Yet Another Of My...

[3rd gen noob]

ok, this is yet another of my stupid ideas
feel free to call me stupid or to flame me or whatever
however, i was thinking (sounds dangerous) about the whole riaa vs 'us' thing going on just now...

i think pretty much everyone on the forum realises that it's copyright infringement to upload copyrighted music (and download for that matter)

however, would it be illegal to upload/download encrypted versions of mp3 tracks
if users were to use an encryption program (something along the lines of pgp), then allow them to be shared, would this constitute breach of copyright?

obviously on the other end, the other user would have a decryption programme to decrypt the track...

ok, now tell me i'm stupid

[toddiscool]

I think that no matter what the medium it is still copywright infingment.

I do not really see how encrypting it makes it less illegal, since the encrypted package still contains the same end product.

[3rd gen noob]

well, you're not actually transferring the original data
you are transferring encrypted data which requires a third party application to decrypt

[toddiscool]

If i sent you a copied cd in a box, you would need a third pary knife to cut open the tape.

^sorry sarcasm is not my strong suite, but the idea is the same, it does not matter what the packing is, same end product. An mp3 is not the format that record labels distrute in. So that is the same thing. It is the song that is Copywrighted not the file, or CD.

[3rd gen noob]

i did warn you it was a stupid idea

[toddiscool]

I have had worse ideas. As far as encryption goes, in theory if we set up a "group" of people who knew about it, we could label things in our own code, because all the they need is a filename to sue correct? so encrypted or not, does not make a diffrence. But if we had a lanuguage all are own then we could share encrypted files like crazy.

I have had worse ideas

There is just came up with one to make you feel better.
I am about to unleash my own stupid Idea in gameworld, so can repay me soon.

[3rd gen noob]

ok, answer me this:
if i encrypt an mp3 with the best encryption available to the public (last time i checked it was 128 bit, but it's probably 256 now...) and sent it to someone in the same country as me over a p2p network or through an ftp server etc, would authorities be able to either decrypt the file in a reasonable amount of time, or to prove the file was indeed a copyright protected file?

[toddiscool]

Well you have just oficially jumped out of knowledge feild. (small feild) but I would say that yes they can. I mean the kind of encryption that we would use, would be as easy to decrypt as it was to encrypt for someone with the source file, and a knowledge.

The point would be weather it was worth it for them to decrypt.
The point that I was making is that, the filename on it would be enough would it not, for the all mighty to take action. That is why I talked about "our own language" for filenames.

[3rd gen noob]

i don't like it when someone calls me stupid, then can't even spell

also, don't you think that if you were gonna encrypt a file, you'd at least change the filename...

edit: also, if i make up an mp3 of my band (i don't have one really) then change the name to eminem.mp3, it doesn't make the file illegal to download
filenames mean nothing to the law

[Rip The Jacker]

Originally posted by toddiscool@11 September 2003 - 22:56
If i sent you a copied cd in a box, you would need a third pary knife to cut open the tape.

^sorry sarcasm is not my strong suite

I found it funny

EDIT: 800 posts! W00t!