“So you just downloaded an MP3 version of the latest Jennifer Lopez single from Gnutella or one of the other free file-sharing networks. You’re not feeling too guilty, and in any case, no one will ever know, right? Don’t count on it. Lopez’s recording label, Epic Records, is owned by Sony Music Entertainment, and Sony is one of a number of media giants hiring the services of a new breed of content-tracking firms to combat digital piracy. These online private eyes are using the latest digital fingerprinting technology to scan public computer networks for unauthorized copies of music files, still images, movies and software. And they can watch as those illicit files spread from hard drive to hard drive—whether or not the files bear the invisible digital ‘watermarks’ often used to identify their original owners…”
Click here to read the full story from MIT’s Technology Review.
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