Now DRM is pretty much gone from music downloads, it seems that the music industry is stepping up their so-called policing of file-sharing networks. (There was a 20-fold increase in the number of takedown notices issued a couple of months back -- a spike not matched by an increase in actual file sharing.)

I use the term "so-called" because the industry won't say exactly how they do this policing, and that "many of the recent notices don't correspond to entries in traffic logs", but they're nevertheless demanding law changes to protect their rights. (They're backing legislation in Illinois and Tennessee that would require schools install deep packet monitoring equipment once they've received a certain number of infringement notices -- notices, coincidentally, issued by them...)

Now it seems researchers at the University of Washington have found the answer. A study released a fortnight ago found serious flaws in how file-sharers are fingered; "...some people might be getting improperly accused of sharing copyrighted content, and could even be purposely framed by other users." But here's the clincher...

An inanimate object could also get the blame. The researchers rigged the software agents to implicate three laserjet printers, which were then accused in takedown letters by the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] of downloading copies of ”Iron Man„ and the latest Indiana Jones film.

Which reminds me... a couple of weeks ago regular reader Andrew Reeve sent me this link to The Buzz Report in which host Molly Wood "proves" that 10 years of mucking around with DRM has cost the record industry a cool $37,000,000,000,000. Nice stuff!