mp3 Player - Complete HD access?

[curio]

(edit: probably should be in general forum)

At one point, someone said that EQ confined itself only looking at files w/in the EVerQuest install directory due to a previous clash with privacy advocates and EQ's desire to scan your computer for stuff.

Now with the advent of the ingame MP3 player, clicking the "add" button pops open a file browser showing the Root of your File sytem, as well as any network mounted Drives. Oddly enuf, mine shows my Control Panel. Basically the same thing as MyComputer | Right Click | Explore

Mp3 Player : Add brings up a dialog box with



Control Panel
P:
C:
Everquest:E
My Music:Z:
Shared Documents


P: is a network cross-mount
E: is my 2nd EQ box EQ folder


So I guess a word of caution might be in order about File System access. Did anyone notice if the EULA changed cause of the mp3 player?

[fhm]

I'd say that they are using standard Windows API calls to get the file dialog. And it's you that is surfing your HDD contents, not them.

Regards,

CJ

[Ataal]

I believe what he's implying is; that info could EASILY be sent back to SOE.

[KaL]

What the hell does that have to do with the mp3 player?

Are you people ignorant?

They HAVE access to everything on your PC.

If they are discovered to be tampering or sending back information about your system, they will be slammed by many lawsuits.

OMG! It lists my drive letters! THE FUCKING SKY IS FALLING.

[Virusmaster]

Originally posted by KaL
What the hell does that have to do with the mp3 player?

Are you people ignorant?

They HAVE access to everything on your PC.

If they are discovered to be tampering or sending back information about your system, they will be slammed by many lawsuits.

OMG! It lists my drive letters! THE FUCKING SKY IS FALLING.

God, how incredibly ignorant you are! Of course they can legally read the data the game generates while you are playing, and it's not them scanning your harddrive, it's you doing it now. You have heard of the term "loophole" I assume? Well, this looks like a very nice legal loophole to me. They watch the game flow for debugging purposes, you browse your drive for illegallly obtained music, they "notice" your linux share and do whatever they like with that info. If they never "officially" collect the info, you have NO case in court. They could even decide banning your sorry butt is not even needed if the info about your illegal mp3 collection is passed along to the appropriate authorities. You are harassing them by using showeq, so a little payback can be expected.

I'm not saying this is how it IS working, just saying this is how it COULD work. Personally, if I was on their team I'd love playing about with ideas like this. Keeps the job interesting :) We play EQ and hunt the baddies, they play a slightly different game and hunt us, and the experiance they get is in the form of a raise if they do well. Sounds like a great game to me.

As a computer tech I do not need permission to scan someone's harddrive, it's part of my job. If I find kiddie porn, my company is obligated to notify the authorities. This is a well known fact. They have their own technicians, with simular jobs. case closed.

Also, remember who SONY is. They ARE the record industry! It could very well be they are playing a game of chess, setting the needed pieces in place before making their move.

A little paranoia is not a bad thing. Never hurts to be careful. Is the sky falling? I dunno, let us all know if a piece of it hits you on the head :)

[baelang]

Originally posted by Virusmaster
God, how incredibly ignorant you are!
...
you browse your drive for illegallly obtained music,
...


how can you tell legally obtained mp3s from illegally obtained music?

i have a pretty big collection of mp3s. more than 2500 tracks, and almost every one of them is made from CDs that i own. The rest are by "mostly unknowns" that i downloaded from mp3.com, which is completely legitimate.

[Virusmaster]

An MP3 is a digital file, and just like a keysniffer or anything else can be quite unique. If your files match the ones being distributed on the internet exactly (date, file size, header, encoding, etc...) then either you downloaded the file or you released it. If you make your own files they will probably differ a bit from the same music file you might download. If a single file matches it proves little (unless it was "baited" somehow) but a large number of files that match those being illegally distributed on kazaa at any given moment would definately hold up in court as valid evidence.

Once again, I'm not saying this is what is going on, only that the battle is still being fought and the tools to fight it are being put in place every day.

And as for what SONY will or will not do, remember... They did change the EULA for a short time to allow scanning of files, and they have had poles for players to vote on scanning. To me that signifies intent to scan files, and now with keysniffers and such the need may be greater, and with the MP3 player added to EQ the task may be easier for them.

(ps, my music collection is all from cdroms I own too, and a simple browse of my harddrive would reveal that to anyone who is truely into the MP3 scene, the albums are all complete, all have a playlist and every bitrate in my entire collection matches the settings in my music match program. But I doubt most folks out there have a collection that looks the same.)

[JustACoder]

Originally posted by KaL
What the hell does that have to do with the mp3 player?

Are you people ignorant?

They HAVE access to everything on your PC.

If they are discovered to be tampering or sending back information about your system, they will be slammed by many lawsuits.

OMG! It lists my drive letters! THE FUCKING SKY IS FALLING.


this guy is funny, and not the sarcastic way , he's hilarious.

[fryfrog]

i beg to differ about mp3 file creation, all cds should produce the same size and length mp3, just like they all produce the same size .wav file. assuming bitrates are equal and all that jazz. otherwise things like freedb (and its evil cousin cddb) wouldn't really work very well.

or course, saying that... don't forget that sony is a HUGE company that... just happens to also publish music! would be pretty funny if a.) they were watching to send a nice RIAA letter to you or b.) the left hand that doesn't know what the right hand is doing is sort of helping the spread of mp3s to the detriment of the other hand ;)

[JustACoder]

Originally posted by fryfrog
i beg to differ about mp3 file creation, all cds should produce the same size and length mp3, just like they all produce the same size .wav file. assuming bitrates are equal and all that jazz. otherwise things like freedb (and its evil cousin cddb) wouldn't really work very well.

or course, saying that... don't forget that sony is a HUGE company that... just happens to also publish music! would be pretty funny if a.) they were watching to send a nice RIAA letter to you or b.) the left hand that doesn't know what the right hand is doing is sort of helping the spread of mp3s to the detriment of the other hand ;)


either way they are setting themselves up for a slaughter house with their blood involved.

[tristanbfg]

Its actually fairly easy to change the size and checksum of mp3s. changing things like bitrate or other options would change the output.. even if ever so slightly.