RIAA Attacks Sites Participating in Its Own Campaign 384
An anonymous reader writes "The RIAA is once again at their old tricks. The band Nine Inch Nails has intentionally 'leaked' songs via USB keys hidden at restrooms during their current European tour. Sites hosting the songs are now being sent cease and desist orders. 'Ironically, with its numerous pirated downloads available, the whole album has not leaked yet. According to a source, the only leaks are the ones Reznor approved himself. And whether he realizes it or not, Reznor may be building a new option for presenting music that augments the existing CD/tour scenario.'"
I think you're the confused one (Score:2, Interesting)
If it isn't I don't know what is anymore.
What did he put them on the USB drive for to begin with?
To _not_ get publicity?
To _not_ get the songs distributed and heard?
Seriously, it's like arresting people for taking part in a free give away.
"found" USB keys (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, USB key, or, really, anything else, who is taking things they find lying around (in bathrooms!) and putting them in their computers?
This might just give script kiddies the idea of a brand new way to start spreading worms...
I'm not sure if i'm trying to be serious or gross, here, but i do know i would not be putting a found USB key in any box of mine (esp. if it is running windows...)
Similarly, what kind of format are these being left in? MP3? WMA? something with some nasty DRM?
This is a matter of point of view (Score:1, Interesting)
Since noone purchased the music they did not subsequently agree to any copyright agreement. There was no stipulation to picking up the keys and finding the music on them.
Another example of this would be someone leaving the code to chemical equation to Cold Fusion on a napkin and then the owners who knowingly put it there say "You can't share that with anyone!". I know that's a stretch of the example but I think the RIAA fighting this is self defeating and wrong to be honest
Reminds me a rabid dog (Score:4, Interesting)
RIAA reminds more of a rabid dog: Biting at friend and foe alike. An unreasoning animal with no clear objective.
I'm not sure what strategy they're pursuing, but it's not working. One wonders why member companies continue funding an organization that frequently acts against their membership's best interests and frequently paints them in a bad light. It's just astounding to me how poorly RIAA performs their task and how ineffective in achieving their objectives. And they don't seem to learn anything from past failures. It's like a corporate version of the Bush administration.
Don't sell Rez short - he knows his marketing... (Score:5, Interesting)
Um...you really think Rez's leaking songs for something other than to augment his gravy train (CD/tour)? No, like most people trying to make a living in entertainment, he's picked up some marketing savvy along the way, and is using the same "try before you buy" technique that also works when selling software, illegal drugs and laundry detergent.
The story about dropping USBs in the shitter is just a brilliant way to get even more free press: a band putting their B-sides on its web site is already quite common and won't get its story...
Re:I think you're the confused one (Score:3, Interesting)
There's also a difference between "a USB key with a song or two on it", and a string of left behind songs on USB sticks that are part of a campaign that the label signed off on.
I think that once it's clear that the artist is doing it on purpose, on a digital medium, in 2007, with the label's permission - that's implicit license to share it with everybody over the 'Net to your heart's content.
Re:I think you're the confused one (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a legitimate question of ownership here so the parent is not off base. If Trent owned the songs, he can do as he wishes. But if the record company owned them, he is not allowed to distribute them. The sad reality is that most bands have to give up their copyrights to the record company to get their first record deals. That's why some of the early Beatles songs are owned by Michael Jackson and not the Beatles themselves. These are new songs so I suspect that NiN owns them.
Re:You can cut the sarcasm with a knife (Score:2, Interesting)
if everything were free, i'm sure we'd see a glut of "gimme gimme gimme" right away, but then it would taper off as people realize they only have enough space for so much.
i found myself in a similar situation in regards to pirated music. when i first got introduced to bit torrent, i went nuts downloading everything i might ever be interested in having the ability to listen to. then i filled up my hard drive. then another. then i was faced with buying more storage, or tapering off my consumption of "free" music/movies/whatever. it started to cost something to store it all.
the other issue is that i don't need to download it all, since it's mostly all available anytime i want it. it's just a matter of finding a source for it.
people won't be in such a rush to get the latest greatest thing once it's all available for free, cos they can get whatever they want, whenever they want. there'd be no false sense of scarcity, etc.
i'm not saying that everything should be free, nor that there wouldn't be a slew of problems inherent in such a system. i'm just saying that i don't think the current consumer mentality would transfer over if all of a sudden every product and service were all of a sudden free. as in beer.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
That is as much theft as anything that consumer pirates do.
Now the RIAA is trying to interfere with one of it's artists that has realized that pirates are a damn good distribution medium. This situation simply highlights the fact that artists have no real control over their work anymore. Those with the most valuable creative contribution are actually being exploited and abused by the very body that loudly proclaims to protect musicians.
There is also fair use and the actual artists intent to consider.
Re:I think you're the confused one (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:USB Flash Drive RISKS (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually looked this up a while ago. The short answer is yes, Windows will indeed auto-run a USB flash drive. The longer answer is that making it auto-run a flash drive involves some special setup of the USB drive, so if you just dump an autorun.inf file onto a USB flash drive nothing will happen.
Windows will only auto-run media that marks itself as "fixed" when it's queried. You can find details in this FAQ from Microsoft [microsoft.com]. (Note: there's no direct anchor to the question, so you'll need to scroll up two questions from the anchor I linked to.)
I'm not sure if it's possible to make any flash drive into a "fixed" device, but there have to be "special" drives designed to allow autorun, so plugging in random USB flash drives is definitely a bad idea - at least under Windows.
Re:I think you're the confused one (Score:4, Interesting)
Similarly, if NIN intentionally lose USB sticks with some songs from their unreleased album, how could the finder be expected to know or verify that the mp3 is actually a real NIN mp3 and copyrighted? Call Trent?
At what stage does a song that is sung become a copyrighted song?
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
"who owns these songs? I rather suspect it isn't the artists any more."
I don't know the details of NIN's contract, but generally the people who wrote the words and music own the words and music, and the people who funded and produced the recording own the recording.
There are several record labels for which SOP is for the artists to own the masters, but -- and this is very important -- the artist must pay for and arrange for the production of those masters themselves. Magnatunes comes to mind here, but there are several others.
I think what a lot of Slashdotters would like to see is a record company that provides the cash and the expertise for producing the recordings, and then lets the artist have the rights to the masters to use as they see fit without worrying about the record company recouping its investment. This would be absolutely great for artists... it would be like finding a rich uncle or a bank that would give you a loan and never expect to be paid back.
Re:Security Standpoint (Score:3, Interesting)
good plan. problem all HP and DELL computers come with usb only mice and keyboards, oops the keyboards have usb ports on them. Oops the user can plug in a hub, etc...
the solution is to disable removable storage, under windows its far harder to do than under linux or other OS's because windows at it's heart is a Consumer OS that wants to be friendly to you.
I have done it, all usb ports are useable, no USB storage devices work in them and USB boot will not work. It took us a good week to nail down that image only to have it undone by the braindead idiot that is our CTO. He gave out 1 gig thumbdrives to all employees to replace floppies and CD's, then the flood of bitching started they would not work, the executives commanded us to re-enable USB drives.
the BIGGEST threat to network and computer security is the executives.
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
"I think what we'd like to see is the record companies stop demanding more and more money for the creative work of the artists *after* they're recouped their investment."
Interesting idea! If I understand you correctly, it would be a record company that would aim for zero profitability. The mission statement would be to fund the production of music and earn back the costs, but not to make a profit going forward. This would be a very bold step indeed, as even Magnatune and CDBaby aim for a profit, rather than simply covering costs.
Perhaps some enterprising Slashdotter can set up a non-profit organization to do just that. It could be a foundation, or even an artist-run collective, that would have as its mission statement to give away the music for free, or give the rights to the artists, after the costs had been recovered. However, given the state of the record industry (Warner managed to clear something like three points of net profit last year, and lots of smaller labels are bleeding money) going for zero profit would be a goal, not a step backward for many of them!
Re:Security Standpoint (Score:3, Interesting)
Windows will run arbitrary code upon mounting a removable device. I think with some effort and luck, you could convince an OS X or Linux user to run code from the drive unwittingly.
More importantly, a little rectangle with a USB port doesn't have to present itself as a removable disk. It can present itself as, say, an input device, and then type arbitrary strings into the user's computer. I believe it can present itself as a video output device without difficulty, in which case it can be used to spy on the computer. It can probably present itself as a network device and engage in some MitM attacks that way. It can attempt to just exploit a buffer overflow or something in the OS's USB drivers.
Actively malicious peripherals are a serious security problem.