RIAA: Bundle copyright filters with anti-virus software?

by Romeo Wahed Feb 8th 2008

RIAA wants to be bundled with antivirus software

In its ever-continuing quest to prevent piracy, the RIAA announced in a State of the Net conference on January 30th, that it likes the idea of filters on the end user's platform that will detect if a user is doing anything illegal with copyrighted material.

Why would anyone want to install such a filter? In a video excerpt from the conference over at Public Knowledge, an RIAA representative points out that users will install filters that benefit them such as antivirus software - therefore, copyright filters could be bundled with anti-virus software, integrated into modems, or put together with some sort of package from an ISP, to help detect copyright violations. The purpose, of such filters, would be primarily to create a workaround that prevents users from using encryption to avoid detection.

The question of the day then: how much money would the music industry have to pay anti-virus/spyware/malware companies to cover the cost of customers switching to alternatives that come without the copyright filter?

[via Techdirt]

Tags: antivirus, copyright, riaa

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Todd said 12:02PM on 2-08-2008

PERFECT image for the subject Romeo!

Plus, the irony is that DRM is, in fact, "malware". Sony knew that and they built that nasty root kit a couple of years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_root_kit

Chris said 1:01PM on 2-08-2008

The crazy thing is that someone is probably being payed good money to think of these ideas.

Just shows how out of touch these guys are.

richard.gailey said 2:33PM on 2-08-2008

I sometimes wonder if the RIAA think they are living in another reality?

Rich said 4:06PM on 2-08-2008

The RIAA simply needs realize its obsolecense and just die.

kojo87 said 6:00PM on 2-08-2008

The RIAA simply needs to stay the hell out of my life!! if i buy the music i should be able to do what ever i want with it!. i bought one song off iTune. then i realized i could not burn it to a CD. i guess i didnt really buy it did i...

Brian! said 6:34PM on 2-08-2008

Can we filter these RIAA execs? I would love to see how well they pass through a colander. I think the resulting mess would be pretty nice for the world.

Chris Brentano said 6:42PM on 2-08-2008

Simple solution: Use open-source anti-virus software. Like ClamWin. They can't force open-source projects to do their bidding, but they can 'partner' with commercial anti-virus vendors (like Symantec) to include filtering for copyrighted material.

But in reality, it would be absolutely stupid for an anti-virus company to partner with the RIAA in this manner, because it would drive people to competing products or to open source products. So, if theoretically Symantec did partner with the RIAA like this, their competitor would be smart to do the opposite, and then market to Symantec customers with messages like "Don't like Big Brother spying on your personal music collection?", etc.

iguide said 7:54AM on 2-09-2008

Cool dinosaur
http://www.i-guide.ro

Amadeu said 12:01PM on 2-10-2008

Damm fascists!

iguide said 7:55AM on 2-13-2008

http://www.i-guide.ro

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