Is the RIAA "hacking you back"?

[David Farber <farber () tmail com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Finin <finin () cs umbc edu>
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Is the RIAA "hacking you back"?
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 17:14:17 -0500

Is the RIAA "hacking you back"?
By Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 14/01/2003
http://212.100.234.54/content/6/28842.html

The RIAA is preparing to infect MP3 files in order to audit and
eventually disable file swapping, according to a startling claim by
hacker group Gobbles. In a posting to the Bugtraq mailing list,
Gobbles himself claims to have offered his code to the RIAA, creating
a monitoring "hydra".

"Several months ago, GOBBLES Security was recruited by the RIAA
(riaa.org) to invent, create, and finally deploy the future of
antipiracy tools. We focused on creating virii/worm hybrids to infect
and spread over p2p nets," writes Gobbles.

"Until we became RIAA contracters [sic], the best they could do was to
passively monitor traffic. Our contributions to the RIAA have given
them the power to actively control the majority of hosts using these
networks."

Gobbles claims that when a peer to peer host is infected, it catalogs
media and sends the information "back to the RIAA headquarters
(through specifically crafter requests over the p2p networks) where it
is added to their records", and also propagates the exploit to other
nodes.

"Our software worked better than even we hoped, and current reports
indicate that nearly 95% of all p2p-participating hosts are now
infected with the software that we developed for the RIAA."

...
An exploit of this nature is of dubious legality, right now, but
language in Howard Berman's "P2P Piracy Prevention" bill last year
legitimizing such exploits was backed by RIAA chief Hilary Rosen
...
-- Dave

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