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Old 02-17-2005, 08:49 AM
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Lord Brar Lord Brar is offline
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Napster To Go gets Ripped

It looks as if things are not really going great for Napster. Just days after it spent $2.4 million on marketing its new - $15 per month - Napster To Go, music rental service someone cracked the code allowing people to get up to 20,160 minutes worth of free music during the service's 14 day free trial period.

Napster has responded with "A note from Napster's CTO" on their website claiming, as if to deflect focus from Napster, the hack will work on any music service.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Napster.com Site
It has come to our attention that there are a number of inaccurate statements posted by various sources on the Internet regarding the security of Napster and Napster To Go. As Napster's CTO, I would like to officially state that neither Napster To Go, Napster, nor Windows Media DRM have been hacked. In the interest of providing the most accurate information to consumers, the following is some background on the subject.

There is a program that allows a user to record the playback of tracks directly from the computer's sound card. This process can be likened to the way people used to record songs from the radio onto cassette tapes, but instead of capturing the music on a tape, the file is converted into a new, unprotected digital format. This program does not break the encryption of the files, which can only be recorded one at a time making the process quite laborious. It would take 10 hours to convert 10 hours of music in this manner. It is important to note that this program is not specific to Napster; files from all legal subscription and pay-per-download services can be copied in this way.

We hope that the information provided above clarifies the matter and puts questions regarding the security of Napster and Napster To Go to rest. Napster's mission is to provide consumers with a legal environment in which they can experience and discover the world's largest collection of digital music. We believe that artists should be compensated for their work and intellectual property rights should be respected. While we acknowledge there are always going to be those who do not share our belief, we remain committed to providing the most enjoyable and flexible digital music experience for those who do.
Any geek out here who can comment on the technicality of the above statement?
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Old 02-21-2005, 09:21 PM
phoenixdown phoenixdown is offline
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Well essential what they said is correct. The basic premise is that at some point, you will have to decrypt the signal and pass it on the 'appliance'. Once its decrypted, you can essentially capture the signal and re-record it onto new media.

Take cable - you have a box that receives the encrypted signal, decodes it and sends it on to your TV, but any guy with a VCR can record it and view it again at thier discretion. Theres always a loss of quality since its no longer a perfect digital copy but most people wouldn't notice or even care.
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