Napster Blocking Creates Dan Quayle Effect
[posted on inforanarchy.org, 3/12/01 06:36:59 AM]
The ruling of the California 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the
injunction subsequently issued by the District Court have forced Napster
to block names of infringing files. Since users are, naturally,
phlegmatic, most people seem to ignore the blocklist and keep using
Napster. Simple defense mechanisms have been developed to evade the
filters.
[the reference here is about Aimster's Pig Encoder (PE). The PE "takes
each of the file names of the mp3 files of your Napster directory and
encodes the file names so that the name cannot be easily monitored." (for
example, "Music" becomes "usicM"; "Hello" becomes "olleH" and so on)]
But since Napster currently (probably intentionally) doesn't use
complex matching to block variations, the filters don't work very
well. The blocking is done entirely on the server. From a strategic point
of view, it would have made more sense to build the blocking mechanism
into the client and claim that it's impossible to get the older clients to
behave, the RIAA would probably have believed it.
Anyway, the filter has some unpredicted side effects. Not only the
beforementioned intentional renaming -- unintentionally misspelled files
are spreading faster than ever. Which basically means that Napster has
created a "Dan Quayle Effect": The system teaches teenagers the wrong
spelling! Some examples of misspelled and otherwise incorrect songnames:
* Britney Spears: "Oops, I think I did it again!" (the verbose
variant), "oops did it again", "Opps I did it again", "Oops I did it
agan" ..
* Metallica: "I Dissappear", "I Dissapear", "I Dispear", "Memory
that Remains", "Memory Remain", "The Memory Remans", "The Memory
Reamains", "Master of Pupets", "The Call of Katulu" (Call of the Ktulu),
"Call of the Klutu", "The Call of Ktula", "Call of the Ktul", "The Ecstsay
of Gold" (Ecstasy of Gold), "For Whom The Bell Toles" ..
* Dr. Dre: "Keep There Heads Ringin'", "Keep your heads ringin'",
"Keep thier heads ringin'", "Keep their Heads", "The Massage" (The
Message)
* Elton John: "Candel in the Wind", "Circle Off Life", "Circle of
Live", "Have Mercay on the Criminal" ..
America doesn't need to worry that Napster will teach children to steal,
but thanks to the RIAA, it will create a whole array of new
vocabulary! Perhaps it's time that parents file a class action countersuit
.. but always remember: Every day is a windy road (Sheryl Cow .. I mean,
Crow).
http://www.infoanarchy.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/3/12/63659/2421
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