Volconvo is a debate forum for the discussion of political, religious, and news-based topics.

mikemadman · Jan 12, 2004, 02:08 am

I was just reading about virus's that are spreading through file sharing applications like Kaaza Wired News and realized the perfect way for the music industry to shutdown these services. All they need to do is develope a virus that can attach itself to MP3's and be able to be executed when the MP3 is played. You would of course have to make sure the virus only executes and multiples in the file sharing programs shared folder. Would not want to infect legitimately bought MP3s.

I am not sure what the virus should do. It cannot really be malicious but it would have to do something that would make people stop downloading from these programs for fear of getting infected.

I know once you play the infected MP3 a very annoying but light watermark would be placed on your screen that would say: "I Illegally Downloaded Music". And it would stay there for one week. After this penalty time the virus would clean itself from your system. If you download another MP3 in the future it would do it all over agian. That would be a nice deterent.

This was just a idea I thought of, I for one love Kazaa and have used it ever since it came out. So, it would really suck if someone actually ever did this. The music industry would have to be extremely discreet about it, becuase if the people ever found out, there would be all hell to pay.

Waychel · Jan 12, 2004, 06:27 am

Not everyone uses Windows.

G. Adams · Jan 12, 2004, 10:51 am

More importantly, its illegal. If they screw my comp they can pay for it. I havn't stolen $2500 worth of music yet, but that's how much they'll be fucking over with this idea. If they start a virus war against users they'd better be prepared to be hit back at.

Scribbler1 · Jan 13, 2004, 02:26 am

I thnk I downloaded one (I think from Madonna, accidentally as some tunes are mislabled) recently, which instead of a song, said "why don't you buy the fucking record" or words to that effect.

Noy that I'd ever BUY any of her stuff anyway as I don't like her. But I think this would be a psychological turn-off for fans which may hurt her actual sales anyway.

G. Adams · Jan 13, 2004, 08:13 am

One way the could do it, and I think someone is on I-mesh, that is legal is to have a ruined song, the ones i keep finding have a high pitched buzz running over a track 5 secs into it, and then you make sure that track is the most spread track, so when people try to get a track they keep hitting the damaged one. I know it's pissing me off.

castille · Jan 13, 2004, 08:22 am

Anything can be overcome. If the government releases a virus, some star will release an anti-virus program to shut it down.

The PC game Postal was banned in Australia due to excessive violence. Before it even came out, a friend of mine already had a dozen copies.

Its like robbing the bank....after the government invented security systems people invented ways to counter the systems. Most people obey the system, some people try to fight the system, and the cleverest work the system.

eljaysun · Jan 19, 2004, 01:22 am

Amen to that. sadly- there will always be crime, and wrong doings- there will never be a quick or complete fix... that is in reason, at least. the MAN (or government, whatev you wanna call it) just has to stay far enough in head of the game so not to loose control.

sure- you can say that there are 3 billion people on Kazaa, or you can see the glass half full and say that around $30 million dollars were made off of Napster and iTunes in '03.

mind you, a billion is a little more than a million, but remember that a good portion of those folks on Kazaa are either downloading pornography or movies too... or God forbid, something LEGAL!

**Pooeypants** · Jan 19, 2004, 06:43 am

A billion is a thousand fold of a million, so it isn't just a little more...

Just because crime has been made easy doesn't mean we shouldn't try to police it.

white rice · Jan 20, 2004, 05:58 pm

MP3s, picture files, and txt documents aren't executable files and can't have viruses embedded in them. There are worms that act like viruses that don't need to attach itself onto another program.

A music company releasing a worm and getting caught would face lawsuits and damages because proof is suspect on whether the worm would come from music sharing or not.

andy · Jan 22, 2004, 02:58 pm

Bring it on i say, i welcome them to damage my computers i have worked hard to pay for. Let them do it then i can take them to court.

castille · Jan 23, 2004, 01:07 am

Andy - What if some guy who "resides" in the Cayman Islands sends you a dialer, which dials to some ISP in Algeria, and you get charged $400,000 for it?

Who will you take to court? The dodgy guy from Cayman, the Algerian government, or some random bum off the street?

Surf_Jonze · Jan 23, 2004, 07:45 am

the local highstreet store charge way over the odds for CD's if they brought prices down there would be no need to download.
Also if the music industry stopped giving people like Mariah Carey, robbie Williams 80million dollar contracts they could give a better price for CD's

**Pooeypants** · Jan 23, 2004, 11:17 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Surf_Jonze,)
the local highstreet store charge way over the odds for CD's if they brought prices down there would be no need to download.
Also if the music industry stopped giving people like Mariah Carey, robbie Williams 80million dollar contracts they could give a better price for CD's<hr size="1" /></blockquote>
The prices are way too high, especially in ripoff Britain. But the point is, as long as you can download something for free, whose going to pay? I suppose we could start implementing Tom Clancy's Net force.

Suburbanite · Feb 2, 2004, 06:30 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (white rice,)
MP3s, picture files, and txt documents aren't executable files and can't have viruses embedded in them.
<hr size="1" /></blockquote>

Yes they can. Non-exac files still run through programs which, in a manner of speaking, execute them.

Lev · Feb 10, 2004, 05:15 am

Complete bullshit. Do not post if you dont understand the facts.

If you are dumb enough to download

TRANCE_MIX_ALEX_DEEJAYY-BATTEROFFALONE_Full_Rare_and_Complete!!!1.mp3.zip

then you deserve all you get.

Samildanach · Feb 11, 2004, 07:35 am

What really strikes me as bizarre is the music industry hasnt targeted the actual file sharing programs themselves. If I were the music industry I would be writing software that disables the file sharing programs incorporating it into MP3's and distributing it at will.

**Pooeypants** · Feb 11, 2004, 12:46 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Samildanach,)
What really strikes me as bizarre is the music industry hasnt targeted the actual file sharing programs themselves. If I were the music industry I would be writing software that disables the file sharing programs incorporating it into MP3's and distributing it at will.<hr size="1" /></blockquote>
It would be illegal perhaps? File sharing itself is not an illegal activity if it's freeware or shareware that is being past around, hence how will you discern between legal and illegal files being shared (barely in mind of course they can edited and hacked etc).

RebelWithanAK · Feb 11, 2004, 01:28 pm

Shutting down filesharing programs is as useful as withholding Drivers' Licenses because stolen goods might be transported in motor vehicles or denying cell phones to people who don't have proof of residency (which we do, by the way). It's ridiculous.

The companies (and some malicious endusers) are already duping files, sending viruses, and a wealth of nasty shit already - not to mention attempting to get information on particular users through the program - but the solutions come just as quickly. Kazaa keeps a banned IP list of authorities, eDonkey checks the file info during hashing, endusers know to distinguish between music.mp3 and music.mp3.vb and life goes on.

Besides, Kazaa may be wrangled in a lawsuit along the lines of malicious intent, and various institutions can be bullied for every single program based on DMCA's ISP-held-accountable nonsense, but Kazaa's third generation after WinMX, Audiogalaxy, Bearshare, Morpheus and all those old ones, and then there's Bittorrent, Soulseek...

ruiner · Feb 11, 2004, 07:27 pm

Truely anonymous peer to peer networks can be made in which users cannot be traced, they are just not as efficient as the non-anonymous ones that exist at the moment.

If the record companies apply too much pressure to existing networks then such such anonymous networks will be created and will gain popularity. but if they don't, the current networks will thrive anyway. It's a no win situation for the record companies, their time is over

Anarchist · Feb 11, 2004, 09:25 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (mikemadman,)

I know once you play the infected MP3 a very annoying but light watermark would be placed on your screen that would say: "I Illegally Downloaded Music". And it would stay there for one week. After this penalty time the virus would clean itself from your system. If you download another MP3 in the future it would do it all over agian. That would be a nice deterent.
<hr size="1" /></blockquote>

I wouldn't really care if that happened. It'd spruce up my desktop nicely.

Jan 12, 2004, 02:08 am	#1 (permalink) (top)
mikemadman Sedimentary Rock Location: SoCal Posts: 17	I was just reading about virus's that are spreading through file sharing applications like Kaaza Wired News and realized the perfect way for the music industry to shutdown these services. All they need to do is develope a virus that can attach itself to MP3's and be able to be executed when the MP3 is played. You would of course have to make sure the virus only executes and multiples in the file sharing programs shared folder. Would not want to infect legitimately bought MP3s. I am not sure what the virus should do. It cannot really be malicious but it would have to do something that would make people stop downloading from these programs for fear of getting infected. I know once you play the infected MP3 a very annoying but light watermark would be placed on your screen that would say: "I Illegally Downloaded Music". And it would stay there for one week. After this penalty time the virus would clean itself from your system. If you download another MP3 in the future it would do it all over agian. That would be a nice deterent. This was just a idea I thought of, I for one love Kazaa and have used it ever since it came out. So, it would really suck if someone actually ever did this. The music industry would have to be extremely discreet about it, becuase if the people ever found out, there would be all hell to pay. Yes, I know I don't know how to spell. What can I say, I was born in the era of spellcheckers.

Jan 12, 2004, 06:27 am	#2 (permalink) (top)
Waychel Supercalifragilistic Posts: 431	Not everyone uses Windows. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

Jan 12, 2004, 10:51 am	#3 (permalink) (top)
G. Adams Fyrdman Location: Middlesbrough UK Posts: 4,152	More importantly, its illegal. If they screw my comp they can pay for it. I havn't stolen $2500 worth of music yet, but that's how much they'll be fucking over with this idea. If they start a virus war against users they'd better be prepared to be hit back at. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill

Jan 13, 2004, 02:26 am	#4 (permalink) (top)
Scribbler1 Skeptical Patriot Posts: 7,746	I thnk I downloaded one (I think from Madonna, accidentally as some tunes are mislabled) recently, which instead of a song, said "why don't you buy the fucking record" or words to that effect. Noy that I'd ever BUY any of her stuff anyway as I don't like her. But I think this would be a psychological turn-off for fans which may hurt her actual sales anyway. Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Jan 13, 2004, 08:13 am	#5 (permalink) (top)
G. Adams Fyrdman Location: Middlesbrough UK Posts: 4,152	One way the could do it, and I think someone is on I-mesh, that is legal is to have a ruined song, the ones i keep finding have a high pitched buzz running over a track 5 secs into it, and then you make sure that track is the most spread track, so when people try to get a track they keep hitting the damaged one. I know it's pissing me off. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill

Jan 13, 2004, 08:22 am	#6 (permalink) (top)
castille Citizen #21521 Posts: 2,599	Anything can be overcome. If the government releases a virus, some star will release an anti-virus program to shut it down. The PC game Postal was banned in Australia due to excessive violence. Before it even came out, a friend of mine already had a dozen copies. Its like robbing the bank....after the government invented security systems people invented ways to counter the systems. Most people obey the system, some people try to fight the system, and the cleverest work the system. Ideological loyalty is the act of giving your soul to a vague concept, to be manipulated by people smarter than you.

Jan 19, 2004, 01:22 am	#7 (permalink) (top)
eljaysun Sedimentary Rock Location: Kansas City Posts: 7	Amen to that. sadly- there will always be crime, and wrong doings- there will never be a quick or complete fix... that is in reason, at least. the MAN (or government, whatev you wanna call it) just has to stay far enough in head of the game so not to loose control. sure- you can say that there are 3 billion people on Kazaa, or you can see the glass half full and say that around $30 million dollars were made off of Napster and iTunes in '03. mind you, a billion is a little more than a million, but remember that a good portion of those folks on Kazaa are either downloading pornography or movies too... or God forbid, something LEGAL!

Jan 19, 2004, 06:43 am	#8 (permalink) (top)
Pooeypants Neo Moderator Location: England Posts: 5,467	A billion is a thousand fold of a million, so it isn't just a little more... Just because crime has been made easy doesn't mean we shouldn't try to police it. War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is strength Harness the power of Ingsoc, then you can capture someone killed the year before

Jan 20, 2004, 05:58 pm	#9 (permalink) (top)
white rice Igneous Magma Posts: 372	MP3s, picture files, and txt documents aren't executable files and can't have viruses embedded in them. There are worms that act like viruses that don't need to attach itself onto another program. A music company releasing a worm and getting caught would face lawsuits and damages because proof is suspect on whether the worm would come from music sharing or not. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups

Jan 22, 2004, 02:58 pm	#10 (permalink) (top)
andy Sedimentary Rock Posts: 10	Bring it on i say, i welcome them to damage my computers i have worked hard to pay for. Let them do it then i can take them to court.

Jan 23, 2004, 01:07 am	#11 (permalink) (top)
castille Citizen #21521 Posts: 2,599	Andy - What if some guy who "resides" in the Cayman Islands sends you a dialer, which dials to some ISP in Algeria, and you get charged $400,000 for it? Who will you take to court? The dodgy guy from Cayman, the Algerian government, or some random bum off the street? Ideological loyalty is the act of giving your soul to a vague concept, to be manipulated by people smarter than you.

Jan 23, 2004, 07:45 am	#12 (permalink) (top)
Surf_Jonze Sedimentary Rock Posts: 1	the local highstreet store charge way over the odds for CD's if they brought prices down there would be no need to download. Also if the music industry stopped giving people like Mariah Carey, robbie Williams 80million dollar contracts they could give a better price for CD's

Jan 23, 2004, 11:17 am	#13 (permalink) (top)
Pooeypants Neo Moderator Location: England Posts: 5,467	</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Surf_Jonze,) the local highstreet store charge way over the odds for CD's if they brought prices down there would be no need to download. Also if the music industry stopped giving people like Mariah Carey, robbie Williams 80million dollar contracts they could give a better price for CD's<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'> The prices are way too high, especially in ripoff Britain. But the point is, as long as you can download something for free, whose going to pay? I suppose we could start implementing Tom Clancy's Net force. War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is strength Harness the power of Ingsoc, then you can capture someone killed the year before

Feb 2, 2004, 06:30 am	#14 (permalink) (top)
Suburbanite BANNED Location: Los Angeles Posts: 3,203	</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (white rice,) MP3s, picture files, and txt documents aren't executable files and can't have viruses embedded in them. <hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'> Yes they can. Non-exac files still run through programs which, in a manner of speaking, execute them.

Feb 10, 2004, 05:15 am	#15 (permalink) (top)
Lev Sedimentary Rock Location: Glawwwsta, UK Posts: 9	Complete bullshit. Do not post if you dont understand the facts. If you are dumb enough to download TRANCE_MIX_ALEX_DEEJAYY-BATTEROFFALONE_Full_Rare_and_Complete!!!1.mp3.zip then you deserve all you get. <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:blue'>o the things that people say you cannot:</span></span>

Feb 11, 2004, 07:35 am	#16 (permalink) (top)
Samildanach Pragmatist Location: UK London Posts: 1,979	What really strikes me as bizarre is the music industry hasnt targeted the actual file sharing programs themselves. If I were the music industry I would be writing software that disables the file sharing programs incorporating it into MP3's and distributing it at will. I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs and insanity for everyone, but its always worked for me. Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime." (Ernest Hemingway)

Feb 11, 2004, 12:46 pm	#17 (permalink) (top)
Pooeypants Neo Moderator Location: England Posts: 5,467	</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Samildanach,) What really strikes me as bizarre is the music industry hasnt targeted the actual file sharing programs themselves. If I were the music industry I would be writing software that disables the file sharing programs incorporating it into MP3's and distributing it at will.<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'> It would be illegal perhaps? File sharing itself is not an illegal activity if it's freeware or shareware that is being past around, hence how will you discern between legal and illegal files being shared (barely in mind of course they can edited and hacked etc). War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is strength Harness the power of Ingsoc, then you can capture someone killed the year before

Feb 11, 2004, 01:28 pm	#18 (permalink) (top)
RebelWithanAK Igneous Magma Location: New York City Posts: 739	Shutting down filesharing programs is as useful as withholding Drivers' Licenses because stolen goods might be transported in motor vehicles or denying cell phones to people who don't have proof of residency (which we do, by the way). It's ridiculous. The companies (and some malicious endusers) are already duping files, sending viruses, and a wealth of nasty shit already - not to mention attempting to get information on particular users through the program - but the solutions come just as quickly. Kazaa keeps a banned IP list of authorities, eDonkey checks the file info during hashing, endusers know to distinguish between music.mp3 and music.mp3.vb and life goes on. Besides, Kazaa may be wrangled in a lawsuit along the lines of malicious intent, and various institutions can be bullied for every single program based on DMCA's ISP-held-accountable nonsense, but Kazaa's third generation after WinMX, Audiogalaxy, Bearshare, Morpheus and all those old ones, and then there's Bittorrent, Soulseek... . . . whenever any government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Feb 11, 2004, 07:27 pm	#19 (permalink) (top)
ruiner Igneous Magma Posts: 180	Truely anonymous peer to peer networks can be made in which users cannot be traced, they are just not as efficient as the non-anonymous ones that exist at the moment. If the record companies apply too much pressure to existing networks then such such anonymous networks will be created and will gain popularity. but if they don't, the current networks will thrive anyway. It's a no win situation for the record companies, their time is over

Feb 11, 2004, 09:25 pm	#20 (permalink) (top)
Anarchist Your mom. Posts: 135	</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (mikemadman,) I know once you play the infected MP3 a very annoying but light watermark would be placed on your screen that would say: "I Illegally Downloaded Music". And it would stay there for one week. After this penalty time the virus would clean itself from your system. If you download another MP3 in the future it would do it all over agian. That would be a nice deterent. <hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'> I wouldn't really care if that happened. It'd spruce up my desktop nicely.