AfterDawn: Tech news

RIAA.org hacked

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 28 Aug 2002 1:41 User comments (10)

Recording Industry Association of America's official website RIAA.org was hacked today with very, very funny modifications on the main page :-)
Earlier today hackers managed to break into RIAA.org's site and modify the site with pro-file trading messages and direct links to MP3s. Here's a short copy/paste from modified site:

RIAA to sue music sharers? Not Anymore

With the legal file sharing service kazaa still online, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today announced that it intends to offer the latest albums for download from riaa.org.

As you are probably aware, the RIAA has been pursuing a policy of preventing this activity in recent months

We have recently become aware that this approach is yielding only limited results and in some cases may in fact be harming sales and the artists' revenue stream.

The RIAA wishes to apologise for the heavy-handed manner in which the popular chinese site Listen4Ever was closed down, and would like to present the following items for free download as a token of its goodwill.



Of course the list is relatively small, but please be patient - we expect to offer over 300 next week. We also intend to offer pre-released movies in the coming months.

If what you want isn't on the list, then please try Kazaa Lite - available here.


RIAA found out this couple of hours later and took their site offline.

More from:

CDFreaks
News.com
Screenshot of the hacked RIAA.org

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10 user comments

129.8.2002 00:17

This is so, *s-o-o* cute! After an unauthorized modification like this *right on their own home turf*, will the RIAA really be *thtoopid* enough to push for the legal right to invade/modify/monitor/bugger up personal home computer systems that use various P to P systems? The RIAA is really skating on thin ice with that one, and they bloody-well know it too! (God bless the hackers). The RIAA seems to be in ill health these days. I suggest we all find a website that specializes in online greeting cards, like maybe www.regards.com, and send them a "Get Well Soon" card. :) -- Klingy --

229.8.2002 00:29

I think that RIAA should be sued for allowing illegal content to be distributed on their computers. That would be only fair now that RIAA has sued ISPs that have allowed access to illegal MP3s...

329.8.2002 00:32

HA! The site (www.riaa.org) is *still* down !! (Licking their wounds I would imagine, and firing a few web administrators). ;-) -- K.A. --

430.8.2002 04:43
nuriko
Inactive

*chuckles* You know what's silly? My new computer came with a burner and software that made it capable of burning CDs. That's like giving candy to a Frickin' baby. If they want to be fair then, they should also be suing Microsoft (for making the software compatible), Dell (for giving me a CD and a DVD burner to play with ), any other computer company that manufactures CD burners, imesh and winmx for distribution, all ISPs, 75% of internet users (because at least that number downloads MP3s), all retailers of computers/drives, all artists that make music because it COULD be pirated, all manufacturers of equipment that makes it possible to record a song for an artist because it may well COULD be pirated, etc. etc. And then, like forementioned, themselves just for so pounding on the damn idea that they put it in peoples' heads half of the time. Their battle is uselessm because they'd have to take most of the populace of the world to court to win. The RIAA acts like a little kid that doesn't want to share its toys and doesn't understand why its big bad parents (aka music fans) make it. And Klingy, set up that greeting card and I'll sign it with my best wishes *winks*

530.8.2002 14:06

LMAO I want to shake this hackers hand and buy him a drink!!!!:-) quality lol

61.9.2002 01:12

Unbelieveable. Here it is, Sept, 1st, and the RIAA *still* hasn't crawled back online yet. It should be interesting when they do though, to read whatever LAME(tm) excuses they will come up with. The hack itself was awesome. It was done with style, finesse, utter diplomacy, tact, intelligence --- not by some teenaged pimply-face geek (whom we all love by the way), using a lot of semi-adolescent four-letter words once he discovered the hack *was* possible. The wording was superb, the download links all worked, and as someone else stated on another page, I *too* have tremendous respect for whoever did this. Let the RIAA chew on that one for awhile. :) -- K.A. --

72.9.2002 13:15

Im glad they hacked the "Ripoff Industry Association of America" site again this weekend! Those Linkin Park Mp3's will proably be available after Labor Day. I would love to see a major hack job - someone needs to redo the artists page with links to independant artists instead of the sellouts who hate Mp3 trading!

828.4.2003 16:58

Man, I Hope someone hacks these idiots again, i would pay mney to see this site down again for a week. Better yet, we need to find a big bomb to drop on the riaa headquarters

928.4.2003 22:20

Aw Smitty, I wouldn't bomb them - I think they realize at this point that if they keep on like they have, they're only going to self-destruct anyway. They're <sortof> "coming around" a bit so-to-speak, but not nearly soon enough, and they're still WAY too restrictive in what little they DO offer. They've been SO used to being the BOSS for SO long; SO used to calling ALL the shots; SO used to being A Monopoly, that they find it hard to change their mentality. For what's it's worth, just the other day, I bought a *gorgeous* little 3" (8 cm) mini-cd Aiwa mp3 player. (This player does *not* support the crippled self-serving lo-bit .wma files which is all the Record Companies really want you to have). http://www.epinions.com/Aiwa_XP_Z3C_Portable_CD_Player__Portable_CD_Player_XPZ3C/display_~reviews On my first cute little 200MB minidisc, I burned three FULL Doobie Brother's albums (in their *entirety*), which I haven't heard for years, plus some choice 'bonus' Doobie tracks that I've always wanted. (Wanna copy?) And just guess where I got all these remarkably good-sounding music files?? Yep. P-to-P. (Peer to Peer) WinMX to be exact, which you can download right from the software section in here. Let HMV/EMI/Warner Brothers chew on that one for awhile, while they restrict their *own* paying customers as to what they can and cannot download. -- Klingy --

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 28 Apr 2003 @ 10:31

1025.6.2003 18:16

You know what's silly? My new computer came with a burner and software that made it capable of burning CDs. That's like giving candy to a Frickin' baby. If they want to be fair then, they should also be suing Microsoft (for making the software compatible), Dell (for giving me a CD and a DVD burner to play with ), any other computer company that manufactures CD nuriko---burners, imesh and winmx for distribution, all ISPs, 75% of internet users (because at least that number downloads MP3s), all retailers of computers/drives, all artists that make music because it COULD be pirated, all manufacturers of equipment that makes it possible to record a song for an artist because it may well COULD be pirated, etc. etc.---- read this..... Contrary to what the RIAA wants you to believe, it appears that making a copy of an audio recording may be perfectly legal in the US, even if you don't own the original recording, as long as it is for noncommercial purposes. The reason for this is the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA). Since 1992, the U.S. Government has collected a tax on all digital audio recorders and blank digital audio media manufactured in or imported into the US, and gives the money directly to the RIAA companies, which is distributed as royalties to recording artists, copyright owners, music publishers, and music writers: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/ch10.ht ml [cornell.edu] In exchange for those royalties, a special exemption to the copyright law was made for the specific case of audio recordings, and as a result *ALL* noncommercial copying of musical recordings by consumers is now legal in the US, regardless of media: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1008.ht ml [cornell.edu] "No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings." The intent of Congress was clear when this law was passed http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/1993 -01/0018.html [cni.org] From House Report No. 102-873(I), September 17, 1992: "In the case of home taping, the [Section 1008] exemption protects all noncommercial copying by consumers of digital and analog musical recordings." From House Report No. 102-780(I), August 4, 1992: "In short, the reported legislation [Section 1008] would clearly establish that consumers cannot be sued for making analog or digital audio copies for private noncommercial use." Therefore, when you copy an MP3 the royalties have already been paid for with tax dollars in accordance with the law. If you are a musician whose recordings are publicly distributed, then you are entitled to your share of these royalties by filing a claim under Section 1006 http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1006.ht ml [cornell.edu] Napster tried to use this law to defend their case, and the court ruled this law did not apply to them because they are a commercial company. But as a consumer it seems to me you are perfectly within your rights when you make a copy for noncommercial private use.

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