ABOUT TACO and TACOServe

TACO is the answer to problems encountered by RIAA, record companies, and artists alike. How can we use file-sharing technology to our advantage without compromising the business side of the music industry and still hold consumer interest? and how can we minimize loss through problems arising with services such as Napster, Gnutella, and Hotline**? Although a few feasible solutions have been proposed, no single one has been of any practical value. For example, digital watermarking, while solid in concept, requires hours of work re-recording existing media to encode songs for distribution, and imposing time limits or “expiration dates” on songs merely gives users a set amount of time to make as many copies as possible, quite easily bypassing the system altogether. So what is the solution to this problem? TACO. TACO works like no other currently available digital copy protection software, to bring you the ultimate in high-tech protection. Minimizing loss and maximizing usability and flexibility. TACO takes any existing digital recordings, and through TACOServe, our flagship server software, allows you to freely distribute your media to a hungry public without worrying about unauthorized or illegal copying and sharing violations. You simply tell TACO who can download and/or listen to files, and they can only be heard on that user’s system. No time constraints, no re-recording, and no copyright violations! In addition, TACO is a complete subscription-based account manager, with a ton of options to customize your system, including ratio/level/limiter controls, tracking utilities, and profile compilers, to name just a few.

HOW DOES TACO WORK?

TACO uses complex mathematical algorithms relative to specific key factors on end-user systems to encrypt digital media files in such a way that they can only be played back on their intended recipient machines. In other words, they can’t be copied, traded, or redistributed. There are some things on a computer that are system-specific, no two computers have them in common. These attributes can act as fingerprints when you need to identify or distinguish one computer from another, and are the basis for TACO’s encryption process allowing a song to be recognized and played by one specific computer, and that computer only. It is what we call a “Point of Download Implementation” (PDI) program, meaning that all encryption is done at the time of download, taking just a fraction of a second*, and allowing preexisting media recordings to be made immediately available to the consumer with no modification on your part.

WHAT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE SERVICES IS TACO COMPATIBLE WITH?

Current releases of TACO merge seamlessly with Napster (client/server networks), GNUtella (ServEnt networks), Hotline, and any other TCP/IP, UDP, etc. networks. For questions on specific networks and configurations, especially less commercial/older ones, please refer to our contact page.

DOES TACO PRESENT ANY PRIVACY CONCERNS?

As with a lot of software being run these days, as a host to a large number of users, it would be technically possible to exploit TACO in such a way that it violated people’s privacy. And although it is possible to run TACO in an environment where no client details are necessary, you are dealing with system-specific identifiers here, which caused a lot of problems with Intel’s Pentium III processors** (CPU serial numbers), but everyone needs to understand that a big part of the internet and technology is about trust, and that a good consumer relationship should be more important than making a few bucks selling a mailing list to a group of SPAMmers. The bottom line is, depending on what type of “registered-user” service you intend on running and what personal user information you plan on acquiring, people may or may not perceive you as a threat to their privacy. We would be more than happy to offer advice or help you to explore all of the options presently available concerning TACO and privacy, please refer to our contact page.

HOW CAN WE IMPLEMENT TACO ON OUR NETWORK?

TACO runs on most networks right out of the box, so all that is needed in those cases is TACOServe server software (available here) and a network. On the few systems TACO will not immediately work with, which will be mostly older, more obscure networks, many configuration options are available with TACOServe to help get you up and running as soon as possible. If a TACOServe configuration is not available to meet your needs, custom programming is available, please refer to our contact page. Installing TACO is simple…software is loaded from a CD onto your server via our EZ-install program, you are asked a few questions in order to customize TACO to your server, network and/or media service, then load it up and you are ready to go.

TACO SECURITY

If the day ever comes when a program is completely secure from everyone out there, a lot of us would be out of a job. Although we have taken every possible precaution and safety measure to ensure that TACO be invulnerable to outside attacks, strong network security such as a solid firewall and extensive knowledge of your specific configuration are your best defenses against such problems.

TACOServe SOFTWARE FEATURES

QUOTAS, RATIOS, AND LIMITS

TACO offers a quota/ratio feature, which allows you to set either the number of files that must be uploaded before any downloads may occur, or the number of downloads per upload required, respectively. This feature is useful in a file-sharing environment, especially if the particular network is trying to build or expand their file library. Parameters such as bit rate and sampling rate minimums may be set to prevent inferior quality audio from being uploaded. Limits allow you to decide either how many songs per hour/day/week/month/year/lifetime any user may download, or the length of time an account remains active and able to download media. This is useful in subscription-based services, because it allows you limit, either by time or by download, specific accounts. Connection speed levels allow you to dictate at how fast or how slow of a speed at which a user can be connected – 14.4, 28.8, 33.6, 56.6….ISDN….T3…etc. Please note also that all limits, levels, ratios and quotas may be turned off and are not required to run a TACO-based service.

TRACKING USER ACTIVITY WITH TACO

While running a file-sharing network, it may sometimes be necessary to find out which areas of your network are generating the most “hits”. For example, if your media service is half classical and half disco, then by knowing that the classical section received 93% of your traffic last month, you can consider reallocating a portion of your disco section to the classical to expand your service and increase available resources. With TACO, tracking is that simple! You can generate a number of reports on demand or automatically at predetermined intervals to help you optimize your service to meet the needs of your users, or target your audience more effectively.

KNOWN ISSUES WITH TACO

NONE TO DATE

IF YOU STILL HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, CONTINUE TO OUR CONTACT PAGE >>

*in standardized testing, TACO encrypted a 5MB (five megabyte) .mp3 file in less than 0.5 (half of one) second(s)

All content is ©copyright 2001 DSMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This page may not be reproduced in whole or in part without express written consent of the author(s). TACO and TACOServe are ™ of DSMedia, Inc. **Napster, GNUtella, Hotline, Intel are ™ their respective owners. This site is optimized for 1024x768.