PRESS RELEASE
June 27, 2001
MUSIC 'VIRUS' TO ATTACK SONG THIEVES VIA
NAPSTER & OTHER SWAPPING PROGRAMS JULY 4
Embedded code since late 2000 now ready to
emerge on US Independence Day in top 500 downloaded songs
Music fans around the planet will receive a
shocking surprise on their computers on American Independence Day-July
4-but only if they have downloaded unauthorised songs from Napster,
Gnutella or other file swapping applications on the Internet. On that day,
those who have downloaded any of 500 most popular songs planted on the
Internet with an imbedded hybrid 'virus' will find their illicit music
unusable and their computers frozen due to the timed release of this bomb.
MusicPanel is a new hybrid computer code that
goes beyond what viruses can do and is hidden as imbedded bits of
information that can not be detected by virus checkers. It affects both
Macs and PCs as well as computers running Linux Unix and even Personal
Digital Assistants that can download music. It's the answer to the 'sonic
stealing' of legitimate music without Payment to the creators and was
developed by a group of musician-programmers to redress the grievances of
recorded artists who find their music being swapped and lifted from the
Internet.
The program was developed last year following
a meeting of disgruntled musicians and their managers at a Fourth of July
American concert where the plan was hatched to determine more than 100 of
the top songs illicitly traded on the Internet through Napster. Over the
US autumn school term, the program was perfected and made invisible with
an increase in the number of songs to 500 that were loaded with this
application before Christmas.
Placed in easily accessible computers on the
Internet where unsuspecting users could obtain copies of the music, the
songs play as if they are normal downloaded music but a ticking time bomb
within the files has been awaiting the Independence Day when it will be
full unleashed across the Internet. So for those who have used Napster
since last November and a number of other file swapping protocols that
have accessed the computers where the MusicPanel embedded files have
resided initially or been placed into other computers once swapped,
fireworks will begin.
The program is only loaded into songs that are
protected by copyright and only those people who have downloaded these 500
infected songs from the computers on the Internet in which they were
planted or computers that have accessed the files and allowed them to be
shared by others. Those users who have the infected files will find that
accessing their computers on July 4 anywhere in the world will cause a
crash that will erase all music files from their computers and any file
sharing or MP3 applications. Once the computer is restarted, these songs
and applications will have disappeared and the computer will load a
'message skin' called MusicPanel that will warn them off accessing
unauthorised music in the future.
In a statement of intent, the producers of
MusicPanel explain, "As Creators of music, we are deprived of income
from our music by those companies that proliferate free file-swapping of
songs and the users who blithely shoplift songs via the Internet who do
not pay for our creations. This global weapon is designed to not only help
eliminate this illegal and unfair practice but also to bring awareness of
the loss to legitimate and hardworking musicians, their record companies,
publishers and support systems. It was not developed in conjunction with
any record labels or publishers nor with the Recording Industry
Association of America or any other organization. We do not wish to cause
destruction or other damage to computers or other programs but have
tailored this application attached to frequently downloaded copyrighted
music to attack those who steal songs."
"Since there is no anti-virus protection
that will detect or block this application imbedded in what appear to be
otherwise working downloads, only removal of the illicit songs from hard
drives can prevent it from activating on July 4. If songs have been burned
to CDs or are transferred to other devices that contain music download
programs, those devices will also crash and remove all music files. A
further statement will be made after the MusicPanel activates July
4."