P2P legal defense by separation of content and key?Risks Digest 23.27

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 15:55:11 -0600
From: "Brent J. Nordquist" <brent () nordist net>
Subject: P2P legal defense by separation of content and key?

Bruce Schneier's CRYPTO-GRAM for March 2004 had a pointer to this
article: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5164413.html  from which
I quote:

  Spanish developer Pablo Soto, whose Blubster and Piolet software have
  attracted several hundred thousand users, is taking a decidedly different
  tack. [...]

  Information such as an MP3 song will still be downloaded from its original
  source, he said. But a song will be scrambled, and downloaded simply as
  raw, unintelligible data. This means that no actual copy of a song is
  being exchanged, he contends.

  If downloaders want to turn that data into usable music, their software
  must seek elsewhere on the file-swapping network for the encryption "keys"
  that will unlock the data, transforming it back into an MP3. Separating
  the download of the data and the keys may help protect file sharers from
  lawsuits, making it more difficult for courts to say exactly which party
  is responsible for copyright infringement, Soto said.

This reminded me immediately of my favorite RISKS article, "The source of
semantic content" (Gat, RISKS-16.87).  Perhaps Gat's questions "Has the law
been broken?  Who broke it?" will soon be tested in court.

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