Catch a Thief...Beating Them At Their Own Game

It seems that at least a few people other than those who use file-swapping programs realize that indeed, those who want, will get. If not via Napster, music lovers will always be able to get their hands on music illegally, whether through peer-to-peer networks such as Gnutella, or FTP, or IRC, they will always be there. So now the music industry is faced with a big decision, and that is whether to run with it, or use those technologies against the thieves they are working so hard to stop.

A new company named MediaDefender hopes to help the music industry, and related industries such as movies and such, to stop the mass pirating that is currently plaguing the Internet. How it can do so you may ask? What seems like a simple idea, spoofing involves exactly what it says, tricking a user into thinking it is what they are looking for, but when it is opened a message appears warning the user of the illegal activity they have just performed.

The real question is will it work? Some experts think it might, and others aren't so optimistic. Personally, it seems that if a spoof is downloaded you simply need to find another person sharing the same song and download it from them. Not a difficult thing to understand.

Music sharing will always be a part of the Internet thanks to the likes of Napster and those who have worked hard to develop other protocols. The billion dollar music industry fails to realize that netizens are smarter than they think, and that any attempts to stop piracy can be negated in a short few minutes by downloading another file-swapping program.

Just like SDMI technologies against pirating music were broken, and DVD encryption was cracked, the technologies of the future will not stand a chance in the long run. Someone, in the end, will always beat them. It just takes time.