When I got to School, why did I have to do this???

[Gongshow]

When I got here, there is a new thing, where every one in the dorms has to register there computers through the school network now...why is this being done???? The school tracking what we do??? Ratting us out if we D/L a song??? whats going on here???

Anyone have any idea?

[alwaysgrowing]

seeing what websites (terrorists in your school) you visit. arresting you for downloading 1 song (the barney song). and most importantly, knowing all the porn you download so than can laugh at you in class

[JUICE]

here u go gong


Friday, 22 November, 2002, 15:41 GMT
Efforts to stop music piracy 'pointless'


History will defeat attempts to stop CD piracy

Record industry attempts to stop the swapping of pop music on online networks such as Kazaa will never work.
So says a research paper prepared by computer scientists working for software giant Microsoft.

The four researchers believe that the steady spread of file-swapping systems and improvements in their organisation will eventually make them impossible to shut down.

They also conclude that the gradual spread of CD and DVD burners will help thwart any attempts to control what the public can do with the music they buy.

Doomed disks

The paper was prepared for a workshop on Digital Rights Management, (DRM), at the US Association for Computing Machinery's annual conference on Computer and Communications Security.

Digital Rights Management describes attempts to stop people copying music from CDs and sharing the tracks via peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Madster.

To stop this piracy some music makers are starting to produce CDs that will not play on computers.

Websites such as the Campaign for Digital Rights are documenting which CDs will and will not play on home computers.

The music industry as a whole is also using the courts to shut down file-swapping systems and so far has enjoyed some successes.


CDs by artists such as Alicia Keys are copy protected
But Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado and Bryan Willman write that ultimately these attempts at control will fail.

The success that the music industry has had in stopping file-swapping on systems such as Napster was due entirely to the fact that many of them rely on a few people to provide most of the material being swapped.

By targeting these super-swappers the record industry could severely restrict how much music is available to the majority of members who take without sharing.

The researchers point out that the growth of consumer broadband and cheap data storage will mean the numbers of people willing to swap is growing and will soon outstrip attempts to shut them down.

The growth of instant messaging systems will also contribute to this gradual loss of control.

The rising numbers of recordable CD and DVD drives are also making it much easier for consumers to create their own music compilations and share them with friends which could also stymie anti-piracy work.

Price fix

The paper also pointed out the technical flaws in DRM systems and said that, so far, all of them have been defeated.

In one case the CD protection system designed to stop people playing the disks on a computer was foiled by using a marker pen to cover the outer ring of a disk.

The authors reserve strongest criticism for watermarking systems which put invisible markers in music that stops tracks being passed around and shared.

But the "severe" commercial and social problems inherent in such schemes plus their technical shortcomings mean that they are "doomed to failure", warn the authors.

The paper's researchers emphasise that it represents their opinions rather than those of Microsoft, but their conclusions are likely to make uncomfortable reading for music industry executives.

In essence, say the researchers, file-swapping systems have already won. The only way for music companies to compete is on the same terms by making music easy to get hold of and cheap to buy.

Evidence gathered by critics of the music industry has shown that CD prices have steadily risen over the past few years and may have contributed to the slump in sales as much as the rise of file-swapping systems.

In late September five music companies and three music retailers were fined more than $143million after being found guilty of fixing CD prices too high.

See also:


29 Oct 02 | Music
Protected CDs 'should be labelled'

17 Sep 02 | Music
Music bosses mull piracy options

19 Apr 02 | New Media
Music 'indies' test anti-copying

16 Apr 02 | Music
Global music sales drop

12 Nov 01 | Science/Nature
Pirate-proof pop goes public

16 Apr 02 | Music
Head to head: Music copying

04 Sep 01 | New Media
Stealth war against CD piracy

26 Sep 02 | Technology
File-sharing upgrade taunts record labels

Internet links:


Workshop on Digital Rights Management
Darknet paper (Doc file)
Campaign for Digital Rights
Campaign for Digital Rights on copy protected CDs
Kazaa
US Federal Trade Commission on CD price fixing
Association for Computing Machinery

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Top Technology stories now:


Real boss tackles online piracy

Hacker breaches credit card security

Intel looks to the future

Indian police hunt bandit online

Salon warns time is running out

Phone mast emissions 'well below limits'

Mobile phone firms look to future

Robots get cheeky


Links to more Technology stories are at the foot of the page.

[JUICE]

Originally posted by Gongshow
When I got here, there is a new thing, where every one in the dorms has to register there computers through the school network now...why is this being done???? The school tracking what we do??? Ratting us out if we D/L a song??? whats going on here???

Anyone have any idea?

Music companies are going to Universities around the US to help track down people who download music. I know thats fucked up.

[Gongshow]

Originally posted by THE JUICE
Music companies are going to Universities around the US to help track down people who download music. I know thats fucked up.

the poorest kids out there...

[blm]

It is more than likely targeted at malicious activity such as terrorism and hacking.

[Gongshow]

hmmm I dont know BLM

[saturn]

I don't know where you go to shool but I know you are in MN. Several of the Universities have MDU contracts with the cable company. There has been a problem with some people in the dorms running web servers sucking up all the band width on that node of the cable plant. They are probably trying to find the band width hogs so the whole dorm isn't shut down if it's interfering with other users off that node.

[Friggemall]

Here they use the excuse of security and folks hacking into the university system. I just wish they'd pay more attention to the 100 spam e-mail's get a day for viagra, penis enlargement and mortage loans. I guess I'll need a new house to keep that huge new erect penis in.

[Gongshow]

lol