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[FYI] RIO: Security by Obscurity {broken}
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] RIO: Security by Obscurity {broken}
- From: Horns@t-online.de (Axel H. Horns)
- Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 17:50:16 +0100
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http://www.wired.com/news/news/email/explode-infobeat/culture/story/17
529.html
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Mighty Rio Now a Two-Way Street
by Joe Nickell
9:00 a.m. 26.Jan.99.PST
Software posted to the Internet in the past week
will allow owners of the Rio MP3 player to do
what manufacturer Diamond Multimedia had hoped
would remain impossible. The hacks permit users
to transfer data and music out of the portable
unit and back into a PC.
"We're not happy," said Ken Wirt, vice president
of corporate marketing for Diamond Multimedia
Systems, based in San Jose, California. I think
it's clear we have not intended to provide this
capability with the Rio."
The new software adds functionality to the
popular player, it also could put a chink in
Diamond's defense in an ongoing court battle over
the fate of the Rio.
Last October, the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) attempted to
block the release of the Rio, arguing that it was
a recording device and therefore should be
subject to provisions of the 1992 Audio Home
Recording Act.
The law requires that manufacturers and
importers of digital audio recording devices must
notify the Federal Register of Copyrights, pay a
royalty fee of between US$1 and $8, and build in
controls to make it impossible for users to make
second-generation copies of material.
Diamond argued in defense that, since files
couldn't be copied or otherwise transferred from
the Rio to other devices, the Rio is merely a
playback device and was therefore exempt from the
Act.
"We specifically disabled the ability to copy
files from the Rio to other devices as a form of
copy protection," said Wirt. "We've not released
the specs that allow people to interface with the
Rio outside its standard software interface."
[...]
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