iWarez

asv108 writes "It seems that people are finding new uses for their iPod. According to this story in Wired, a Dallas area CompUsa employee caught a teenager transferring a fresh copy of Office for OSX to his iPod from a store demo machine."

And I Thought...

[cmdr_beeftaco]

And I thought CompUSA employees were good for nothing.

it wasn't his fault...

[sprytel]

it was improper labeling. the sticker said "don't steal MUSIC"...

Wait a minute...

[Trekologer]

You're telling me that a CompUSA employee caught the kid and knew what the kid was doing? Did the employee still try to sell the kid the extended warrantee?

Microsoft will sue Apple...

[Amazing Quantum Man]

under the DMCA for creating a circumvention device!

Wasn't Kevin Webb...

[2nd Post!]

The person featured in the story witnessing the theft a computer consultant in the Dallas area at a local CompUSA? I don't think he was an employee of CompUSA, else he would have stopped the little bugger.

Isn't that wonderful though? Can afford a $399 iPod but can't afford Office vX? Heck, maybe the iPod was stolen too?

Comp USA's fault

[Zen Mastuh]

Yes. They shouldn't have used compusa as the password on the demo machine.

The other way around...

[DickPhallus]

You could have fun putting files onto computers at the stores... nice goats.cx background or something... hell maybe someone will come up with a way to install linux from the ipod!

Virtual Shoplifting

[shawnmelliott]

So instead of the traditional "Five Finger Discount" now it's the "Five Second Discount" ... interesting.

Re:would it work?

[jeffy124]

d'oh! Shouldve read the article first....

Ironically, Microsoft has pioneered an easy-to-use installation scheme on the Mac that makes its Mac software relatively easy to pilfer.

An iPod has jettisoned!!

[nebaz]

Don't worry...there are no life forms aboard...

Does that mean?

[jmv]

Does that mean that iPod and computer stores should be illegal as they both allow to steal software?

Copy protection

[Otter]

Fortunately most CompUSA's have a security feature to prevent such unauthorized copying -- their display Macs are generally turned off, with the mouse gone and the System file deleted. Oh, and there used to always be a ladder in front of them [appleturns.com].

Part of being an Apple zealot is going into stores and fixing the Macs up. I don't get why Apple can run such terrific retail stores themselves, but doesn't try to persuade CompUSA and Sears employees that, no, iMacs shouldn't have smoke coming out of them.

Mac people are crazy

[geekopus]

What is up with those people?

Dennis Lloyd, publisher of iPod fan site iPodlounge, also said this is the first time he'd heard of an iPod put to such use.

"I can see how easy it would be to do," he said. "It's a shame someone has stooped this low to bring bad press to the insanely great iPod."

Insanely great? Goddamn. They're all Stevebots.

Oh my goodness, what a surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see the headlines now

SOME CONSUMERS ARE USING APPLE'S PORTABLE FIREWIRE HARD DRIVE AS A PORTABLE FIREWIRE HARD DRIVE
EXPERTS SHOCKED

Admit it.. you're just annoyed you didn't think of doing this first

Maybe computer stores should just hire people who know how to tell when people are copying huge quantities of files onto portable hard drives?

Were there problems in the 80s with people copying programs off of computer display models onto floppy disks? What about with zip disks in the mid90s? What did stores do about that sort of thing then? Why is this so urgent now?

New ad copy.

[Brendor]

"Copy an entire CD worth of music in 10 seconds or a $459 office suite in under 3"

And following your analogy

[deacon]

A Million Moron March will take place in Washington to take iPods away from all the people who don't use them for piracy.

Soccer Moms will drive 6000 lb SUVs to school meetings and town halls everywhere to urge that iPods be banned, "For the Children (tm)"

A National iPod database will be created to monitor the posessions of iPods. Yadda, yadda yadda.

Re:wait a minute, what's the story here?

[elefantstn]

Can't you take ANY external pocket hard drive or even a keychain USB drive and do similar things? WTF does this have to do with the iPod?

The difference is that with an iPod, you can finish the download and leave before the store closes for the night.

VERY big problem!

[swordgeek]

While this was just a kid trying to steal some software, it's clearly a symptom of a MUCH bigger problem. Now is the time to act on this sort of potential, before the full scope of ramifications become clear.

1) We must legislate mandatory copy-protection into all commercial software. Perhaps all software, in fact.
2) All storage devices most especially portable ones, must have a double license verification check on all copy operations. If you copy a file from one device (a computer) to another (an iPod), _both_ devices must independently verify the vailidity of copying/running that software on both machines, through a central license authority.
3) Legislation must be introduced to require all new file formats to incorporate licensing checks. "Free" files (however you want to interpret free) must be so marked within the file.
4) All new applications will be required to write only in approved licenseable formats. Within five years after the introduction of these formats, new pplications should no longer read old pre-license formats.
5) Hardware must be legally required to support this licensing and copy-protection scheme. All non-compliant hardware will have to be turned into the appropriate depots for disposal, after a similar 'sunset' period (five years again, perhaps).

Only in this way can we foster software innovation, encourage development, and drive technology forward. Guaranteeing security for developers in this was is a necessity, and the only way we can prevent computer piracy.

Arresting criminals doesn't work--if it did, we wouldn't have crime anymore! What we have to do is eliminate any possibility of crimes being committed in the first place, at any cost.

CompUSA Employee fun

[British]

Depending on the CompUSA you go to, you can get some free entertainment. In the one in Roseville, Minnesota, there's this older guy behind the "good stuff" counter(all the smaller merchandise that can be shoplifted, etc) this guy will berate any computer-clueless customer that dares to ask him a question day in, day out. Sometimes I just stood near him pretending to look at the PDAs and listen to this guy drill into ma and Pa kettle explaining the difference between USB and FireWire. This guy IS the comic book guy of computers.

Re:Texan Gun Owner?

[linuxrunner]

Yeah... Just like the Texans like to wear cowboy hats stereotype...

I mean, give the hats a break!
The hats did nothing to deserve this... Try focusing on the belt buckles for a change!

Please!

Innovation

[ocie]

It makes me sad to see stores limiting this kid's ability to innovate.

Used Car Salesman vs. Computer Salesman

[lupercalia]

The clueless salesman reminds me of the joke:

Q: What's the difference between a used car salesman and a computer salesman?

A: The used car salesman knows when he's lying.

Re:Does that mean?

[jheinen]

No. The root cause is people. All of these ills can be traced back to people. If there were no people no one would pirate music or software.

Therefore, I would like to propose a ban on people. Clearly without the pernicious evil of people we could alleviate most, if not all of society's problems.

Sincerely,

Vercingetorix

(paid for by the Vercingetorix for President Committee)

Re:Hmm

[Dahan]

The singular form of criteria is criterium.

Not in English. A criterium is a bicycle race.

Re:Texan Gun Owner?

[Wee]

Right on, man -- well said. Let's just hope that the bad guys think the same thing this guy did. If that kid lived here in California, there's no telling how many times he be harassed by goodniks like the writer. I wish I lived in a concealed carry state. It makes everyone just a little more polite (which is to say it makes people leave other people the hell alone: the epitome of polite). I'd love to have people think I'm packing if that's what it takes for everyone to leave me the hell alone.

-B

"This is Texas....."

[Lawmeister]

Webb said. "Besides, this is Texas. You never know what he might have been carrying."

now that is reasurring... a Mac user packing heat.

Now if every computer user carried a weapon, you think the RIAA and MPAA would be fucking with us?

:)

quick delete..

[Suppafly]

Anyone know if there is a way to quickly reset the ipod? If you get caught borrowing software, it would be nice to be able to quickly and easily delete all the evidence.

flame on

[HaiLHaiL]

I guess some people fuck their mothers. What's your window manager? twm? Gorgeous.

Re:And following your analogy

[Anonymous Coward]

"When iPods are outlawed, only outlaws will have iPods."
--NiA (National iPod Association)

Anonymous Kev
Proudly posting as AC since 1997
(not that anyone reads ACs anymore)

Re:...Unless you are on the receiving end of it

[Mayor McPenisman]

You are a malicious person. Firing people who fry the very fish you depend on will eventually come to haunt you when you lose the ability to feed yourself these fried treats. I suggest you find this young chap and give him the money he lost by being fired. The 20 dollars will go to a good cause, probably a spoiler for a Chevy truck.

Re:New ad copy.

[speechpoet]

"iPod. The invasion of the software snatchers."

The poor kid has no friends...

[codexus]

I mean to be forced to get his warez at CompUsa instead of getting a copy from a friend... He probably has no internet connection either since he could have easily downloaded office if he had. This is a very sad story.

Yeah, with chewing gum

[2Bits]

Here's a suggestion: Physically block the fucking I/O ports on display models. Put a locked metal bar across them or something. Cheap, quick, and effective.

It's already done. I saw the I/O ports on some computers at Fry's Electronic blocked with chewing gum. Obviously, Fry's is more clued than CompUSA.

Re:Wasn't Kevin Webb...

[jasonbw]

so if the kid got caught, would they prosecute him for stealing $500 worth of software or would they give him the student discount?

Re:And I Thought...

[Che Guevarra]

Good thing this didn't happen at Best Buy. He'd have spent all day chasing blue shirts as they ran for the break rooms after accidentally making eye contact with a customer.

Dude!

[Anonymous Coward]

Waaaaaaaiiiit a sec. Let's just add things up.

This happened in Texas. A teenager pulled it off. Now, what biiiig company in Texas do we know that makes computers and has a teenager for their spokesperson?

It just makes you go, "Duuude!"

Mike

Re:"This is Texas....."

[Hard_Code]

Sort of gives a whole new meaning to "one-click interface".

Re:The poor kid has no friends...

[RocketJeff]

I mean to be forced to get his warez at CompUsa instead of getting a copy from a friend... He probably has no internet connection either since he could have easily downloaded office if he had. This is a very sad story.

I thought it was obvious he didn't have any friends. Friends don't let friends use Microsoft software.

Re:See you and raise

[Tazzy531]

Hmm...this is like saying "Look at me. I just stole water" :-)

Why would you go through all that trouble to steal MP3s when you can also steal them off of other online sources?

Re:Wait a minute...

[hawk]

. . . when you interface with a firewire port, you're also interfacing with everyone that has ever plugged into that port . . .

:) (i think)

hawk

kids

[hawk]

*sigh*

Newbies. We were *grateful* to be able to run stacks of cards through the reader, after wlaking 47 miles through the snow, each way.

That was a *huge* improvement over popping the lid to look at core planes, then memorizing the pattern, which we'd go home and enter on rocker switches (except for the rich kids; they're families had toggle switches!)

hawk

Re:And I Thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

If I stop for more than 30 seconds in a store, I end up having to beat a sales person off with a stick.

What Best Buy do YOU go to? Sounds pretty kinky to me.

iPods Suck

[Ukab the Great]

I installed MS Office on my iPod two weeks and Excel still doesn't work. No matter how many times I jog the dial. But I've got to admit, the talking paper clip really does have a beautiful singing voice.

Re:It's newsworthy

[CoolVibe]

What was that saying again?

"Never underestimate the bandwith of a warez kid carrying an iPod. But the latency sure sucks..."

Re:quit whining

[King Babar]

I had to tranfer an 80mb drive over appletalk . . .

then again, it beat the 100k transfer over cat net--transmission easy, but reception is tough--sometimes "Meow" and "WROWRR" are hard to distinguish . . .

This is why we've taught our cat to use Morse Code. Short "Merp" like sounds are dit while anything that could be described as a caterwaul is dash. Unfortunately, we found out that she perseverates on the same seven messages:

1. Feed me.
2. I smell mice in that cupboard.
3. Let me tear into that cardinal, please?
4. Open the door you doofus.
5. It's freezing out here you yutz.
6. The box is even smellier than you are.
7. I left its miserable little corpse in the usual location. Dispose of it, plase.

hawk, still not correcting this stack of papers

Hah! I *knew* it. Once I saw how many slashdot posts you'd made today, I could tell you were trying to avoid correcting papers. Myself, I'm putting off writing the review that was due last week. The stack of papers isn't due until Monday. :-)

Re:And this is news...?

[kaimiike1970]

"Igneous"

If you had looked closely you would have seen that he was actually sedimentary. Probably from playing too many video games. =)

Ouch. A pun.

Re:Virtual Shoplifting

[Serpent Mage]

do they have the right to seize all those 1's and 0's?

a compromise would be for them to seize the 1's and leave the 0's

Re:Reminds me of the time......

[AME]

I suppose I can admit this publicly, since the statute of limitations has run out now...

The statute of limitations is meaningless. The men in blue suits are on their way to your fourth floor office right now.

Re:Yeah, with chewing gum

[Anonymous Coward]

What I'm left wondering is: If you hadn't hit "Submit" for, say, ten minutes... would you have understood?