[bill]

Hi,
I wonder if any of you have experienced this problem.
Mp3 files which played fine before later start playing parts from other
songs (some of which you don't even have.)
This has been happening to me for over a year. I thought it might be a
virus, but my virus scan finds nothing. I deleted the corrupted mp3 files
and then many months later some new downloaded files (which were scanned
virus free) become corrupted. It's weird. Now I downloaded this program
called MP3val which detects problems with mp3's and supposedly repairs
them(however, I tried repairing some of my corrupted mp3's and it doesn't
work). I read somewhere that changing the properties of the mp3 file to
"read me only" might help. I suspect this problem might spread and affect
other mp3's in other folders. Anyway, I'm just starting to scan all my mp3
files and delete all which have a problem and set all the others to "Read Me
Only" and place those files on a seperate hard drive off line with no access
to the internet. Some of these files might be infected when downloaded and
might infect others which were previously safe on your hard drive. Anyone
have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks for any help on this.

Mark

[Scott Dorsey]

bill wrote:
I wonder if any of you have experienced this problem.
Mp3 files which played fine before later start playing parts from other
songs (some of which you don't even have.)
This has been happening to me for over a year. I thought it might be a
virus, but my virus scan finds nothing. I deleted the corrupted mp3 files
and then many months later some new downloaded files (which were scanned
virus free) become corrupted. It's weird. Now I downloaded this program
called MP3val which detects problems with mp3's and supposedly repairs
them(however, I tried repairing some of my corrupted mp3's and it doesn't
work). I read somewhere that changing the properties of the mp3 file to
"read me only" might help. I suspect this problem might spread and affect
other mp3's in other folders. Anyway, I'm just starting to scan all my mp3
files and delete all which have a problem and set all the others to "Read Me
Only" and place those files on a seperate hard drive off line with no access
to the internet. Some of these files might be infected when downloaded and
might infect others which were previously safe on your hard drive. Anyone
have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks for any help on this.

It might help if you stated what operating system you're using and what
application you're using to play the things.

But rec.audio.pro isn't really the right place for this sort of thing.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[bill]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:
I wonder if any of you have experienced this problem.
Mp3 files which played fine before later start playing parts from other
songs (some of which you don't even have.)
This has been happening to me for over a year. I thought it might be a
virus, but my virus scan finds nothing. I deleted the corrupted mp3 files
and then many months later some new downloaded files (which were scanned
virus free) become corrupted. It's weird. Now I downloaded this program
called MP3val which detects problems with mp3's and supposedly repairs
them(however, I tried repairing some of my corrupted mp3's and it doesn't
work). I read somewhere that changing the properties of the mp3 file to
"read me only" might help. I suspect this problem might spread and affect
other mp3's in other folders. Anyway, I'm just starting to scan all my mp3
files and delete all which have a problem and set all the others to "Read
Me
Only" and place those files on a seperate hard drive off line with no
access
to the internet. Some of these files might be infected when downloaded and
might infect others which were previously safe on your hard drive. Anyone
have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks for any help on this.

It might help if you stated what operating system you're using and what
application you're using to play the things.

But rec.audio.pro isn't really the right place for this sort of thing.
--scott


I'm using Windows xp however I've had this problem before using Windows 98.
I use Winamp but I've also experienced this problem using Windows Media
Player.

It's not disk error or bad sectors since I have the same problem on two
different hard drives and one of the hard drives is brand new. Besides
I've repartitioned, and reformatted the hard drives without any errors
or bad sectors being detected. Also, I'm pretty sure it's not a corrupted
FAT since I've had this problem with different hard drives and I've
repartitioned, reformatted, and reinstalled the os on those hard drives
and still had the same problem. I also pay an extra $5.95 a month for
security service from my isp. I have installed the latest security service
from my isp which constantly updates my antivirus, firewall and
anti-spyware.

What's weird is that a mp3 song which previously played correctly later
starts playing pieces of other songs or even songs which I don't have oddly
enough.
For example, a song by Issac Hayes which before played Issac Hayes starts
playing a part of a The Clash or Bob Dylan song instead.

Mark

[Tobiah]

For example, a song by Issac Hayes which before played Issac Hayes starts
playing a part of a The Clash or Bob Dylan song instead.

Mark

Did you happen to get these mp3's off of the net with
bittorrent or similar? Maybe these files are traps set
by the RIAA )


** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

[John Williamson]

bill wrote:
"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:
I wonder if any of you have experienced this problem.
Mp3 files which played fine before later start playing parts from other
songs (some of which you don't even have.)
This has been happening to me for over a year. I thought it might be a
virus, but my virus scan finds nothing. I deleted the corrupted mp3 files
and then many months later some new downloaded files (which were scanned
virus free) become corrupted. It's weird. Now I downloaded this program
called MP3val which detects problems with mp3's and supposedly repairs
them(however, I tried repairing some of my corrupted mp3's and it doesn't
work). I read somewhere that changing the properties of the mp3 file to
"read me only" might help. I suspect this problem might spread and affect
other mp3's in other folders. Anyway, I'm just starting to scan all my mp3
files and delete all which have a problem and set all the others to "Read
Me
Only" and place those files on a seperate hard drive off line with no
access
to the internet. Some of these files might be infected when downloaded and
might infect others which were previously safe on your hard drive. Anyone
have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks for any help on this.
It might help if you stated what operating system you're using and what
application you're using to play the things.

But rec.audio.pro isn't really the right place for this sort of thing.
--scott


I'm using Windows xp however I've had this problem before using Windows 98.
I use Winamp but I've also experienced this problem using Windows Media
Player.

It's not disk error or bad sectors since I have the same problem on two
different hard drives and one of the hard drives is brand new. Besides
I've repartitioned, and reformatted the hard drives without any errors
or bad sectors being detected. Also, I'm pretty sure it's not a corrupted
FAT since I've had this problem with different hard drives and I've
repartitioned, reformatted, and reinstalled the os on those hard drives
and still had the same problem. I also pay an extra $5.95 a month for
security service from my isp. I have installed the latest security service
from my isp which constantly updates my antivirus, firewall and
anti-spyware.

What's weird is that a mp3 song which previously played correctly later
starts playing pieces of other songs or even songs which I don't have oddly
enough.
For example, a song by Issac Hayes which before played Issac Hayes starts
playing a part of a The Clash or Bob Dylan song instead.

In no particular order. Virus infection, trojan, rootkit, corrupted FAT,
corrupted playback program reading the info from the wrong bit of the
HD, or reading a file location as a URL if you're networked.

Other than that, no real ideas. I had a similar problem once after the
HD in my MP3 player went wrong during a sync session & the
synchronisation software went crazy.

It took a while to re-compress all the stuff off the original CDs. :-/

As Scott says, you might get better answers on one of the mp3 hardware
groups.

alt.music.mp3.hardware

Maybe.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[bill]

"Tobiah" wrote in message
news

For example, a song by Issac Hayes which before played Issac Hayes starts
playing a part of a The Clash or Bob Dylan song instead.

Mark

Did you happen to get these mp3's off of the net with
bittorrent or similar? Maybe these files are traps set
by the RIAA )



Yes they apparently came from a torrent site. What do you mean "traps"?
Perhaps not traps but ways to discourage people from downloading files
from peer to peer sites. Who is the RIAA? A Copyright Infringement
Government
Organization.
Anyway, I was wondering can these so called "traps" or corrupt files spread
to other
files and if they can why can't my latest updated antivirus detect them. I
guess they could be
corrupted files which become corrupt after a certain date or after certain
sequences of
operations have been made. They could be dormant infected files which seem
healthy
at first but with time become corrupt. What I'm worried about is that they
may
spread to other healthy files. I doubt this, unless there's some new kind of
virus
which no one has detected yet - I also doubt this since I've experienced
this problem
for over a year.

[Scott Dorsey]

bill wrote:

Yes they apparently came from a torrent site. What do you mean "traps"?
Perhaps not traps but ways to discourage people from downloading files
from peer to peer sites. Who is the RIAA? A Copyright Infringement
Government Organization.

No. The RIAA has nothing to do with the government, or with copyright
infringement itself. Try again.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[bill]

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:
"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:
I wonder if any of you have experienced this problem.
Mp3 files which played fine before later start playing parts from other
songs (some of which you don't even have.)
This has been happening to me for over a year. I thought it might be a
virus, but my virus scan finds nothing. I deleted the corrupted mp3
files
and then many months later some new downloaded files (which were
scanned
virus free) become corrupted. It's weird. Now I downloaded this program
called MP3val which detects problems with mp3's and supposedly repairs
them(however, I tried repairing some of my corrupted mp3's and it
doesn't
work). I read somewhere that changing the properties of the mp3 file to
"read me only" might help. I suspect this problem might spread and
affect
other mp3's in other folders. Anyway, I'm just starting to scan all my
mp3
files and delete all which have a problem and set all the others to
"Read Me
Only" and place those files on a seperate hard drive off line with no
access
to the internet. Some of these files might be infected when downloaded
and
might infect others which were previously safe on your hard drive.
Anyone
have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks for any help on this.
It might help if you stated what operating system you're using and what
application you're using to play the things.

But rec.audio.pro isn't really the right place for this sort of thing.
--scott


I'm using Windows xp however I've had this problem before using Windows
98.
I use Winamp but I've also experienced this problem using Windows Media
Player.

It's not disk error or bad sectors since I have the same problem on two
different hard drives and one of the hard drives is brand new. Besides
I've repartitioned, and reformatted the hard drives without any errors
or bad sectors being detected. Also, I'm pretty sure it's not a corrupted
FAT since I've had this problem with different hard drives and I've
repartitioned, reformatted, and reinstalled the os on those hard drives
and still had the same problem. I also pay an extra $5.95 a month for
security service from my isp. I have installed the latest security
service
from my isp which constantly updates my antivirus, firewall and
anti-spyware.

What's weird is that a mp3 song which previously played correctly later
starts playing pieces of other songs or even songs which I don't have
oddly enough.
For example, a song by Issac Hayes which before played Issac Hayes starts
playing a part of a The Clash or Bob Dylan song instead.

In no particular order. Virus infection, trojan, rootkit, corrupted FAT,
corrupted playback program reading the info from the wrong bit of the HD,
or reading a file location as a URL if you're networked.

Other than that, no real ideas. I had a similar problem once after the HD
in my MP3 player went wrong during a sync session & the synchronisation
software went crazy.

It took a while to re-compress all the stuff off the original CDs. :-/

As Scott says, you might get better answers on one of the mp3 hardware
groups.

alt.music.mp3.hardware

Maybe.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

Thanks John. I've been to other sites like alt.music.mp3, etc. They have
never heard
of something like this. I guess I have a unique problem which no one in the
world has experienced.

[bill]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:

Yes they apparently came from a torrent site. What do you mean "traps"?
Perhaps not traps but ways to discourage people from downloading files
from peer to peer sites. Who is the RIAA? A Copyright Infringement
Government Organization.

No. The RIAA has nothing to do with the government, or with copyright
infringement itself. Try again.
--scott

Okay I looked it up. I was close. They are concerned with the protection of
intellectual property.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group that
represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business
and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and
financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the
most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA members create,
manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound
recordings produced and sold in the United States.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual property
rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists; conducts
consumer, industry and technical research; and monitors and reviews state
and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA® also certifies Gold®,
Platinum®, Multi-PlatinumT, and Diamond sales awards, as well as Los Premios
De Oro y PlatinoT, an award celebrating Latin music sales.

[RD Jones]

On Apr 17, 3:34 pm, "bill" wrote:

Okay I looked it up. I was close. They are concerned with the protection of
intellectual property.

Right.
Since many in this group attempt to make an income from
legitemate copyrighted published and licenced recordings,
you can understand hesitance to assist in the illegal pirating
of content.

rd

[Arny Krueger]

"bill" wrote in message



This has been happening to me for over a year. I thought
it might be a virus, but my virus scan finds nothing.

Most viruses are interested in spawning more copies of themselves on other
computers than anything else.

I deleted the corrupted mp3 files and then many months
later some new downloaded files (which were scanned virus
free) become corrupted.

How do you know that they weren't corrupted all along?

It's weird. Now I downloaded this
program called MP3val which detects problems with mp3's
and supposedly repairs them(however, I tried repairing
some of my corrupted mp3's and it doesn't work).

There is no free lunch.

I read somewhere that changing the properties of the mp3 file to
"read me only" might help.

If you mark files read/only you may head off some problems, but not others.

I suspect this problem might
spread and affect other mp3's in other folders. Anyway,
I'm just starting to scan all my mp3 files and delete all
which have a problem and set all the others to "Read Me
Only" and place those files on a seperate hard drive off
line with no access to the internet.

Ever hear of backup to removable media?

Some of these files
might be infected when downloaded

You mean you don't test them right away?

Sounds like we're talking free downloads of copyrighted music. :-(

Why not just title your post "Help me steal"?

[Scott Dorsey]

bill wrote:

Okay I looked it up. I was close. They are concerned with the protection of
intellectual property.

That's actually a small part of what the RIAA does. Aside from being a
lobbying group, they still are a standards body and they still help provide
some cross-pollination between record labels.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group that
represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business
and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and
financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the
most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA members create,
manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound
recordings produced and sold in the United States.

Yes, and this includes everything from BMG to Aardvark Records... everything
from major labels to basement operations.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual property
rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists; conducts
consumer, industry and technical research; and monitors and reviews state
and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA® also certifies Gold®,
Platinum®, Multi-PlatinumT, and Diamond sales awards, as well as Los Premios
De Oro y PlatinoT, an award celebrating Latin music sales.

This is true, but this is really only a small part of what the RIAA does,
although these days it's getting a lot more publicity than maintaing the
standard LP equalization curves, for instance.

It is NOT a governmental entity, and in fact it's often at loggerheads
with the government.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[John Williamson]

bill wrote:

Thanks John. I've been to other sites like alt.music.mp3, etc. They have
never heard
of something like this. I guess I have a unique problem which no one in the
world has experienced.

As I said, I've had a similar problem caused by a HD going faulty during
a sync session. That one showed up as OK using the disk checking
programs, too. :-/

If you don't have the original CDs, then my solution is no good to you.
I ended up replacing the HD in the mobile player, as well. MP3s & videos
obtained from the web are a notorious source of all sorts of malware, &
sufferers aren't likely to admit it, are they, being lawbreakers? :-?

Commercial sites such as iTunes & the various record company download
sites are clean, normally.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[bill]

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:

Thanks John. I've been to other sites like alt.music.mp3, etc. They have
never heard
of something like this. I guess I have a unique problem which no one in
the world has experienced.
As I said, I've had a similar problem caused by a HD going faulty during a
sync session. That one showed up as OK using the disk checking programs,
too. :-/

If you don't have the original CDs, then my solution is no good to you. I
ended up replacing the HD in the mobile player, as well. MP3s & videos
obtained from the web are a notorious source of all sorts of malware, &
sufferers aren't likely to admit it, are they, being lawbreakers? :-?

Commercial sites such as iTunes & the various record company download
sites are clean, normally.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

None of the mp3's I made from my original bought music cd's have become
corrupted. So I guess I'm safe
from any corrupted mp3's I've received from friends.

[John Williamson]

Bill wrote:
"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:

Thanks John. I've been to other sites like alt.music.mp3, etc. They have
never heard
of something like this. I guess I have a unique problem which no one in
the world has experienced.
As I said, I've had a similar problem caused by a HD going faulty during a
sync session. That one showed up as OK using the disk checking programs,
too. :-/

If you don't have the original CDs, then my solution is no good to you. I
ended up replacing the HD in the mobile player, as well. MP3s & videos
obtained from the web are a notorious source of all sorts of malware, &
sufferers aren't likely to admit it, are they, being lawbreakers? :-?

Commercial sites such as iTunes & the various record company download
sites are clean, normally.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

None of the mp3's I made from my original bought music cd's have become
corrupted. So I guess I'm safe
from any corrupted mp3's I've received from friends.

Not unless you're running up to date protection.
But, then, you seem to be saying that the ones you've obtained legally
are clean, & the problem is with the others? ;-)

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[bill]

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
Bill wrote:
"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
bill wrote:

Thanks John. I've been to other sites like alt.music.mp3, etc. They
have never heard
of something like this. I guess I have a unique problem which no one in
the world has experienced.
As I said, I've had a similar problem caused by a HD going faulty during
a sync session. That one showed up as OK using the disk checking
programs, too. :-/

If you don't have the original CDs, then my solution is no good to you.
I ended up replacing the HD in the mobile player, as well. MP3s & videos
obtained from the web are a notorious source of all sorts of malware, &
sufferers aren't likely to admit it, are they, being lawbreakers? :-?

Commercial sites such as iTunes & the various record company download
sites are clean, normally.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

None of the mp3's I made from my original bought music cd's have become
corrupted. So I guess I'm safe
from any corrupted mp3's I've received from friends.
Not unless you're running up to date protection.
But, then, you seem to be saying that the ones you've obtained legally are
clean, & the problem is with the others? ;-)

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

I am running up to date protection. I pay monthly to my service provider for
the latest
and greatest protection. Like I said the music I have is from cd's I've
bought in a store -
how cleaner can you get (except a few files I received from friends) ?

[Scott Dorsey]

Bill wrote:

I am running up to date protection. I pay monthly to my service provider for
the latest
and greatest protection. Like I said the music I have is from cd's I've
bought in a store -
how cleaner can you get (except a few files I received from friends) ?

My first suspicion would be a bug in your mp3 player application that is
damaging files. And once they get damaged, they stay that way. They
might be getting damaged at one point in time, months before you next
play them and notice it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Laurence Payne[_2_]]

On 18 Apr 2008 08:25:41 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

My first suspicion would be a bug in your mp3 player application that is
damaging files. And once they get damaged, they stay that way. They
might be getting damaged at one point in time, months before you next
play them and notice it.

An interesting idea. Do player applications even have the ability to
write data?

[Jos Geluk]

Laurence Payne schreef:
On 18 Apr 2008 08:25:41 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

My first suspicion would be a bug in your mp3 player application that is
damaging files. And once they get damaged, they stay that way. They
might be getting damaged at one point in time, months before you next
play them and notice it.

An interesting idea. Do player applications even have the ability to
write data?

Some media players, notably Media Monkey, have the ability to write
MP3-specific tags on the fly, so yes.

Jos.

--
Ardis Park Music
www.ardispark.nl

[Scott Dorsey]

Laurence Payne wrote:
On 18 Apr 2008 08:25:41 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

My first suspicion would be a bug in your mp3 player application that is
damaging files. And once they get damaged, they stay that way. They
might be getting damaged at one point in time, months before you next
play them and notice it.

An interesting idea. Do player applications even have the ability to
write data?

The Windows Media Player I have no idea about. But applications like iTunes
that maintain directories of mp3 files and do all of this fancy file
management stuff with moving files around all the time certainly do. That
strikes me as an accident waiting to happen, personally.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Richard Crowley]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote ...
Laurence Payne wrote:
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:

My first suspicion would be a bug in your mp3 player application that
is
damaging files. And once they get damaged, they stay that way. They
might be getting damaged at one point in time, months before you next
play them and notice it.

An interesting idea. Do player applications even have the ability to
write data?

The Windows Media Player I have no idea about. But applications like
iTunes
that maintain directories of mp3 files and do all of this fancy file
management stuff with moving files around all the time certainly do.
That
strikes me as an accident waiting to happen, personally.

Of course, you can set all your MP3 files for Read-Only
to eliminate that potential cause.

Any application has the potential of overwriting an
existing file. Most don't do it intentionally.

[Laurence Payne[_2_]]

On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:57:09 -0700, "Richard Crowley"
wrote:

Any application has the potential of overwriting an
existing file. Most don't do it intentionally.

There must be a FEW that don't have any file-writing function at all?

[Richard Crowley]

"Laurence Payne" wrote ...
"Richard Crowley"
wrote:

Any application has the potential of overwriting an
existing file. Most don't do it intentionally.

There must be a FEW that don't have any file-writing function at all?

Any application running under MSwin has access to the Windows
API, which includes both reading and writing files (and thousands
of other functions, as well.)

Of course, there are applications that are written to not intentionally
make any calls to the file writing APIs (or even the file-reading APIs).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API

[Billy[_2_]]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
Bill wrote:

I am running up to date protection. I pay monthly to my service provider
for
the latest
and greatest protection. Like I said the music I have is from cd's I've
bought in a store -
how cleaner can you get (except a few files I received from friends) ?

My first suspicion would be a bug in your mp3 player application that is
damaging files. And once they get damaged, they stay that way. They
might be getting damaged at one point in time, months before you next
play them and notice it.
--scott


I don't see how a mp3 player could rewrite a song. That is impossible.
The only thing that make sense is that the corrupted song was made by
someone
to have another song underlying the original song which later becomes that
underlying
song. If your argument was corect than songs would arbitrarily become
corrupted
haphazardly anywhere on ones computer instead of being isolated to specific
folders or groups.

[[email protected]]

"Billy" wrote:

I don't see how a mp3 player could rewrite a song.


You don't know which program is damaging the files. Don't assume.

If you have your files in a folder shared to the outside world (sometimes
known as "encouraging others to steal") there is potential for damage.

[[email protected]]

"Richard Crowley" wrote:

Of course, you can set all your MP3 files for Read-Only
to eliminate that potential cause.

Any application has the potential of overwriting an
existing file. Most don't do it intentionally.

1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit, then write, then turn
on the bit.

2- Most programs that write to existing files DO do it intentionally.

Thanks anyhow.

[Richard Crowley]

wrote ...
"Richard Crowley" wrote:

Of course, you can set all your MP3 files for Read-Only
to eliminate that potential cause.

Any application has the potential of overwriting an
existing file. Most don't do it intentionally.

1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit,
then write, then turn on the bit.

Programs that intentionally do things like that are
commonly called "viruses" or other types of malware.

2- Most programs that write to existing files DO do
it intentionally.

Yes, of course. Setting RO is not foolproof, but at least
a first-line protection against accidental overwriting.

Thanks anyhow.

AOL?

[Billy[_2_]]

"Richard Crowley" wrote in message
news:0tCdnVjXPI_jkJfVnZ2dnUVZ_vyinZ2d@pcez...
wrote ...
"Richard Crowley" wrote:

Of course, you can set all your MP3 files for Read-Only
to eliminate that potential cause.

Any application has the potential of overwriting an
existing file. Most don't do it intentionally.

1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit, then write, then
turn on the bit.

Programs that intentionally do things like that are commonly called
"viruses" or other types of malware.

2- Most programs that write to existing files DO do it intentionally.

Yes, of course. Setting RO is not foolproof, but at least
a first-line protection against accidental overwriting.

Thanks anyhow.

AOL?

If you had a virus on your system you could potentially lose all the data on
your
computer - so rewriting data to specific files is a superfluous act. Besides
it's too
time consuming.

Therefore, there does not exist any legitimate software which overwrites all
your mp3's. It would be detected before it could start by antivirus
software; and besides even if they succeeded in getting by any antivirus
software,
it would be too time consuming and hence be detected before any serious
damage
could take place. Hence, the only viable way they use to stop stealing
copyrighted
material is by creating mp3 files that appear to be corrupted by a virus or
malware;
when in reality they are not, they are merely fabricated files uploaded for
example
to illegal p2p sites.

[Scott Dorsey]

Richard Crowley wrote:
wrote ...
"Richard Crowley" wrote:

Of course, you can set all your MP3 files for Read-Only
to eliminate that potential cause.

Any application has the potential of overwriting an
existing file. Most don't do it intentionally.

1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit,
then write, then turn on the bit.

Programs that intentionally do things like that are
commonly called "viruses" or other types of malware.

Sadly, a lot of Windows built-ins do that too. Of course, you could
argue that Windows is malware and I don't think I'd argue with you....
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[philicorda]

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:32:55 -0400, lowgen36 wrote:

"Richard Crowley" wrote:

Of course, you can set all your MP3 files for Read-Only to eliminate
that potential cause.

Any application has the potential of overwriting an existing file. Most
don't do it intentionally.

1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit, then write, then
turn on the bit.

Only if they have permission to do so.

You could create another user on the machine, who has all your mp3s in
their /home directory with read only permissions. Then your normal
everyday login can read those files without fear of altering them.

If the mp3 player program does try to write to file, you should be able
to make the attempt turn up in the system logs, so you can be sure that
the program is the problem.

It does sound more like a corrupted file system to me though, as others
have already pointed out.


2- Most programs that write to existing files DO do it intentionally.

Thanks anyhow.

[Billy[_2_]]

"philicorda" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:32:55 -0400, lowgen36 wrote:

Only if they have permission to do so.

You could create another user on the machine, who has all your mp3s in
their /home directory with read only permissions. Then your normal
everyday login can read those files without fear of altering them.

If the mp3 player program does try to write to file, you should be able
to make the attempt turn up in the system logs, so you can be sure that
the program is the problem.

It does sound more like a corrupted file system to me though, as others
have already pointed out.


By a corrupted file system do you mean the specific mp3 file affected
remains undamaged?

[John Williamson]

Billy wrote:
"philicorda" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:32:55 -0400, lowgen36 wrote:

Only if they have permission to do so.

You could create another user on the machine, who has all your mp3s in
their /home directory with read only permissions. Then your normal
everyday login can read those files without fear of altering them.

If the mp3 player program does try to write to file, you should be able
to make the attempt turn up in the system logs, so you can be sure that
the program is the problem.

It does sound more like a corrupted file system to me though, as others
have already pointed out.


By a corrupted file system do you mean the specific mp3 file affected
remains undamaged?


Yes and no. The data may well be there, but the information the system
uses to find the various bits of it may be corrupt.

If you want to know more, google for FAT filesystem or NTFS filesystem
according to what your computer uses. Wikipedia has a pretty good
general explanation of how the filesystem on a hard drive works. Have a
look he-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system

There's a bit a little way down about file systems on PCs.

Then follow the links at the bottom of the article to why filesystems
sometimes break, & what can be done to fix them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system_fragmentation

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

[Billy[_2_]]

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
Billy wrote:
"philicorda" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:32:55 -0400, lowgen36 wrote:
It does sound more like a corrupted file system to me though, as others
have already pointed out.


By a corrupted file system do you mean the specific mp3 file affected
remains undamaged?
Yes and no. The data may well be there, but the information the system
uses to find the various bits of it may be corrupt.

So you mean on a different file system - one which is functioning
correctly - the
specific mp3 file would function correctly.

[Laurence Payne[_2_]]

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:41:56 -0400, "Billy"
wrote:

By a corrupted file system do you mean the specific mp3 file affected
remains undamaged?
Yes and no. The data may well be there, but the information the system
uses to find the various bits of it may be corrupt.

So you mean on a different file system - one which is functioning
correctly - the
specific mp3 file would function correctly.

I don't think you can usefully differentiate between the raw data and
the file system that indexes it.

[philicorda]

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:41:56 -0400, Billy wrote:

"John Williamson" wrote in message
...
Billy wrote:
"philicorda" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:32:55 -0400, lowgen36 wrote: It does sound
more like a corrupted file system to me though, as others have
already pointed out.


By a corrupted file system do you mean the specific mp3 file affected
remains undamaged?
Yes and no. The data may well be there, but the information the system
uses to find the various bits of it may be corrupt.

So you mean on a different file system - one which is functioning
correctly - the
specific mp3 file would function correctly.

If the problem is a corrupted file system, then all the blocks that make
up the mp3 file are probably still on the disk. That is, assuming the
file system does not think they are free space and allowed another
program to write to them.

You could try chkdisk or whatever disk repair program you have and see
what happens. However, if the files are irreplaceable, don't run a disk
repair program! Remove the drive from the computer and send it to a data
recovery place.

[Billy[_2_]]

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:41:56 -0400, "Billy"
wrote:

By a corrupted file system do you mean the specific mp3 file affected
remains undamaged?
Yes and no. The data may well be there, but the information the system
uses to find the various bits of it may be corrupt.

So you mean on a different file system - one which is functioning
correctly - the
specific mp3 file would function correctly.

I don't think you can usefully differentiate between the raw data and
the file system that indexes it.

If on a 500GB hard drive there is only one corrupted 5mb mp3 file or at the
most mp3's isolated to one folder containing 1GB of music by a specific
artist,
then the problem could not be a corrupted file system - a corrupted files
system would not be isolated to one specfic folder (the chances of that
happening
would be practically impossible.)

[Paul/Tim/Koivu/Billy/Whoever]

"Billy" wrote in message
...

"Laurence Payne" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:41:56 -0400, "Billy"
wrote:

By a corrupted file system do you mean the specific mp3 file affected
remains undamaged?
Yes and no. The data may well be there, but the information the system
uses to find the various bits of it may be corrupt.

So you mean on a different file system - one which is functioning
correctly - the
specific mp3 file would function correctly.

I don't think you can usefully differentiate between the raw data and
the file system that indexes it.

If on a 500GB hard drive there is only one corrupted 5mb mp3 file or at
the
most mp3's isolated to one folder containing 1GB of music by a specific
artist,
then the problem could not be a corrupted file system - a corrupted files
system would not be isolated to one specfic folder (the chances of that
happening
would be practically impossible.)


Hence, the specific problem of the original poster is not due to a corrupt
file system,
but rather to corrupt mp3 files which possess purposely introduced errors.
That is, these files were manufactured to be corrupt and purposely
introduced on p2p sites
to discourage downloading of pirated material.

[Richard Crowley]

"philicorda" wrote ...
"Richard Crowley" wrote:
1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit, then
write, then turn on the bit.

Only if they have permission to do so.

That kind of "permission" in most operating systems
(including Windows and Linux/Mac) is a gentlemen's
agreement. People who write malware are not gentlemen.

[philicorda]

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:46:05 -0700, Richard Crowley wrote:

"philicorda" wrote ...
"Richard Crowley" wrote:
1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit, then write, then
turn on the bit.

Only if they have permission to do so.

That kind of "permission" in most operating systems (including Windows
and Linux/Mac) is a gentlemen's agreement. People who write malware are
not gentlemen.

It's a bit more than that, isn't it? I mean, if any program can run as
any user, with whatever privileges it likes, there is not much point to
having any security at all.

To elevate privileges requires finding a bug in the operating system or
another app with higher privileges and successfully exploiting it. This
is not unheard of, but it's a bit more involved than breaking a
gentleman's agreement.

[Richard Crowley]

"philicorda" wrote ...
Richard Crowley wrote:
"philicorda" wrote ...
"Richard Crowley" wrote:
1- Any program can intentionally turn off the RO bit, then write,
then
turn on the bit.

Only if they have permission to do so.

That kind of "permission" in most operating systems (including
Windows
and Linux/Mac) is a gentlemen's agreement. People who write malware
are
not gentlemen.

It's a bit more than that, isn't it? I mean, if any program can run as
any user, with whatever privileges it likes, there is not much point
to
having any security at all.

I take it you aren't a programmer, then?
It is not a matter of "run as any user".
With very few exceptions most executables have
access to the complete array of OS services (APIs)
including diddling file flags, and reading, writing, and
deleting files. There are rules and conventions for what
apps ought to do. And all proper programs abide by
these conventions. Of course malware doesn't, that is
why they call it "malware" But there is no strict enforcement
unless you add some oppressive 3rd party overseer.

To elevate privileges requires finding a bug in the operating system
or
another app with higher privileges and successfully exploiting it.
This
is not unheard of, but it's a bit more involved than breaking a
gentleman's agreement.

You don't need "elevated priveleges" to do basic data
file manipulation.