Developed by a professor and doctoral student at the University of Tulsa, the system's decoy – which are cloned files – will appear as authentic files to P2P network users searching for the material. But when downloaded, the users will find that they contain nothing but white noise or advertisements to buy the genuine material. The sheer volume of clones means that it would be almost impossible for P2P users to siphon the illegally copied files from the decoys.
The idea of sabotaging P2P networks with decoy files is not new, but it may be the first time that it has been awarded patent protection.
The patent holders plan to market their newly patented solution to movie studios, record labels and software companies, all victims of P2P abuse. The Record Industry Association of America has previously referred to spoofing as a, "lawful and appropriate self-help measure," although it concludes that it is for individual record labels to determine whether to use spoofing techniques.