Napster Set to ‘Fingerprint’ Songs
Stepping up its efforts to deter piracy, the Napster Inc. online song-swapping service released new software that collects “acoustic fingerprints” of songs on its users’ computers. The new software, which is optional for current Napster users but mandatory for new ones, sends fingerprints from a random sampling of songs to Napster.
Company officials said they plan to use the fingerprints soon to stop users from downloading a song without the record label’s permission, as required by a pretrial injunction in the record industry’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Napster.
The company has tried to stop unauthorized copying by preventing users from searching for copyrighted songs by name, but many users have evaded the filters by disguising the names of their song files.
Such techniques won’t affect the acoustic fingerprints, although security experts predict that determined pirates will find ways around that mechanism too.
