MySpace Music Player Hacked

Roy van Rijn writes to tell us about a little program called MySpace MP3 Gopher, with which you can download any song from MySpace as an MP3 even if it is marked to disable downloading. MySpace MP3 Gopher is a Windows program requiring no installation, and for those not on a Windows box the author offers an online version that anyone can run. It is hosted on his home computer so it is bound to get slashdotted rather quickly. All you need to grab a MySpace song is its "friendID," which is in every URL as a parameter. Tech-recipes has step-by-step instructions.

Re:The lack of Web 2.0 security.

[Rekolitus]

Really, it's the fact that they let you listen to music but try to stop you downloading it — it's stupidity in itself. If your computer is receiving the audio data, you can save it. But then again, similar things can be said about DRM.

Re:It's so obvious

[repruhsent]

You've been able to do something similar to this for months. Thinking Universal wrote this on purpose to force MySpace into doing what they want isn't only naive, it's an indication that your tin foil hat is on far too tight.

Re:The lack of Web 2.0 security.

[spiritraveller]

This is just another example of Web 2.0 security, or the lack thereof.

I disagree. They are letting people download this music, but they are supposed to prevent them from saving the file.

This is just an attempt at DRM, which really has little to do with our traditional notion of "computer security".

"Security" usually means preventing unauthorized access of your computers... not preventing unauthorized access to data after you give it to someone.

Re:This is just wrong

[veganboyjosh]

Saying "You put it online, so you shouldn't mind people ripping it" is like telling a car dealership that they should accept that their cars are being stolen because they put them on display in their lot.

um...no. it's like a car "dealership" saying "i know we put these cars in the lot, with the keys in them, for people to use for free, but stealing them is wrong." the songs aren't there to be looked at and not used. as far as i know, there's no limit to how many times you can listen to a song on someone's profile. just keep hitting play, and it starts over.

Re:It's so obvious

[joe 155]

I doubt anyone would relish suing myspace, this isn't a small organisation which will cave with fear of legal threats, my space has a multi-billion dollar backing through News International, not to mention all the bad publicity that culd be drummed up in a heart beat if myspace loses. I can only speak from what I've read (in private eye) about the Sun and the Times (England), it does seem that no murdoch paper can even print bad news about myspace, they also mention it several times a week.

If murdoch will go that far to introduce obvious adds as if it was news I'll bet you a pound to a pinch of shit that they'd run every bad story about Universal they can find... Don't assume a power structure from Universal down to myspace.

Re:I blame Universal Music

[garylian]

You do realize that most of the songs people are after are probably by independent artists, that have no contract with a major record label, right?

Who would want to download the songs people put on their main pages? The quality is horrible for digital music. I'd rather pay iTunes the $0.99 for the song if I wanted it, not get some crap quality version from MySpace.

I think your tinfoil hat is worn out. You might need to go to your local Wal-Mart and get another roll.