Are there viruses that delete MP3s?

[JMI]

Hello,

I've been having this problem for quite sometime where there are mp3 that I
know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I downloaded! But they're gone! I
used them to create playlists in Winamp. But when I play the playlist it
skips past songs that I know were on the drive, but I don't know what's
happended to them. I've run a search my entire hard drive too and they are
nowhere to be found!

Anyone got any idea what keeps happening to them? Might there be viruses
that delelte MP3s? I use Norton AntiVirus 2003and it's never found a virus
when I've done a scan and I it's always updated with the latest updates (it
does it automatically once a week and then notifys me when they are
downloaded and updated).

I've installed Instant Backup so that I can keep a backup of my files on a
second drive, but I'd really like to know why these files are always
disappearing.

This is driving me nuts! Help!

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[David H. Lipman]

There sure are !

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_98941.htm

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99050.htm

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99122.htm <--renames MP3 files

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99366.htm <--renames MP3 files

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99707.htm

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_99997.htm

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_100147.htm

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_100184.htm

http://vil.nai.com/vil/content/v_100414.htm

There are more !

MP3 files are a source of attack. Some of he stuff done to them include, but is
not limited to...
Deletion
Renaming
Changing attribute to hidden
Corruption so they won't play
Overwrinting

Dave

 

[Heather]

OOPS.......a thousand pardons. I was not aware of this sort of thing
because I don't use Kazaa!! (G)

I defer to your superior knowledge........and will now go check them
out. Sure looked like someone pulling a trick to me.......especially
when his antivirus didn't see anything.

Hey......I just checked a few of those out and they are not only
OLD......they are low risk and mostly from porn downloads.......so why
isn't Norton 2003 catching them????

Ball is now in your court, and I am holding back about 999 of those
pardons (VBG)

Heather

 

[FromTheRafters]

OOPS.......a thousand pardons. I was not aware of this sort of thing
because I don't use Kazaa!! (G)

I defer to your superior knowledge........and will now go check them
out. Sure looked like someone pulling a trick to me.......especially
when his antivirus didn't see anything.

Hey......I just checked a few of those out and they are not only
OLD......they are low risk and mostly from porn downloads.......so why
isn't Norton 2003 catching them????

Ball is now in your court, and I am holding back about 999 of those
pardons (VBG)

I was thinking that the OP might be sharing the download
folder with full access to the world at large.

or

RIAA has enlisted the help of hackers.

 

[Heather]

I was thinking that the OP might be sharing the download
folder with full access to the world at large.

Obviously, my dear darling funnyface, you do not download mp3's......(G)
The 'world at large' could copy his songs......but not delete them. On
the other hand......if he shared his 'C drive'......who knows. A
firewall wouldn't help him then.

or

RIAA has enlisted the help of hackers.

Chuckle........not so far, I don't think......but I will check the WinMX
n.g. to see.

Question to you.......could the RIAA sue/charge other than Americans.
Doubt it. I understand there is one or two P2P sites out there that are
totally anonymous........I think 'Blubster' or some such name is one of
them.

Mum

 

[FromTheRafters]

Obviously, my dear darling funnyface, you do not download mp3's......(G)
The 'world at large' could copy his songs......but not delete them.

Don't you recall a certain "hacking" incident? IIRC *it* required
write access to at least one directory.

On
the other hand......if he shared his 'C drive'......who knows. A
firewall wouldn't help him then.

That is what I was intimating, or at least *that* directory.

Chuckle........not so far, I don't think......but I will check the WinMX
n.g. to see.

Question to you.......could the RIAA sue/charge other than Americans.

I don't think so legally, but they would have plausible deniability in the
case of third party actions.

Doubt it. I understand there is one or two P2P sites out there that are
totally anonymous........I think 'Blubster' or some such name is one of
them.

I speculate that p2p services must deal with files other than mp3s
in order to have a claim of legitimacy. If executable files are also
'shared' by the participants the service opens itself up to being a
distribution service for trojans. Mp3s might then start mysteriously
disappearing from the storage media ~ gee, how did that happen!?

I used to buy "import" record albums, and the recording industry
in Great Britain was even more proactive against piracy than was
the RIAA imo. I doubt that the RIAA is the only interested party
in fighting the p2p mp3 biz.

 

[JMI]

Nope, no teenagers or even small children at home nor am I a teenager. I'm
the only one in this house that even knows how to turn on a computer (no
really, wiufe doesn't have a clue!).

So now one here could be deliberately deleting anything. And my friends
don't even come near my computer.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Heather]

Well Jeff.....it was worth a try. I can see how that would drive
someone slightly batty if a 'friend' sneaked in now and again and
deleted some of your songs.......grin. Would make you feel a bit
bizarre!!

Same here as to people using it, as my husband will not even sit within
5 feet of this computer. I offered to let him use my old Win95 to play
on to learn it, but no dice. Oh well, opposites attract they
say......(G)

I let my daughter's fiance use this one and had him so thoroughly afraid
of 'dire things I would do to him while asleep' that he always asked
before doing anything. That was after he clicked 'yes' to
Gator......grrr!! Never again will I allow anyone to touch this
machine!!

Heather

 

[FromTheRafters]

BINGO!

And ACAV & ACV will be getting more post like this in the future.
If you want to dance to the music> you gotta pay to the piper!<
The can of worms still will be, do the AV Companies add the defs
for this? When the RIAA persuades a judge to allow third party
Companies to track, identify P2P mp3 downloads and trash them,
will the AVers put up,or shut up? Who would you put your money
on?

I would put my money on pirating technology to find a way around
even this obstacle. Any "search and destroy" application given the
blessing of "the powers that be", would have to be able to positively
identify each and every target as a "copyrighted music" file before
disappearing it. There may be a way to avoid this "positive ID", but
I don't exactly know what yet.

Personally, I would like to see the artists get paid for their work, but
I have no love for the recording industry's treatment of artists or the
consumers.

 

[Sugien]

I would put my money on pirating technology to find a way around
even this obstacle. Any "search and destroy" application given the
blessing of "the powers that be", would have to be able to positively
identify each and every target as a "copyrighted music" file before
disappearing it. There may be a way to avoid this "positive ID", but
I don't exactly know what yet.

Personally, I would like to see the artists get paid for their work, but
I have no love for the recording industry's treatment of artists or the
consumers.

Especially if you look at the mark up on a CD (around .001 cents their cost)
minus the pitiful amount paid to the artist. Most likely the recording
industry even after taking into account all of their costs to produce
(advertising,marketing, studio time, money paid to artists, ect.) I would
guess they still rake in close to several thousand percent more then what
they put in. I think if the cost to the consumer were more reasonably
priced as to what it actually costs to produce the CD then the price would
be signifancley low, and would most likely curtail a lot of illegal copying;
because if a CD only cost 2-3 dollars (quite a realistic price) then copying
illegally would not be as rampant. But that is just my opinion<s>

 

[Bart Bailey]

In Message-ID:<[email protected]> posted on Thu, 17 Jul

There may be a way to avoid this "positive ID", but
I don't exactly know what yet.

The copyright info in the Id3 tag can be edited with mp3 tag studio:
http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/features.html

Bart

 

[Bart Bailey]

In Message-ID:<[email protected]> posted on Thu, 17 Jul

There may be a way to avoid this "positive ID", but
I don't exactly know what yet.

The copyright info in the Id3 tag can be edited with mp3 tag studio:
http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/features.html

Bart

 

[FromTheRafters]

Especially if you look at the mark up on a CD (around .001 cents their cost)
minus the pitiful amount paid to the artist. Most likely the recording
industry even after taking into account all of their costs to produce
(advertising,marketing, studio time, money paid to artists, ect.)

I don't know exactly what they do these days, but in the 'vinyl is final'
days there was quite a lot of work involved, and a lot of very expensive
equipment do do it with. In a few cases these days the artist has recorded
the music in the garage with a 'simul-sync' tape deck and the studio only
had to create a digitized master with no remixing necessary.

Today, the whole process can be done at home. The RIAA probably
employs more lawyers than technicians.

 

[David H. Lipman]

I never did understand why a cassette tape is less expensive to purchase than a
CD when a CD is cheaper to produce and a cassette is more expensive to produce.

Dave

 

[optikl]

I never did understand why a cassette tape is less expensive to purchase than a
CD when a CD is cheaper to produce and a cassette is more expensive to produce.

Dave

Market based pricing. Cost has rarely anything to do with price, unless it's
a commodity.

 

[optikl]

If blank CD's are bought wholesale in the millions do you doubt they cost
less then 1 cent per unit? But fyi, I did put one too many decimal places
and it should have been .01 and not .001. That is only for the CD and not
including the price of printing to the cd or the jewel case or pressing the
cd's; because iirc they don't actually record the cd's; but rather make a
master and actually press the cd's much like in the day of vinyl.
--

Sugien, I don't doubt the CD itself is a penny, or less. You said the
margins on a CD ( "I
would guess they still rake in close to several thousand percent more then
what they put in." ) are "several thousand percent".
And you included "all" of their costs. Go back and read what you wrote.
I'd just like to see the data that confirms that. That number is
astoundingly improbable, IMNSHO.
Microsoft's gross margins are 85 to 95% ( or were at one time. I suspect
they aren't reporting those kinds of numbers today).
I can't think of anything with margins several thousand percent.

 

[Bart Bailey]

In Message-ID:<N2RRa.88301$ye4.65064@sccrnsc01> posted on Fri, 18 Jul

I can't think of anything with margins several thousand percent.

Papaver Somniferum

Bart

 

[Sugien]

Sugien, I don't doubt the CD itself is a penny, or less. You said the
margins on a CD ( "I
would guess they still rake in close to several thousand percent more then
what they put in." ) are "several thousand percent".
And you included "all" of their costs. Go back and read what you wrote.
I'd just like to see the data that confirms that. That number is
astoundingly improbable, IMNSHO.
Microsoft's gross margins are 85 to 95% ( or were at one time. I suspect
they aren't reporting those kinds of numbers today).
I can't think of anything with margins several thousand percent.

I have no data to back it up, it is more or less a guess compiled from
reading several sources; but suffice it to say the recording industry is
making mega bucks with comparatively very little investment. If you take
into account some groups even provide the master and all the producer does
is to provide the funds to press the CD's and print the jewel case inserts
then they are making several times their investment I think a thousand
percent would be a low estimate; but as I should have added initially that
is only my opinion; but then who has ever taken me seriously any way, lol

 

[Gabriele Neukam]

On that special day, Bart Bailey, ([email protected]) said...

In Message-ID:<N2RRa.88301$ye4.65064@sccrnsc01> posted on Fri, 18 Jul


Papaver Somniferum

If you start with that, you can also name others of that kind. Maybe
even Cannabis Sativa

But if we are trying to stay in the legal realm, there might be similar
earnings with XXX dialers, eg.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)

 

[optikl]

In Message-ID:<N2RRa.88301$ye4.65064@sccrnsc01> posted on Fri, 18 Jul


Papaver Somniferum

Bart

We'll never know since I don't think anyone's keeping any records .