived, as, “an essential educational tool“.

And as we’ve said many times, we’d love to know how the studios and the labels explain how inferior, lossy mp3s, and/or heavily pixelated, low-resolution movie files with jerky play-back and unsynchronised sound equal lost sales.

We’re also curious as to how they’re able to report record revenues and terrible financial losses at the same time.

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See:-
aggressively hyped -Vaunted RIAA p2p ‘filter’ software, p2pnet, June 2, 2004
borderline legal – MPAA Unveils New P2P ‘Spyware’, NewsFactor, November 17, 2004
educational tool – Students sued by RIAA, p2pnet, November 19, 2004

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