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Napster hack allows free distribution of software, movies





Napster hack allows free distribution of software, movies
By John Borland
March 22, 2000, 4:15 p.m. PT
http://home.cnet.com/category/0-1005-200-1581232.html

          A new program has been posted on the Internet that transforms a
popular music-trading network into a full-blown online swap meet capable
of trading videos and software.

  The program, dubbed Wrapster, has been available for downloading since
yesterday. According to its developer, Wrapster allows any kind of file to
be listed and traded over the Napster network, which was designed to
recognize only MP3 music files.

  CNET News.com was able to use the program to locate and download several
different types of files through Napster. A source at Napster said company
executives are aware of Wrapster but have not done anything to block its
use.

  Wrapster joins a growing list of programs allowing the quick, free and
wide distribution of illegally copied files. The trend is bad news for
record companies, movie studios and software companies that have fought
hard to keep their wares from being pirated online.

  Programs such as Wrapster and Nullsoft's Gnutella, which mimic and
expand on Napster, are quickly speeding the erosion of copyright
protections online, leaving copyright holders scrambling to keep up.

  "(Copyright holders) are aggressively pursuing the issue in the courts,"
said Peter Schalestock, an attorney with Perkins Coie. "They'd like to
keep up with the technology, but that is turning into an arms race."

  Napster, a program designed to let Internet users swap music files with
one another, has quickly moved to the heart of the controversy over
pirated music and online copyrights. The software allows people to share a
library of MP3 music files with anyone else on the Napster system and to
freely download songs directly from others' computers.

  Napster's ease of use and the huge selection of music available through
the system have made it a favorite among college students and other
communities with high-speed Internet connections. Thousands of people can
frequently be found on the network in the evenings, often sharing nearly a
million songs with their peers.

                  This has infuriated the recording industry, which views
Napster as a tool for piracy. The Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) has sued the company, charging that its software is
facilitating the distribution of illegal material. The industry is asking
courts for a potentially huge sum of $100,000 per illegally distributed
song.

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                      Watch video 
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"The overwhelming majority of the MP3 files offered on Napster are
infringing," the RIAA says on a Web page explaining its position. "We
believe Napster knows this and even encourages it."

  To this point, the turmoil has been caused simply by the distribution of
music files. Wrapster raises the stakes, however.

  The Wrapster program tricks the Napster software into thinking that any
file or set of files, including items such as software, videos or games,
are MP3 files.

  Its author, identified as "Octavian" in the program's "about" file,
suggests using the software as a means for trading programs such as
Windows 2000. Octavian could not be reached for comment.

  While aware of Wrapster, executives at Napster do not yet see it as a
problem.

  "They really see it as something that's benign right now," said Dan
Wool, a spokesman for Napster. "Until it poses some kind of problem,
they'll just keep the status quo."

  Napster proponents note that Wrapster's search capabilities aren't
unique online. A less well-known program dubbed iMesh allows people to
swap music, video and other multimedia files. That provides a broader
range of options than Napster itself, which only supports MP3 files, but
falls short of the capabilities of the new Wrapster technique.

  The software also has spawned imitators offering expanded features.
Programmers at Nullsoft, the digital music player company recently
acquired by America Online, unveiled an open-source effort that, like
Wrapster, would allow any kind of file to be shared. Although AOL quickly
pulled the project from its site, the code is available elsewhere, and the
project may move ahead independently.

  "Other programs have already tried to imitate Napster's system and even
taken it a step further," said Wayne Chang, a Haverhill, Mass., student
who manages Napster's online community bulletin boards. "Wrapster is just
ripping off the same idea, except this time disguising the files as the
only media that Napster currently recognizes."

  The movie and software industries are watching the RIAA's experience
closely, aware that they'll ultimately be subjected to the same pressure.
They don't face the same risk of widespread piracy today because
high-speed Internet connections still aren't common enough to make
numerous downloads of their products feasible.

  An audio MP3 file generally takes up to half an hour to download over a
dial-up connection and just seconds over a cable or DSL modem. A file such
as Windows 2000 or a Hollywood movie, however, could take all day over an
ordinary modem and potentially hours even over a fast connection.

  Nevertheless, the studios and software manufacturers are doing their
best to protect their works against copying and to threaten potential
pirates with high-stakes lawsuits.

  "It's an arms race as long as someone is trying to get around (copyright
protections)," said Rich Taylor, vice president of public affairs for the
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). "The only things that are
preventing a full-blown explosion of video entertainment on the Net are
the lack of high-speed connections and the need to secure that digital
product."