[IP] Three on Court docs reveal some RIAA "tracking" methods

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk@gsp.org>

> For example, the industry disclosed its use of a library of digital
> fingerprints, called "hashes," that it said can uniquely identify MP3 music

Wow.  The RIAA has discovered checksums and the Unix/Linux "sum" command.

---Rsk

> From: "Stewart, William C (Bill), RTSLS" <billstewart@att.com>
>
> Rick Bradley suggests several reasons that someone might have
> files on their PC identical to files available out on the net,
> but he leaves out some of the obvious ones:
> - They own the CD, but downloaded the files from the net
> instead of figuring out how to run a compression program themselves.
> - They own the _vinyl_ record and downloaded the file
> because they didn't have a good enough sound card to compress it
> themselves.
> - Their "CD" is one of those bogus non-standards-compliant ones
> that you can't play on a computer, so they downloaded the files.
> - Something Bad happened to their original, so they're using a
> backup copy obtained

From: Jens Hardings <jens@hardings.cl>

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Dave Farber wrote:
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/la-082703tracking_wr,1,4305008.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlineshttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/la-082703tracking_wr,1,4305008.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines
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| Music Industry Discloses Some Methods Used to Track Downloaders

[...]

| "The source for nycfashiongirl's sound recordings was not her own
| personal CDs," the RIAA's lawyers wrote.

I would be surprised if this would constitute infringement. If she has
bought CDs, why isn't she allowed to download the same music she already
has legal entitlement to listen to, in another more handy and usable
format?

File sharing is not illegal. File sharing of copyrighted material is
only illegal if the the receiver of the material does not have a license
to use it. In the case of a person already owning a copy of a CD, there
is absolutely nothing illegal in getting a copy (instead of creating
one) of that same material in another format.

The downloading of songs from some unofficial source is by the way the only
alternative a customer has to listen to music he already bought when his
CD-player won't play the 'copy protected' (aka crippled) CDs we are able
to buy in stores for some albums. (see http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/ for
details)

- --
Jens.

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