Subject: RE: [hackers-il] (OFFTOPIC) Listen and delete

From: Ishay Sommer <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 18:27:16 +0200

After posting, I also thought about a program which will simply delete the
file from it's playing list... What I basically want is to take big playing
lists, and just listen ONCE to every song...

About the hacking project, it can be nice to build a startup to create
protection mechanizms over mp3's, to "hack" the player and delete the file
after a while ;-) I am sure many music companies will be interested in it
;-)

Ishay

-----Original Message-----
From: mulix
To: [email-masked]'
Sent: 11/3/2000 4:44 PM
Subject: Re: [hackers-il] (OFFTOPIC) Listen and delete

On Fri, 3 Nov 2000, Ishay Sommer wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> This is a little off topic but rather interesting.
> I am looking for an mp3 player software, which will after playing a
file
> delete it. If anyone knows anything, please let me know.

Simply patching any open source mp3 palyer to delete a file after it's
played is quite trivial- perhpahs you could elaborate on what you want
to do?

> While thinking about it, I also thought whether it's possible to
include a
> set of instructions at the end of an mp3 files, to delete itself after
being
> listened to?

an mp3 file cannot 'delete' itself, since it is not executable. What it
can do is supply instruction to the player to delete it. This could be
done with and without the mp3 player's cooperation: With cooperation
means that every mp3 palyer will need to support this and you'll have to
extend the mp3 format itself. Without the mp3 player cooperation,
means you'll have to 'hack' the mp3 player's parsing of the mp3 file in
order to cause it to execute arbitrary code- you'll have to cause a
buffer overflow using only the mp3 file. Which could be a fun project...
But it would still be mp3 player && version specific. 

> Thanks, Ishay

--
mulix

linux/reboot.h: #define LINUX_REBOOT_MAGIC1 0xfee1dead

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From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 19:09:41 +0200

> lists, and just listen ONCE to every song...

Oh, so that's what you wanted...
What I did is create a short (~20 line) awk script which gets a playlist
and randomizes its order (create another list in random order, where each
file is listed just once on the new list). It works very nicely. (I don't
have it here to send it to you, but I wrote it in under 10 minutes, so
consider it an excercise to the reader).

> after a while ;-) I am sure many music companies will be interested in it

Yeah, right... Are you sure you're in the right mailing list? ;)
In case you missed the thread about the RIAA/MPAA, most of us here hate
the idea of big companies limiting our rights on music or video we legally
own. All these "protection" schemes appear at first glance a method to
stop pirates, but what they actually stop is honest people trying to make
honest and fair use of the media they buy.

For example, if recording MP3s from CDs was somehow "protected", I wouldn't
be able to listen to my legally owned music on my computer (I prefer to listen
to it on my computer rather than on the CD player - I think it's honest and
fair, don't you)?

Also, when I look at how I choose CDs I buy I come to the following
conclusion: a year ago I heard music I liked on the radio, or in a dance
club, or something like that, and once in a while I went ahead and bought
a CD. This year only about half of the CDs I bought I chose this way. The
other half of the CDs I bought after I listened to a *illegal* mp3 and
liked it. Not only that, but I ended up buying CDs that I would have no
chance of hearing on the radio (e.g., Jefferson Airplane and Vangelis)
so the artists only benefited from me listening to the illegal mp3! Also,
I bought more CDs this year than I did last year.

I don't know if my experiences are the same as other people's experiences,
but I do know that most of what the recording labels say is FUD, much like
what Microsoft (and other companies) say about pirating their software.
For example, they say that some kid has $1000 worth of music on his hard
disk, for which he didn't pay anything. But then you go ahead and ask:
how much many did he spend on CDs last year? $30. How much did he spend on
CDs this year? $60 (he wanted to "rip" some CDs to share too!). So how much
did the label/artist loose? Nada! In fact, this is a poor kid that wouldn't
have bought $1000 of CDs in any case, so the $1000 value is purely hypothetical
boolshit! On the other hand, this kid will get to know a lot of music, and
probably learn to like some artists he never heard of, and perhaps buy their
other CDs, buy their memorabilia, go to their concerts, and all-in-all
probably spend more on the music industry than he did before.

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |       Friday, Nov 3 2000, 6 Heshvan 5761
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Cats aren't clean, they're just covered
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |with cat spit.