H4x0r group claims to have written universal P2P infector, commissioned by the RIAA. The alleged worm infects MP3 files, exploits vulnerabilities in players under Windows and Linux and sends catalogues of your MP3s to the RIAA as evidence for prosecution. Oh, and did I mention that it's undetectable? So, if you have MP3s, physically destroy your hard disks NOW. (Don't just erase them; computer forensics people can recover wiped disks.) US federal prisons are not pleasant places to be.

(If the RIAA is involved, it'd be more likely that it would be a psychological warfare operation and not a technical operation; the purpose being to destroy as many unrestricted MP3s as possible. It would work like this: circulate a few things like this, stage some arrests (make sure there are TV crews to film the SWAT teams going in) and publicise that the "pirates" were brought to justice by a new P2P worm, and watch guilty geeks nuke their MP3 collections and drop their hard disks in sulphuric acid. Then, when the smoke clears, sell all the songs back to them in rights-managed pay-per-play versions, and laugh all the way to the shareholders' meeting. Could the RIAA possibly have a better way of getting all those pesky MP3 files off the market?)

(Of course, there's also the possibility that it's 100% bullshit made up by some bored teenager.) (via bOING bOING)

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com | Tue Jan 14 07:54:08 2003

Brought to you by a mob that's had it's website hacked four times in the past few months.

Posted by: Skullgrin | http:// | Tue Jan 14 10:23:18 2003

bwahhaahaaa haaa!!!!

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Tue Jan 14 13:16:40 2003

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28842.html

Apparently the cracker group "Gobbles" are real, and damned good at what they do, though given to exaggeration. And the RIAA have congressmen working on legalising exactly such cracking attacks. I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss it as complete bullshit.

(AFAIK, though, possession of unlicenced MP3s is not a crime, only trafficking is. Possession of more than a certain number could automatically count as trafficking (as it does with drug laws). Any lawyers in the house?)

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