Oh my god this Napster stuff is finally getting good. Here's a quick synopsis of the problem: Napster is filtering out songs based on filename. So people figure they can just come up with a convention to change the filename spellings to defeat the system. Maybe 'Metallica' becomes 'Meta11ica'. Fine. That works. But for it to really work you need everybody to know the system (or else people won't know to search using 'Meta11ica'.) And if everybody knows the system, then Napster knows the system (or they will by the next day) and they just block that too. And here's the solution: the aimster pig(latin) encoder. This is the same pig latin system you learned as a kid. Download the program and it will convert all your mp3 filenames into pig latin. As they explain it: "For example, 'Music' becomes 'usicM', 'Hello' becomes
'elloH', and you can guess what becomes 'uckF ouY, ouY pyS astardsB'."
But how could this work? Wouldn't napster figure this out in like .02 seconds? Well yes, but it might well be illegal for them to do so. This is the great part. Under the DMCA, which by the way is one of the worst laws we have, it is illegal to circumvent any copy protection mechanism, and it doesn't appear to matter how trivial that mechanism is. This is the law used against the open source community (most famously in the DeCSS case, where the DVD region coding was cracked, giving linux users the chance to play DVDs they had purchased on their own systems.) IF napster reverse engineers the "pig latin encoding scheme" they will be in violation of the DMCA. LOL. That's the funniest thing I have ever heard. Bravo.
I know probably this won't work, even though it seems legally sound. I'm not stupid enough to think that the law is the law for people with hundreds of millions of dollars. But still, this is going to make it even more clear just how much money does talk. If you use Napster please think about using this device. Very very cool.
In other napster news, looks like a 21 year old Canadian is taking the obvious route, and is looking to set up a napster server (the open source openNap I'm guessing) somewhere in international waters. Probably Sealand is the only place for that. Good luck. The problem is mostly that even if they can't get your data, they can get you. So you have to stay out of the reach of international law too, and I don't think you can live on sealand.
On NPR this am they are mentioning an alternative prog. to the pig latin one, one which as I understand it (not very well) scrambles the titles to the point where they are basically unidentifiable to the eye but the program can understand that 9q0837590874 means "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and that Napster can't be held accountable since the code will be unrecognizable and therefore not their responsiblity to remove from their lists. Anyway, they were reporting that there are so many cracks in the legal floodwalls that the corporate lawyers are going to be running around like headless chickens.
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But how could this work? Wouldn't napster figure this out in like .02 seconds? Well yes, but it might well be illegal for them to do so. This is the great part. Under the DMCA, which by the way is one of the worst laws we have, it is illegal to circumvent any copy protection mechanism, and it doesn't appear to matter how trivial that mechanism is. This is the law used against the open source community (most famously in the DeCSS case, where the DVD region coding was cracked, giving linux users the chance to play DVDs they had purchased on their own systems.) IF napster reverse engineers the "pig latin encoding scheme" they will be in violation of the DMCA. LOL. That's the funniest thing I have ever heard. Bravo.
I know probably this won't work, even though it seems legally sound. I'm not stupid enough to think that the law is the law for people with hundreds of millions of dollars. But still, this is going to make it even more clear just how much money does talk. If you use Napster please think about using this device. Very very cool.
In other napster news, looks like a 21 year old Canadian is taking the obvious route, and is looking to set up a napster server (the open source openNap I'm guessing) somewhere in international waters. Probably Sealand is the only place for that. Good luck. The problem is mostly that even if they can't get your data, they can get you. So you have to stay out of the reach of international law too, and I don't think you can live on sealand.
- jim 3-06-2001 4:04 pm
On NPR this am they are mentioning an alternative prog. to the pig latin one, one which as I understand it (not very well) scrambles the titles to the point where they are basically unidentifiable to the eye but the program can understand that 9q0837590874 means "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and that Napster can't be held accountable since the code will be unrecognizable and therefore not their responsiblity to remove from their lists. Anyway, they were reporting that there are so many cracks in the legal floodwalls that the corporate lawyers are going to be running around like headless chickens.
- steve 3-07-2001 4:10 pm