6 ms·

What happened when one hacker met the RIAA on Facebook

27 points by humanlever 18y ago

ROFISH 18y ago
I've always wondered how the RIAA looks to see if it's copyrighted or not. If they just use the app's metadata, which in turn uses the MP3's metadata, why not encrypt the MP3's metadata? Even ROT-13 would work since "Britney Spears - Hit Me Baby One More Time" becomes "Oevgarl Fcrnef - Uvg Zr Onol Bar Zber Gvzr", something not on their massive Excel sheet.
- axod 18y ago
  This is exactly what happened with Napster. After Napster stopped accepting certain filenames which were marked as "infringing", users just made a plugin to rename all files with rot13 type things, and to rot13 any search queries in the application.
- nailer 18y ago
  Because: * Most people like to download files with proper names and metadata. * The app itself could not provide such a plugin, as it could be argued that this was designed to facilitate copyright infringement. * Most users wouldn't know how to install some third party plugin to the app to perform this, especially as the app provider couldn't link to it, for the reasons above. PS. If anyone here is from reddit, and believes taking people's creative efforts without paying for it where asked is not wrong, please justify why. Thanks.
  - jrockway 18y ago
    PS. If anyone here is from reddit, and believes taking people's creative efforts without paying for it where asked is not wrong, please justify why. It's wrong, but people think it's right to do it and you can't prevent them from doing it. So you can either whine all day about how these people are stealing, or find some solution that actually works.
    - nailer 18y ago
      True, you can't prevent anyone from doing it, but you don't have to - all you have to do is make it difficult enough.
jasonlbaptiste 18y ago
this is a shame. since i was a kid, probably 11/12 years old, ive thought the riaa's ways are wrong. they use the law not as a point of mindful compromise, but as a strongarm tactic. Shame is, that artists don't see their fair share. Everyone always asks me what I would do if Publictivity or another venture gave me what the Valley calls "Fk You Money"... I'd go right after the RIAA and turn the music industry upside down on its head. Artists would get compensated, users would be happy, and labels would get their fair share too (if theyre still needed). Much much easier said than done, but it's going to happen at some point.
- kirubakaran 18y ago
  Remember to get good body guards :)
wjy 18y ago
Near the end, he mentions he will use the list of songs the RIAA sent him as a sort of "blacklist" for his application. This makes me wonder: Why doesn't the RIAA have a publicly available list of ALL works that it represents? Then anyone who wanted to could easily check if their app/service was infringing. It seems so obvious. Of course, I understand things aren't so simple as just an artist-and-title list. But if you don't want people to facilitate copying of your covered works, you really should make it easy for them to check (like a publiclly accessible database) for covered works.
- axod 18y ago
  That list itself is quite possibly considered 'valuable' intellectual property... Maybe they'd release such a list if you pay them a fee and sign an NDA and etc etc....
- josefresco 18y ago
  Not releasing the list also allows the RIAA to take advantage of 'progressive' applications like this and pick and choose who they sue and who they don't. They can sit back and watch as these apps helps promote their top performers, and once they've gotten their use from it, sue the pants off of them. It's much better to keep your enemies in a space of FUD then to clearly explain the 'law' and how to abide by it.
- silentbicycle 18y ago
  http://www.riaaradar.com/ http://www.riaaradar.com/ - RIAA Radar isn't exactly what you're looking for, but worth mentioning. It looks like they're scraping record company info from Amazon and cross-referencing that against a list of which ones are affiliated with the RIAA. (#3 on their RIAA Radar Indie Top 100 is "The Happiest Baby on the Block - The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer (DVD)", though, which implies they're probably not filtering the data set thoroughly. There are a few other DVDs further down the list.) Part of the problem is to be authoritative, such a list would be gigantic, and growing at a rapid rate.
pierrefar 18y ago
RIAA meets hacker. Hacker loses. Rinse, repeat.

27 points by humanlever 18y ago

I've always wondered how the RIAA looks to see if it's copyrighted or not. If they just use the app's metadata, which in turn uses the MP3's metadata, why not encrypt the MP3's metadata? Even ROT-13 would work since "Britney Spears - Hit Me Baby One More Time" becomes "Oevgarl Fcrnef - Uvg Zr Onol Bar Zber Gvzr", something not on their massive Excel sheet.

axod 18y ago
This is exactly what happened with Napster. After Napster stopped accepting certain filenames which were marked as "infringing", users just made a plugin to rename all files with rot13 type things, and to rot13 any search queries in the application.
nailer 18y ago
Because: * Most people like to download files with proper names and metadata. * The app itself could not provide such a plugin, as it could be argued that this was designed to facilitate copyright infringement. * Most users wouldn't know how to install some third party plugin to the app to perform this, especially as the app provider couldn't link to it, for the reasons above. PS. If anyone here is from reddit, and believes taking people's creative efforts without paying for it where asked is not wrong, please justify why. Thanks.
- jrockway 18y ago
  PS. If anyone here is from reddit, and believes taking people's creative efforts without paying for it where asked is not wrong, please justify why. It's wrong, but people think it's right to do it and you can't prevent them from doing it. So you can either whine all day about how these people are stealing, or find some solution that actually works.
  - nailer 18y ago
    True, you can't prevent anyone from doing it, but you don't have to - all you have to do is make it difficult enough.

jasonlbaptiste 18y ago

this is a shame. since i was a kid, probably 11/12 years old, ive thought the riaa's ways are wrong. they use the law not as a point of mindful compromise, but as a strongarm tactic. Shame is, that artists don't see their fair share. Everyone always asks me what I would do if Publictivity or another venture gave me what the Valley calls "Fk You Money"... I'd go right after the RIAA and turn the music industry upside down on its head. Artists would get compensated, users would be happy, and labels would get their fair share too (if theyre still needed). Much much easier said than done, but it's going to happen at some point.

kirubakaran 18y ago
Remember to get good body guards :)

wjy 18y ago

Near the end, he mentions he will use the list of songs the RIAA sent him as a sort of "blacklist" for his application. This makes me wonder: Why doesn't the RIAA have a publicly available list of ALL works that it represents? Then anyone who wanted to could easily check if their app/service was infringing. It seems so obvious. Of course, I understand things aren't so simple as just an artist-and-title list. But if you don't want people to facilitate copying of your covered works, you really should make it easy for them to check (like a publiclly accessible database) for covered works.

axod 18y ago
That list itself is quite possibly considered 'valuable' intellectual property... Maybe they'd release such a list if you pay them a fee and sign an NDA and etc etc....
josefresco 18y ago
Not releasing the list also allows the RIAA to take advantage of 'progressive' applications like this and pick and choose who they sue and who they don't. They can sit back and watch as these apps helps promote their top performers, and once they've gotten their use from it, sue the pants off of them. It's much better to keep your enemies in a space of FUD then to clearly explain the 'law' and how to abide by it.
silentbicycle 18y ago
http://www.riaaradar.com/ http://www.riaaradar.com/ - RIAA Radar isn't exactly what you're looking for, but worth mentioning. It looks like they're scraping record company info from Amazon and cross-referencing that against a list of which ones are affiliated with the RIAA. (#3 on their RIAA Radar Indie Top 100 is "The Happiest Baby on the Block - The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer (DVD)", though, which implies they're probably not filtering the data set thoroughly. There are a few other DVDs further down the list.) Part of the problem is to be authoritative, such a list would be gigantic, and growing at a rapid rate.

pierrefar 18y ago

RIAA meets hacker. Hacker loses. Rinse, repeat.