The INQUIRER? That's my home page... - Intel field sales engineer
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WD makes a big mistake
LAST WEEK, WESTERN Digital dug itself a very deep hole among the clued in completely by accident.
The trap it is falling towards is the same one that sank the ill-fated Viiv effort, but WD can avoid the same fate if it acts fast.
It began with a post on Boing Boing, and quickly escalated from there. The problem, and it is a problem, isn't nearly as bad in most ways as they say, but far worse in a few others. Just to be sure I got the whole story, I did what no one else seems to have done and asked them what it was thinking. The story goes something like this.
The product in question is the My Book World Edition II, a two drive network ready NAS. Unlike some of the other My Books, this one is not dependent on a host PC, you can hit it via TCP/IP. It has a CPU, not just a SATA <-> USB chip, and is a full-fledged NAS box. The part that the World Edition adds to the mix is that they have software which allows you to access the shares from anywhere, blowing through NAT walls and generally making things easier for everyone.
Other than this software, called MioNet, this just a dumb network file serving box with a few bells and whistles. The problem is that MioNet is not only horribly broken, it endangers all our rights, and ends up as a net negative to the value of the product.
You install the software on a Windows only box, strike one, and it lets you to log in and access any of your shared data on the drive across the internet. So far so good, other than the Windows bit. It will also allow you to give access to certain designated folders to anyone by simply sending them an email. Again, it sounds good.
If you actually attempt to do anything worth doing, it will most likely puke up a message about "Due to unverifiable media license authentication....." and shut you down.
This is because it is only meant to share text and pictures, basically anything you would want to share that is not trivially mailable is cut out. Don't believe me? Look at the list of excluded file types.
In its defence, these file types are available to you if you log in, you just can't give them to anyone. WD purposely shut this down out of fear, the content MAFIAA had them cowered before the product went to market.
Western Digital claims, rightly, that the ability to share things across a WAN is a unique feature that no one else on the market has, and it is right on that point. WD also says that it does nothing to prevent you from directly accessing and sharing those files on your own across the net, you just can't do that with its software. Again, it is right, but a 2TB box that can only share txt and jpg files is about as useful as a third nipple.
The problem, and it is incurable, sad and hurts the entire industry, is the exact same one that flushed hundreds of millions of Intel dollars down the toilet, putting the needs of the content MAFIAA above the rights of paying customers.
WD is implicitly calling you a thieving pirate, and helpfully preventing you from exercising your rights because it might, just might, infringe on some of the very curious legal fantasies of the MAFIAA.
The more distressing problem is that WD is setting a precedent. The MAFIAA does the legal equivalent of bullying, it doesn't fight fair, and run screaming when it is going to lose a case. It realises the value of precedents. WD is setting the precedent that all similar devices should remove your rights preemptively too.
If some company has the common sense to do the right thing and not assume you are a thieving liar, it then opens itself up for a suit, and WD is the prime example of how to do things the 'legal' way. The MAFIAA will then pick on the little guys who can't afford a protracted suit, settle with them, and build up a portfolio of chickenlittle companies that agree to be paraded around out of fear.
In the end, the ability to do something a simple as share your wedding videos will become hard if not impossible to do, all courtesy of the MAFIAA and their dubious precedents. If you think it is far fetched, it has done the same thing with P2P where in the US, sharing a file now equals felony copyright violation even if no one downloads it. It is aiming to do the same with NAS boxes now.
Before you write WD off as a lost cause, let me give you a big ray of hope. Having had a long long talk with the firm last week, I think it genuinely underestimated the impact of what it did. I also think it was unaware of the potential problems it caused with its rights removing software.
It is now aware of these problems, and also aware of the backlash it is causing against its products. We are cautiously optimistic that it will backpedal, fast and furiously. If the My Book World Edition III comes out in a few months and the MioNet 2.0 does not presume you are pirate scum, then all is well. If it does come out and still strips your rights, well, other people do make hard drives as well. µ
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It is Western Digital's fault for giving in to the "content mafia".

It's great that many are reacting to products that do such things. If all products were like this chances are we would somehow have to pay a fee just to share home videos.

Western Digital has never been my first choice but I've never had anything against them either, until this stunt.
I would give this a week before work arounds and hacks are avalible everyware... do i hear a WD hard drive sniffer out in the distance
I hope this thing flops like a fish, and then gets hacked so it can do something useful. Then I can pick some up on the cheap and have a usable product.

But really, 2TB of text and images? Is this only for (photo) porn?
and WD made mine last week when I heard about this.
"As far as I am concerned, and many other people, when I purchase a product I own it. I can use a product I own in any way I see fit. And that means using my own software, firmware etc. if I am so inclined. "

Does this mean i can buy a gun and use it any way i see fit? Even if i use my own hand made bullets? Don't think so.

But hey, we live in a world of rules. That get broken all the time. someone will just find a way to work around it. no issues.
Where on earth does it say that we must permit someone to be a "convent verifier"? It is none of anyone's business what I do with my computer with the files on them. Granted there are those people that will use a device like this for purposes other than those for which it was designed, but nonetheless I certainly would not consider it my business to verify anyone's content once I sold the device (had I been the one to create it).

Who is the screwed up person that feels it is appropriate to have anyone verify my content? It is my business and my content. Anyone attempting to police me can go shove a log up their ass.

I'm being serious, to even consider the idea of a "content verifier" is to crap on me and on everyone. You would not, should not, and better not permit anyone to be a content verifier at any time in your life in any aspect of your life. You're creating a new level of "police authority" if you do, one not sanctioned by the people.

It is an invasion of everyone's privacy and of fundamental common sense to think that some one, some company, can be "accepted" as a "content verifier". Get it through your heads. There's no such thing as a content verifier and no one should ever be permitted to say they are or attempt to deny you your rights by saying they are. No hardware should ever verify your content. None, nil, nay not any.

We don't permit car manufacturers to cap the car so that we don't exceed the speed limit which is also a crime. Why would we permit anyone to brand anything or create any industry or any technology that could take the illicit role of verifying my content. Even if they put black boxes in cars that is a requirement of our government OK'd by law and the people through voting for government officials and laws.

What a bunch of total morons to think that this is in any way common sense.

What I do is none of their Fucking business once I buy the product, just like it is none of the business of the car company what I do with the car once I purchase it.
The public looses again to the copywrite police as WD cows in before their mighty blather. There is really something seriously wrong when a company stops acting in the interest of their customers, and starts pandering to the whims of entities like the MPA and RIAA. It doesn’t mater that people all the time these days make their own recordings. That they have the right to distribute to whom ever in an manor they see fit, and it’s not right for anyone to interfere as it is being done here. The MPA and RIAA are perfectly free, and in their rights to go after those whom pirate their copywrited works, but they have no right to restrict what I do with my own works. 

I know why a product like this scares the crap out of them, because unlike one of the popular file sharing programs which they can see everything that is being shared, they can’t with WD’s product. This of course would make going after software pirates a lot harder if this became widespread, so they get WD to cripple it from the start, but not only is that wrong, it won’t work. The fact is there are already products out there that can share files securely over the internet, and don’t think it will be long before someone posts a hacked version of WD’s software with the media file extension block removed. 
Why don't these companies simply make it "protected" by default configuration but allow the device to be somewhat easily modified by the user to expand it's default capabilities like the routers that allow you to change/expand the firmware. If it ships with "pirating sensitivity" settings then the MAFIAA has no case against the hardware producer and the consumer doesn't lose the ability to have fully functioning hardware with a little effort.

I suppose it doesn't change the precedent point but it's a workable compromise where no one is completely satisfied or completely disatisfied.
I don't see why everyone is freaking out. I didn't see an compression files on that list. So, oh darn, you got to take an extra minute to place your media files into a ZIP or RAR file.

God, the world is getting lazy.
WD can't be held responsible for what their customers do with their hardware. BUT they CAN be held responsible for creating defective by design hardware that they try to sell to their customers.

IF someone has to bypass this software and use a VPN to access THEIR content on this HDD over the web then this drive is simply nothing more than any other drive... except it includes a piece of optional DRM s/w.

From what I see this drive offers no other functionality than any other drive out there NAT or otherwise.

The described purpose of this drive is to ENABLE easy file sharing of user's content,,,a task it fails miserably at. There are plenty of free on the web sites that allow a user to upload photos to, email links to friends to view those photos all while controlling who can and cannot access these photos. And these free sites do not depend on anyone buying another piece of h/w to do so.

Shame on WD. I am not a pirate but if your HW is going to treat me as if I am one then I do not need or want or your product.
If you have a linux /windows XP pro on a networked computer, you can tunnel the data through it and the SAS will think it's a local connection anyways ;)

and also, did anyone catch the "lack of support" for .tmp files?

can't run in copy protection systems that run the executables as .tmp files. 3D Studio, and old UT come to mind for examples.
First Seagate with their Linux unsupported issue, now WD neutered...
The problem with boycotts and embargoes is that they don't last very long. Here's an example:

from Toshiba's Wikipedia article:

[quote]
In 1987, the company was accused of illegally selling CNC milling machines used to produce very quiet submarine propellers to the Soviet Union in violation of the CoCom agreement, an international embargo on Western exports to East Bloc countries. The Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal involved a subsidiary of Toshiba and the Norwegian company Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk.
[end quote]

Now, who, in this day, besides me, remembers this? I only know about it because it was mentioned in the game Red Storm Rising, made by Microprose.

I hope that anyone reading this will agree that Toshiba's actions were far more serious than what WD did. Yet, Toshiba thrives today. I don't want to pick on any one company, but it seems a little strange that these companies are allowed to do these kinds of things, receive a slap on the wrist, then continue as if nothing untoward happened.

I'm sure this thing with WD will blow over, because consumers have short memories. Are you going to buy Seagate or Maxtor, now? Seriously.

Yes, what WD did was stupid and unethical. Savvy folks from around the web have chimed in and shown people how to get rid of Mionet, and learn some unix code, along the way. I think it's worth it, that if you want to give people access to your files, you need to learn a little ssh.

If you're really that bitter about it, write a competitor to MioNet and put it on SourceForge. Quit complaining and do something about the problem, if it really is a problem.
WD could easily have put a provision in their install EULA to make consumers agree that WD isn't to be held responsible for illegal sharing (and even could have put in a "please don't").
This very much reeks of more than just fear but an active embrace of the ways of the dark.
In that light I too now start to look at other HD manufacturers with a much larger openness to put it mildly.
"Western Digital claims, rightly, that the ability to share things across a WAN is a unique feature that no one else on the market has, and it is right on that point. "

WRONG. Windows Home Server can do this just fine. It does the UPnP configuration with your router and gives you a host name of whatever.homeserver.com. And WHS doesn't restrict you from sharing MP3s, Divx, etc. If MS isnt afraid of the content mafia why is Mironet?
"MAFIAA" sounds good. You could also spell it as "MaPhiAA..."
Google, "http file server" and check out the first result.

It's a simple, easy to use file server app. I use it all the time. Once installed and configured (easy to do), you simply right-click on a file/folder/drive and it is a good as shared to anyone you give your IP adress/port# to. You can even assign passwords and there is also an upload function so others can upload to you. It can do a lot more too. Read about it.

Best part - it's absolutely free!!!
I see this move as "brand suicide." You can't make a move like this unless all of the NAS drive manufacturers do it too. Since "cooler minds have prevailed" at the other companies it just leaves Western Digital looking like the WHORE for the RIAA that we now know they truly are.

Way to go WD, you just alienated 1/2 of your customer base. No x-mas bonus for you guys. And the real kicker, you did this, willingly to yourself.

By the way, I author lots of file extension types you are blocking that are 100% my copyright. Why won't you let me use files across Mionet that are mine? You would be infringing on my ability to do business were I to have purchased this worthless NAS drive.

So long WD, maybe we will meet again once you come to your senses.
You can share all the WAV music you can stand.
The normal trick is to provide a method of firmware updating (perfectly normal) and then make sure enough info is available so that the hackers can gain control of the firmware and release their own versions - sans file extension stoopidity and probably with .torrent support built-in.

WD maintains plausible deniability and sales skyrocket.

The end result is that the users get more than they ever wanted, the hackers have something to keep themselves busy, the OEM makes billions, and the content owners get screwed worse than if they'd left it alone to begin with.

This is all so predictable.

Start six week count-down clock for the first public firmware hack.

Go.

Heroes.2x11.avi.remove_this_extension
Ridiculous ! Do they realy think file name LAST extension is something magic ?
First off, I've not seen one of these boxes and I hope I never will.
However, if it contains it's own CPU, then I would expect that somewhere closeby is a little piece of flash memory that contains, along with it's O/S (linux? great, let's see the source!), would be the list of verboten extensions.
So in the "patched" version - either from the manu. or a freelance operation, the exetensions mysteriously disappear. 
Peace is restored, a doorstop becomes a usable peripheral and everyone's happy.
pw protected encrypted rar files ftw....
at least they don't block file archives. 

.zip away!
What they properbly don't know is that Warez sites don't use the perhibited fileextensions anyway. Everything is RAR'ed or ZIPped so what's the problem.

Excluding Fileextentsions won't help a thing. It's like blocking .exe-files in Outlook. Just rename the file to .txt and it passes without a problem.
You're all worse than a bunch of emo kids during a thunderstorm.
"Wah Wah Wah, they won't let me share something online that I'm not supposed to anyways and I know of so many other ways to do it but I wanna complain and suck my thumbs."
Grow up, start a private ftp server, or just let people log in to the damn box. Oh, and this whole "boycott WD" thing is the dumbest thing anybody has ever suggested. I still see that netgear is around even though their last NAS box would only work with xp32, the bane of all exsistence until you decided you didn't like something else, so why don't you all get off your computers, and GET A LIFE.
Send an invite, and change the extension on the file. Tell your friend to copy the file to their machine, and change the extension from ".xvid" back to ".divx".
WD is not to blame. This whole situation is due to the content mafiaa. They lack the basic understanding that they cannot control people no matter how hard the try.

There is a subtle balance in software use and in product use. Once an agreement of how things are used is too restrictive, that agreement will be broken. 

As far as I am concerned, and many other people, when I purchase a product I own it. I can use a product I own in any way I see fit. And that means using my own software, firmware etc. if I am so inclined.

I will not bother with whatever nonsense DRM is thrown at me. If anything that will only encourage me to obtain things illegally.

The content mob thinks it can bully everyone with its army of lawyers and threats. Little do they understand that there is a very large community that can bully them as well. In fact the free software community could potentially bully such a consortium out of functional existance, if it were so inclined. Fight fire with fire.

WD cannot be held responsible for the content shared by the consumers of its products. The idea is simply stupid.

How is this a unique selling point of the WD product?

I can redirect port 80 on my router to port 7000 on my Qnap TS-101 and happily get to the web file manager, showing all 300Gb of data.

I can also redirect a different port to the web-based torrent downloader, which makes for easy downloading... but that's a different story!

In the words of the mighty geeks, QNAP FTW.
I have sworn not to buy any more equipment stamped 'Sony' during this life. So far, I have lived up to it, and I'm confident that I will continue until I stop doing just anything at all.

Now WD just got into the same black hole. I do believe that I have a few WD disks at home. But they will be replaced by competitors disks before the end of 2008. Sworn.

Gus
I don't see the mkv file extension on the list, I guess it means I access high definition video
what if you rename a .mp3 to a .txt file? - would said HD be clever enough to stop it being sent?

bloody doubt it. anyone who finds out lets us know!!!

...best email my mate a link to bigboobies4.txt
I wonder would something as simple as changing a file extension render the syetem useless and I'd hazard a guess that a person more inclined to file share ilegal material would know this compared to your average Joe wanting to share a wedding video.
Damn straight there's other hard drive manufacturers. I'm boycotting all WD drives till they remove this feature.
You don't have to use the rather anoying mionet software if you just want to access the files locally. 

Local (LAN) access to the files (via SMB type arrangement though not particularly well documented) doesn't seem to impose any file type restriction.

When I first set one of these up I was under the assumption that mionet was mandatory but this can be completely disabled to increase performance.

My suggestion to those wanting to access the files from afar would be to use this in combination with a VPN (e.g. PPTP) enabled router (DD-WRT anyone?) since installing and configuring the mionet software on each PC requiring access would be a royal pain on its own.
Never ever ever again will a Western Digital device of any make, type, description, price, or anything else, be purchased, recommended or willingly used by me. 

And I am sure I am not the only one. 

You really think they did not think they could get away with it ? You really think they have not sold their ethics to the MAFIAA ? 

May their rapidly vanishing market share be a signal to other manufacturers, that sleeping with the MAFIAA, means soon sleeping with the fishes. 

Never Ever Again
Damn it, haven't they figured this out yet, black lists don't work.

These things should just block everything that ISN'T a Microsoft office file.....

Bwahahaha

Ok, I am going to take my ogm and my mkv and go home :) 

Oh, and if your going to do one of these, do it right, freeNAS.