Fighting software with software
2003-05-04 13:00
New York - Major recording companies which have thus far battled online piracy with lawsuits are now turning to technology in a ratcheting-up of their fight to protect copyrighted music, a report here said.
The companies are financing development and testing of software that would sabotage the computers and internet connections of people illegally downloading copyrighted music, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
Some of the tactics being developed by a handful of technology firms for unnamed clients may not even be legal, the report said.
The industry has so far relied mostly on lawsuits in its efforts to stop unauthorised downloading of music files, a practice that costs it more than $2.5 billion a month in lost sales, according to The Recording Industry Association of America.
In the latest such case, the association agreed on Thursday to settlements of between $12 000 and $17 500 each from four college students accused of stealing music online.
But a ruling last month dismissing copyright infringement charges against two firms that offer file-sharing services - a stunning blow to the recording industry - has led it to consider more aggressive tactics, the report said.
Possible new weapons in the anti-piracy war include a 'Trojan Horse' programme that redirects users to websites where they can buy the song they were trying to download for free, the Times reported.
Another programme locks up a computer systems for minutes to hours and displays a warning against piracy, while a third scans a computer's hard drive for pirated files and deletes them.
"There are a lot of things you can do - some quite nasty," Marc Morgenstern, chief executive of technology firm Overpeer, told the Times. "Our philosophy is to make downloading pirated music a difficult and frustrating experience" without breaking the law, he was quoted as saying.