P2P in trouble.. err.. maybe...yes...no?

[W1nTry]

Check this out, its an article I just read. I am not a P2P user myself but I am sure alot of ppl are, so heres a read and any forcasts as to what may happen with this:

Company claims ability to wipe out file-sharing

Music, movie sharing doomed, say Finns

By Paul Hales: Monday 18 April 2005, 12:13

A FINNISH COMPANY, Viralg Oy, says it can wipe out file-sharing in an instant.

The company says it has developed digital rights protection software that can be incorporated into digital movie, music or software releases and set to play havoc with P2P networks on which releases may appear.

Viralg says it has a "virtual algorithm" which is capable of, "mixing together files in P2P networks in a way that the illegal downloader will end up downloading useless garbage instead of real music, movie or game content". In a statement, it claims its technology can also destroy already shared files on peer to peer networks.

The company says the technology has been used sucessfully by BMG's Finnish subsidiary, BMG Finland and it is now actively seeking new clients in the entertainment industry.

It says its technology can be used on any of the existing P2P networks without damaging the networks, any ISPs or the downloader's PC. It claims it'll simply corrupt the downloaded file so it cannot be viewed.

Here's the Web site:http://www.viralg.com/index.html/

[Crixx_Creww]

that seems to be a contradiction there.

Releasing something like that unto a p2p network, would be infact damaging the network, which would of course be, like an act of terrorism on the peoples network.

Wanna see the legal ramifications of this play out.

2 wrongs dont make a right.

[TriniXaeno]

sounds as bad as a multi part imesh downloaded mp3 at 32k bit rate.

and yeah, it does sound like a contradiction.

the p2p network is the data therein and if that get's damaged its as good as damaging the network and it's integrity.

go figure.

maybe they mean no "hardware" damage. Still sucks, either way you look at it.

Hopefully the powers that be will come up with a "descrambler" of sorts. lol

If I wanna share a gatt music video on p2p, don't want it getting wtfpwned by this software. totally legitimate.

[Exar_Kun]

Anything they can do,a hacker can undo.
The modders of these software will sort their @$$es out good and proper.It'll take time, but it'll happen.

[StarCon]

there's an easy workaround for that -
emule's ich (intelligent corruption handling) is the answer - if part of a file
is corrupted, you only have to re-download about 180 kb of data.

In addition to that, I'd highly recommend installing PeerGuardian or ProtoWall and update
the blocklists regularly - to weed out all those bad bad ap2p ips =)

http://www.bluetack.co.uk/index.php
http://www.methlabs.org/

PeerGuardian in particular works like a charm and also includes blocklists for known spamsites
and trojan ips.

[Bong53]

I've heard of this happening already. It hasn't killed any networks but I heard it's annoying. I have no first hand experience though. I use bit torrents. Long live Braham!

[TrinireturnofGamez]

 it would work to stop  P2P networks like Gnutella etc. , but people can always p2p on ftp servers , across news servers , or over bit torrent where the files are alot more authentic  .  some p2p networks like Direct Connect and Edonkey are too smart to fall victim to this  anyway . 
  p2p will never die  , no matter how much encryption or software liscences are made .