Investigating RIAA''s Reaction to Baseless Hacking Allegations

Inside RIAA's Perspective On Hacking Claims And Music Piracy

Jan 20, 2003 •

1 - 2 min read

"Gobbles", the German hacker who improbably claimed to have infected peer-to-peer file sharing networks and to "0wn" your computer this week, has confirmed that his brag was a hoax. That much, you probably suspected, as Goebbels (as we must now call him) failed to offer a shred of evidence in support of the notion that the RIAA was engaged in widespread intrusion of personal computers. . . "Gobbles", the German hacker who improbably claimed to have infected peer-to-peer file sharing networks and to "0wn" your computer this week, has confirmed that his brag was a hoax. That much, you probably suspected, as Goebbels (as we must now call him) failed to offer a shred of evidence in support of the notion that the RIAA was engaged in widespread intrusion of personal computers.

But meet Matt Warne. He has an interesting tale to tell.

For two years Warne worked for the global version of the RIAA, the IFPI which represents 1500 labels in 76 countries, with headquarters in London. The IFPI's primary mission is to "fight music piracy", and Warne worked with the RIAA and the biggest labels in implementing technologies to document and thwart file sharing. The IPFI co-ordinated efforts to glean detailed information about who was sharing what, and where. The organization, backed by the labels, was responsible for providing detailed evidence to the legal teams fighting Napster, Aimster and mined information about the burgeoning peer to peer networks, such as Gnutella. IPFI is responsible for trawling the world's web, ftp and irc channels and runs the automated system that sends warning letters to ISPs and webmasters.

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