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Kazaa Forced To Modify Search Engine 258

Posted by CowboyNeal from the can't-find-that-here dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Eminem, Madonna and Kylie Minogue are just some of the popular artists whose songs are to be blocked from being illegally distributed on the peer-to-peer network Kazaa following Federal Court orders in Australia yesterday. Sharman Networks, the owner of Kazaa, was ordered by the courts to modify the file-sharing software to block a list of search terms -- primarily artist and song names. The search terms are also to be supplied by record companies. The directive follows the record companies' court victory in September against individuals and organizations associated with Kazaa."
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Kazaa Forced To Modify Search Engine More

Kazaa Forced To Modify Search Engine

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  • Methinks (Score:4, Funny)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:38AM (#14112112)
    That Erminem and Mardonna are the new hot searches on the Kaaza network
    • That 3min3m and M4rd0nn4 are the new hot searches on the Kaaza network

      There, Fixed it for you.

      • Kyl13 M1n0gu3 will rock the mp3 business forever.

        Ofcourse my donna, kyle minoke and anymen will follow short after that ...

        They should make their album's more attractive, add some real touchable value to them. Like a little madonna calendar or stuff like that. This anti piracy fight is as effective as killing all the mosquitos in africa with 1 wrecked pan.

        Ps. i really buyed an album from the shop today, i rule !
    • Please, don't be so amateurish, the files are all still there. I will be downloading $sys$Madonna and $sys$Eminem songs for years to come. For some reason, however, as soon as I finish downloading them I can't see them in explorer anymore!

  • what next? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hug_the_penguin ( 933796 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:38AM (#14112113) Homepage
    Perhaps the banning of the keyword phrase `fuck the riaa`? In case they haven't noticed, there are so many fakes on there anyway that a name isnt an accurate guarantee of what a file contains. But of course this matters not so long as the RIAA can line their pockers with consumers' money.

    • Re:what next? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:21AM (#14112242) Journal
      There are so many fakes because the RIAA has been happily hiring companies to pollute the search results for certain terms.

      They filed this lawsuit so they could cut some annual spending. /tongue in cheek

      The court has ordered Sharman to release a new version of Kazaa by 5 December that includes a non-optional keyword filter, restricting users' ability to illegally access and swap copyright music.

      Unless Kazaa rolls out a change to the fast track network as well... why the f*** would anyone update their client? Some of the people using such software may not be to brightest lightbulbs in the house, but everyone is going to know this update will break certain functionality.

      • Re:what next? (Score:4, Funny)

        by KiloByte ( 825081 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:56AM (#14112317)
        There are so many fakes because the RIAA has been happily hiring companies to pollute the search results for certain terms.

        Actually, I doubt the fakes can be much worse than the originals. Call me a troll, but blocking access to Eminem, Madonna and Kylie Minogue's songs is a step towards improving the quality of music.

        • Re:what next? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by PhreakOfTime ( 588141 )

          Exactly!

          Personally, Ive found so may more groups that are orders of magnitude better than the garbage found on the radio and what is 'popular'. But then, the only reason its popular is because people want to buy the song they have heard 50X in one day... for some reason...

          When did it end for me? Around 1999-2000 when the group 'metallica' put their ugly mugs before congress and told of the big bad wolf out on the internet that was stealing from them. There was no bigger irony I have seen than the group

    • Control (Score:5, Interesting)

      by KitesWorld ( 901626 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:44AM (#14112280)
      Like you said, it's about lining their pockets. One method : Deliberately add words to the list that end up with independant artists (who might release their music on Kazaa themselves) getting blocked.

      Prevent your competition from getting exposure = preventing them from becoming 'real' competition.

      Me? Paranoid? naaaaaaa.

      • Re:Control (Score:3, Insightful)

        by hug_the_penguin ( 933796 )
        That's an interesting point i hadn't thought of. If it comes to the day when they're using it to monopolise, that's the day we can take the entire institution down. Mod guys, that post deserves points.

      • Re:Control (Score:4, Interesting)

        by falsified ( 638041 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @10:26AM (#14112814)
        Example:

        My favorite band (And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead) has an LP named Madonna. While I believe they're on a major label now, and I don't know their stance on filesharing, anyone who wants to check out that CD can't, especially since they're sure as hell not gonna play it on the radio. (By the way, check them out. They're not death metal, despite their name.)

      • A nice conspiracy theory, but empirically speaking, Kazaa lists essentially no unsigned musicians, and very few "indie" musicians from anything other than RIAA-subsidiary labels.
    • Repeat After Me: Fighting Piracy is a war of attrition, NOT a war of absolutes.

      The goal of anti piracy measures is not (realistically) to eliminate all piracy. Rather, it's to make piracy a relative hassle so that more people will stay clear of it.

      For EVERY anti-piracy mechanism there will be some workaround - be it a rename, a magic marker, a shift key, a crack, a patch, or whatever. That's not the point. The point is that the more of a pain or the more specific knowledge it takes to do such a work

    • Why is it evil that the RIAA wants to "line their pockets", but not evil that the artist wants to line his pocket and therefore signed with an RIAA member record company instead of giving away his music for free?

    • Re:what next? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by drsquare ( 530038 )
      But of course this matters not so long as the RIAA can line their pockers with consumers' money.

      I know, damn them, selling products for money. That's the most disgraceful thing I've ever heard.

      How can they be so audacious to want to prevent the illegal distribution of things they sell?

  • Same legal battle (Score:3, Funny)

    by newell98 ( 539530 ) <chris@sheepdogin c . ca> on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:38AM (#14112116) Homepage
    Is this the same legal battle thats been going on for the last few years? Or is this a completely new one?

  • Bring on the l337 speak! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Samir Gupta ( 623651 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:39AM (#14112117) Homepage
    or Pig Latin, etc... when will they learn?

    • And remember the DMCA (Score:4, Informative)

      by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:06AM (#14112337) Homepage
      rot13, l33t, pig-latin, backward spelled....

      all these are methods used to *crypt* the filename.
      under the DMCA it *IS COMPLETLY ILLEGAL* to the ??AA to try to circumvent them.
      If they try to add "3m1n3m", "adona-may", or "brit. sraeps" to the list, they're breaking an encryption scheme and that's illegal for them !!!

  • Eh? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:40AM (#14112124) Homepage Journal
    Apart from the obvious slashdot also has this technology in place:
    Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

    I thought kazaa was long dead and buried and reduced to nothingness.

    I know noone who uses it anymore, its all BT and eDonkey type stuff.

    Another obvious thought here, could I supply my own list of copyrighted files and make sure they aren't searchable, my company has copyrighted files which should be protectable, wheres the web interface to do it?

    Or is this another anal raping by the music industry just to get their own way?
    • eDonkey's on the way out or dead I believe, but the eMule [emule-project.net] reimplementation of the eDonkey 2000 client is still going strong, using the eMule and KADemlia networks.
    • It's just the same old game of whack-a-mole. By the time they put the nails in Napster's coffins, everyone had migrated away too. The vanguard (Slashdot user types) go first, and it takes a year or two for the rest of the non-technerati to catch up. By then, the new P2P network gets swollen with users, and within a few months the RIAA's paid goons are flooding that network with crap fake songs. The vanguard slink off to start their own quiet, new P2P network (like eDonkey originally was - remember how h

  • Horay! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Black Copter Control ( 464012 )
    Now, Independent artists artists who actually want to have their music shared can actually find a market. The big labels already have their marketing channel (radio + TV). Now, there's one for the independents.

    • Re:Horay! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Mr2001 ( 90979 )
      Now, Independent artists artists who actually want to have their music shared can actually find a market.

      Don't try to spin this as something positive. Those independent artists could already use Kazaa as a marketing/distribution channel.. the presence of Eminem and Madonna songs on Kazaa wasn't stopping anyone from finding independent music.

      This won't make it any easier for people to find legal downloads, it'll only make it (trivially) harder to find illegal ones.

    • Re:Horay! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by newell98 ( 539530 )
      If anything I would think that it would actually hurt them. If keyword filtering results in less people using the network, then thats one less avenue that an independent artist can use to get their music out. Popular artists will still be availible illegally from bittorrent etc., but people will be less likely to run accross a lesser known artist.
    • Things like Kazaa and the deceased Napster were and are no good for finding independent music. The way the searches work, they are only any good for finding things that are popular, because you must know what you're searching for ahead of time. You can't just browse a genre to try and find independent music.

      Things like Magnatune are about five orders of magnitude better for finding an independent artist that you like because you can browse and sample easily by category (and you know it will all be good qual
      • I discovered dmusic [dmusic.com] from another poster here on /. yesterday ...
        I've listened to a few bands - it's pretty raw stuff in some cases, but hey! that's when music still has a soul.

        I personally like the ideals from the boycott-riaa [boycott-riaa.com] site:

        1) Ongoing boycott of all RIAA products, including the free samples on radio, peer-to-peer and television.

        Just not buying the CDs is not enough to kill the beast ... boycott all forms of *AA.

  • Call me stupid, but? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Killjoy_NL ( 719667 ) <slashdot@@@remco...palli...nl> on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:42AM (#14112133)
    Who still uses Kazaa?
    From the newbie people I've helped with their pc's, I've only seen 1 with kazaa still installed.

    Most of them have moved on to other "better" methods of downloading their music/etc.

    Does Kazaa still have spyware btw?

  • Problem with generics... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Denyer ( 717613 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:43AM (#14112134)
    I highly doubt Kylie Minogue is the only Kylie out there with recorded material, for example. Blocking specific artist+album+song combinations might be reasonable, but there's a lot of room for false positives.

    In time, even more absurd terms may become blocked... eg, The [wikipedia.org].

  • This will block legal file transfers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bloodbob ( 584601 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:44AM (#14112139)
    Here is an example of one of the song names that was a part of the complaint against kazaa "Yellow". This basicly means anyone searching for "yellow something" is going to have their download blocked.

    • What about the kids? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by 5, Troll ( 919133 )
      It's a shame no-one has thought of including a list of child porn related keywords to help prevent file sharing of images and movies that exploit children.

      But I guess there is no money in stopping child porn.
    • Here is an example of one of the song names that was a part of the complaint against kazaa "Yellow". This basicly means anyone searching for "yellow something" is going to have their download blocked.

      I seem to remember the same problem arising when Napster started blocking searches based on keyword. A lot of people were very cross that their own music they were sharing got blocked along with the RIAA's stuff.

      With Kazaa, it's even worse because people share all kinds of material; as you say, it's yellow

    • Time for somebody independent to write a song with yellow in the title and sue the RIAAu or whatever their big label cartel is called for restricting their exposure. It's high time these illegal cartels were brought to justice.
    • Let's hope they don't add these to their list of blocked artist/song names .

      The The
      REM (how many words contain those three letters in that order?)
      Or for that matter: M (Pop Muzik)
      Any Solo artists with common names (like Michael Jackson - does that mean that nobody can share files with Michael in the name anymore?
      Train, Jewel?

      The list could go on. It's a good thing the labels don't protect their entire catalog, since I'm sure the entire English dictionary would be blocked out.

  • kazaa is dead long live p2p. (Score:4, Informative)

    by leuk_he ( 194174 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:46AM (#14112145) Homepage Journal
    You can always use eMule [emule-project.net] (win32) / amule [amule.org] (linux/max/e.a.) Shareaza (win32) or limewire [limewire.com] (win/max/javathingy) to perform those searches for you.

    The music labels got to realize if they push the p2p networks too hard the p2p clients will go underground [sourceforge.net] into anonymous [gnunet.org] networks [eff.org]
    • The music labels got to realize if they push the p2p networks too hard the p2p clients will go underground into anonymous networks
      I am a big fan of "backpacknet". Just pack your HD, visit a friend, and sync repositories. There goes half a terabyte of "content". Eat that, whatever-AA!!

      This might be even faster than p2p over broadband, provided your friend lives near and you've got enough content to exchange.

      • That's probably better from the RIAA's viewpoint, as sharing your music with 100,000 anonymous "friends" will take a while if you have to actually go visit them...
        • That's probably better from the RIAA's viewpoint, as sharing your music with 100,000 anonymous "friends" will take a while if you have to actually go visit them...
          I don't have to visit each one of them. Sharing a movie with more than one friend is enough for the exponential growth to kick in. It's a pyramid scheme that actually works :-)
    • I am pretty sure that we will soon have a p2p 2.0 as we had a Web 2.0. What the music industry doesn't seems to get it, this a Darwinian process, by acting like this they only manage to strengthen this technology. There is already plenty of new concepts floating around that will bring a new revolution into this field (anonymous, decentralised, underground, private, freenet, overnets, darknets, and so on)

      An while I am at it, emule is excellent, and they are probably the next target, they better get ready fo
    • Limewire? Not [softpedia.com] really [zeropaid.com] anymore. But there's always another gnutella client out there [zeropaid.com].
    • What's the best Limewire client for Linux (text console and GUI; seaprate clients are fine)?

  • Kazaa history (Score:3, Insightful)

    by putko ( 753330 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:51AM (#14112159) Homepage Journal
    So they started out in Europe, and only moved to Australia/Vanuatu because of RIAA pressure. Why don't they just sell the assets to a Vanuatu company and move the whole thing offshore?

    Are the new guys, operating out of Australia/Vanuatu, somehow more legit than the guys who ran it before?

    I thought the Kazaa guys were the sort to do "anything to win", including fairly Talmudic stuff like what they've already done (splitting the ads from the network itself, so that they can claim that they aren't really able to know about or stop infringing).

  • Let the syntax war begin! (Score:5, Funny)

    by file-exists-p ( 681756 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:53AM (#14112165)

    So what are the standard rewritting rules to evade dumb pattern matching ? Writing backward ? L33tsp33k ? doubling characters ? Cockney Rhyming Slang ? [wikipedia.org]

    The W3C should set up a list of standardized procedure.

  • Funny, this is exactly what they tried with Napster back in my days ...

  • Arrogance of the RIAA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by martinmcc ( 214402 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:55AM (#14112170) Homepage

    Yet again, we have the RIAA showing their complete ignorance of technology, and applying bullish tactics that will only succeed in irritating.

    10,000 words list? I can pretty much bet that most of these will be very general i.e. 'Kylie' instead of 'Kylie Minogue', so any artist named Kylie who want to bypass the grabing hands of the record industry and distribute themselves will now have a much harder time.

    It is absolutely crazy how this can happen. RIAA get a levy on blank media because some might end up with their copyright material. They install software on you machines becuase you might try to copy one of their cds. They now block 10,000 search terms on Kazaa because they might be used to 'steal' their copyright material. And for the many people who wish to use those terms for ligitimate reasons? Tough luck.

    Have a look at the riaa web site, and you will read much about how they see themselves as the protectors of culture and music. What a load of crap. They are just middle men, and middle men that have no purpose, now that technology can provide the functionailty that they have in the past.
    • I would think this would be an interesting case for lawyers to debate over. After all if the RIAA are preventing artists from distributing their music by a specific means, that certainly would be actionable.

      Time to get a few lawsuits moving in the opposite direction against the RIAA, after all in their bubble they actually think they are speaking on behalf of all recording artists, someone needs to step up and show them through the only means that seem to get through to them that they are missing the boat
    • If they do use vague keywords that interfeer with legal distribution, i would be willing to bet that would be grounds for the 'oppressed' artists to counter sue.

      The effects if allowed to continue would be almost the same as a monopoly abusing its power, in a twisted sort of way.

    • LimeWire, eMule, BitTorrent (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepplesNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday November 25, 2005 @12:46PM (#14113534) Homepage Journal

      10,000 words list? I can pretty much bet that most of these will be very general i.e. 'Kylie' instead of 'Kylie Minogue', so any artist named Kylie who want to bypass the grabing hands of the record industry and distribute themselves will now have a much harder time.

      No. Independent artists can use LimeWire, which now recognizes Creative Commons licenses on shared media. Or she can use eMule or BitTorrent. But then, independent songwriters will still run into the risk of subconsciously copying a copyrighted song [slashdot.org].

  • Why doesnt someone invent a P2P network that combines the best elements of networks/clients like kazza/fasttrack (back when it didnt suck) with the best elements of open source clients like emule.

    If the RIAA wants to attack an open source client with copies of the source code on websites all over the world and a licence that lets anyone make any changes they like and redistrubute, good for them.

  • This changes nothing? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Ilex ( 261136 )
    I thought the whole idea of these new p2p networks was that they were decentralized which means any form of censorship has to be imposed at the application level. So doesn't this mean that third partly clients like KazzaLite are immune to these block lists?

    And as nobody uses Kazza because of it's malware payload putting a blocklist in Kazza alone has about as much affect on piracy as blocking searches in bittorent.com

    Please correct me if I'm wrong!

  • The inteersting bit from the article (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Zog The Undeniable ( 632031 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:08AM (#14112203)
    ...was about Audible Magic, a technology that is supposed to identify music from a "fingerprint", regardless of what it's called, and theoretically would negate the need for a keyword search filter. I'd be genuinely interested to see how this works, given that different mp3 encoders produce different results given the same CD or can use different bitrates - and that's without OGG, WMA and other home-creatable formats.

    Maybe it's a large scale meatware solution where a downloading clip is streamed in real time into a room full of music experts, probably in Bombay?

  • Several Obvious Problems: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mrRay720 ( 874710 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:09AM (#14112207)
    1) Generic terms to block will make it difficult to search for other items. My favourite artist, "Kylie Kylie" distributes only through Kazaa. Now I can't find her stuff.

    2) Not everything related to those the scum are allegedly protecting is copyrighted. I'm sure there used to be several free public domain photos of Eminem that you could find on Kazaa. No longer possible.

    3) They just plain suck, don't they?

    Idiots. Instead of researching the reason why people are willing to download music from P2P (such as CDs no longer being a trustable source, and legally downloadable music has impractical DRM and low quality sound, prices too high across the board) they sue people and make stupid keyword blocks on software.

    I always used to do the best job I could to ensure artists are compensated, by buying music I listen to (ok, the suits and lawers got the money not the artists, but that's not the point). Nowadays they're making it increasingly hard for people to actually do the right thing. Sorry, I don't want a virus ridden PC thanks to your infected CDs - I feel much safer downloading my music. And since your stupid DRM sites don't work with my music player, I have no choice but to P2P. It's your own fault, guys. Give me no valid source, and I have no choice but to make my own.
    • Well, I'd bet that "Kylie Kylie" (if that is her real name -- just kidding) will be moving from Kazaa, very, very soon.

      They've just ruined everything; she (or maybe he) will be moving to some other channel before long.

      This is one interesting aspect of doing what the RIAA says: they want you to block just about everything (the greatest amount of stuff that might possibly infringe), and when that conflicts with the goals of legit users, they'll leave (along with the bad guys).

      That's what I don't get about thi
    • Give me no valid source, and I have no choice but to make my own.

      So you're taking piano/guitar/singing lessons, or do you really _not_ get it at all?
    • Nowadays they're making it increasingly hard for people to actually do the right thing. Sorry, I don't want a virus ridden PC thanks to your infected CDs - I feel much safer downloading my music. And since your stupid DRM sites don't work with my music player, I have no choice but to P2P. It's your own fault, guys. Give me no valid source, and I have no choice but to make my own.

      Whoa tiger - let's rethink some of this...

      Yeah the Sony virus distribution system is totally unacceptable, but that has only cropp

  • Plus they will stop being p2p (Score:3, Interesting)

    by riflemann ( 190895 ) <riflemann@@@bb...cactii...net> on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:16AM (#14112228)
    They will also want to eliminate the p2p aspect of it. From the article:

    "Audible Magic involves getting the fingerprints for all songs," said a QC acting for Sharman, John Ireland. "You put a black box between two peers and if someone wants to copy something on the list, you can't do it," he said.

    They want to basically make all transfers centralised through this black box, making Kazaa nothing more than a glorified web-based download service.

    Not that it matters to anyone...does anyone use Kazaa anyway? Those who want to obtain their music via questionable means probably use other services nowadays.
    • they're gonna have to have some pretty intelligent filters to find "digital fingerprints" when the songs have been zipped up with passwords... and random text blocks etc. have been added to the directories before zipping to really mess up the zip file. This "digital fingerprinting" sounds like some specious mumbo-jumbo to scare people away from p2p networks anyway.

  • Update: only 26 search terms will be blocked: (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y, z

    The riaa is certain their minimal search restriction (only 26 terms!!!) will improove their popularity, since they're usually known for draconian measures!

  • Erotica... (Score:3, Funny)

    by EzInKy ( 115248 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:28AM (#14112257)
    ...is a title [rpi.edu] that Madonna has used for both an album and a song, which seems to make using Kazaa for anything "interesting" kind of pointless.
  • Hint to Sharman: Modify your client to download a list of bad keywords to your client directory. Call this list of bad keywords "badsearchterms.txt" and load it from the disk everytime the user makes a search. At the very least, this should buy you some more time. (The sad part is, the filter would probably still work on 90% of KaZaA users.)
  • Who downloads music on those networks anyway. Seriously, why spend hours on-line, trying to find a proper quality full album plus cover of some chart song that's old and tiresome before the download finishes, while your appliances fill up with spyware and other junk?

    Be smart: if you insist on chart crap, a buck/quid/euro easily gets you a legal version of a song with the greatest of ease.

    If you actually have a developed taste, a tenner gets you a proper album on any medium you like (including lovely vinyl)

    • available downtown at record stores and gigs

      RIAA music is intensely popular among minors. How does one get into "gigs" until age 21 if most "gigs" put on by independent recording artists are in bars?

  • When is the Roman Catholic Church (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Flying pig ( 925874 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:35AM (#14112402)
    Going to file suit and demand that Mrs. Ritchie stop using their long term established brand name "Madonna" because it brings the brand owner into disrepute? Or have they just left it too late? I would really love to see a shootout between the RIAA and the people who gave the word "Propaganda" its modern meaning. Truth is, these "artists" have all stolen other people's words for their names - so how did they acquire rights in them?
  • I tend to assume that any good songs Eminem, Madonna, or Kylie Minogue will ever make, I've already downloaded. If I got to Kazaa, etc. its usually for some old infulential-but-cult song which I somehow missed through my own ignorance.

  • Works both ways? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ortholattice ( 175065 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:50AM (#14112452)
    So, does this mean Kazaa users can safely share downloads that made it through the filter, without fear of being sued by the RIAA? No, I didn't think so.

    Although it still might make an interesting court argument for someone with the means and motivation to actually fight one of their lawsuits. In others words, the fact that such a list, controlled by them, exists, and they fact that they chose to exclude a certain work, might be construed (by the right judge/jury at the right time) as an implicit license to share that work. So, in the best case (from the users' point of view) this could backfire on the RIAA.

  • Solution (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sockatume ( 732728 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @09:06AM (#14112486)
    Based on what has been suggested so far, I propose an "aliases list". Use absurdly commonplace strings to represent specific keyword-blocked artists/albums, and publish a lookup table. For example, "fish" could equate to "Kylie" and "the" could related to her most popular album at the time the lookup is published. Possible problem: all the false hits containing "The fish" when searching. Solution: search by file type and file size.

    A little more hard work, but once again, a little thinking flattens the RIAA's spectacular uselessness. I think that they need a new body in charge of their anti-piracy initiative as they're clearly hopeless at it.

  • Other clients? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by daikokatana ( 845609 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @09:57AM (#14112686)
    Last time I checked the Kazaa network, there were still some 3 million users counted, so that gives me the general idea that Kazaa is still in use... or is it?

    Didn't everybody already move to KazaaLite, K++, or whatever hacked/rewritten client there is out there? Who is still using the original Kazaa client?

    And how is the RIAA going to force those clients to include the forbidden search list?

  • so is Google next? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Will they now go and try to make Google block certain search terms?
  • 3menem
    M@donna
    M1nogue

    As for Audible Magic fingerprinting, how long before people just start trading encrypted files? Even ROT-13 would defeat AM I'm betting.

  • will search for louise ciccione
    or
    Britney Jean
  • From another article on the topic [silicon.com]:

    The record companies may also update the list of search terms every two weeks. Once Sharman receives the updated list, it has 48 hours to act on the changes.

    This means that the RIAA can make a new list of stopwords every 2 weeks, and Sharman will have 48 hours to implement it.

    The RIAA is going to send Sharma a new list as often as they're allowed, and simply swamp them from doing any meaningful work since they'll spend all of their time complying with this.

  • In fact, I'm honestly hoping that the RIAA comes up with a way to stop file-sharing. Then, when sales of CDs continue to suck balls, they have nothing to blame but themselves.

    However, as long as they have the spectre of evil movie pirates, they have a lever to press for more evil, rights-perverting legislation and hardware DRM. If that goes away, their fulcrum disappears and they lose thier power over congress/parliament/etc to lobby for more control. The one thing those bastards want more than profit is po
  • Dosen't this remind anyone of Napster? The exact same thing happened... people just changed the song names to include an extra space.

    The RIAA Wasn't happy with this, so they decided to go to "Filter In..." and that just didn't work, and then Napster died.

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