Western Digital stops unauthorised file sharing

Western Digital, the second-largest hard drive manufacturer, has launched a new range of hard drives, known as ‘My Book’, which block the online sharing of media files stored on networked drives. The new hard drives are part of the company’s efforts to combat piracy.

The drives feature ‘Anywhere Access’ software which enables PC users to access files from a network. The software also includes digital rights restriction technology which prevents users of the drives sharing files such as music and video clips. The software works with Windows systems.

However, as well as blocking the sharing of unauthorised files, it also stops the sharing of any files which fall into a range of 30 restricted file formats, even if users create the content themselves.

There is concern that the technology impinges on consumer rights. In an interview with the BBC, Peter Brown of the Free Software Foundation said: “DRM is bad for society because it attempts to monitor what we do and how we live our digital lives. It is asking us to give up control of something which gives us some degree of democracy, freedom and the ability to communicate with a large group of people.”

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