RIAA's Initiative to Use MP3 Infections for File Monitoring

The RIAA is preparing to infect MP3 files in order to audit and eventually disable file swapping, according to a startling claim by hacker group Gobbles. In a posting to the Bugtraq mailing list, Gobbles himself claims to have offered his . . . The RIAA is preparing to infect MP3 files in order to audit and eventually disable file swapping, according to a startling claim by hacker group Gobbles. In a posting to the Bugtraq mailing list, Gobbles himself claims to have offered his code to the RIAA, creating a monitoring "hydra".

"Several months ago, GOBBLES Security was recruited by the RIAA (riaa.org) to invent, create, and finally deploy the future of antipiracy tools. We focused on creating virii/worm hybrids to infect and spread over p2p nets," writes Gobbles.

"Until we became RIAA contracters [sic], the best they could do was to passively monitor traffic. Our contributions to the RIAA have given them the power to actively control the majority of hosts using these networks."