Citing this article, in part:
Spanish developer Pablo Soto, whose Blubster and Piolet software have attracted several hundred thousand users, is taking a decidedly different tack. While including strong encryption and some privacy-enhancing features in a new version of the software expected to be released in the next few weeks, he’s also changing the way files are downloaded.
Information such as an MP3 song will still be downloaded from its original source, he said. But a song will be scrambled, and downloaded simply as raw, unintelligible data. This means that no actual copy of a song is being exchanged, he contends.
If downloaders want to turn that data into useable music, their software must seek elsewhere on the file-swapping network for the encryption ‘keys’ that will unlock the data, transforming it back into an MP3. Separating the download of the data and the keys may help protect file sharers from lawsuits, making it more difficult for courts to say exactly which party is responsible for copyright infringement, Soto said.
a mailing list member said:
This reminded me immediately of my favorite RISKS article, “The source of semantic content” (Gat, RISKS-16.87). Perhaps Gat’s questions “Has the law been broken? Who broke it?” will soon be tested in court.
Content copyright, courts, encryption, infringement, MP3, P2P
Secure phones: now available, a bit pricey.
Berlin-based Cryptophone, a unit of privately held GSMK, developed the phone by inserting an encryption software inside a standard handheld computer phone. This ensures that calls can only be decoded by a similar handset or a computer running the software.
But the phone is seen as a mixed blessing in some European countries. While the benefits for business managers exchanging sensitive information are obvious, such a device could potentially have the side effect of helping criminals.
Security specialists in the Netherlands said the device could threaten criminal investigation by the Dutch police, which is one of the world’s most active phone tappers, listening in to 12,000 phone numbers every year.
But privacy lobbyists say the new handset is a “freedomphone” much more than a “terrorphone.”
“It’s a tremendous step forward, because the level of surveillance by authorities is breathtaking,” said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International in Britain.
Devices cell phone, crypto, encryption, mobileTech, privacy, security, self-determination
Ah, unintended consequences. Just as the long arm of the law helped support prohibition some years ago, a new form of speakeasy is now cropping up to assist information and file sharers, who are widely seen as being under attack.
Internet file-sharers are operating much like any society that falls under attack. And the very technologies they are using as shields have long been employed by legitimate businesses to protect their data from prying eyes and hackers.
‘The software that users are moving toward, it has characteristics that businesses need — which is a high degree of privacy, a high degree of security and the ability to handle large files,’ said Clay Shirky, a professor of interactive telecommunications at New York University.
Three years after the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawyers succeeded in shutting down the Napster file-trading service, the music industry’s jihad against unauthorized digital music distribution is reaping an unintended consequence: better, easier-to-use software for exchanging data securely — and even anonymously — on the Internet.
‘Thanks to the RIAA, ease of use surrounding encryption technologies, which was never a big deal before, is a big deal now,’ Shirky said.
Content anonymous, encryption, file sharing, knowledge management, P2P, privacy, RIAA, security