Software posted to the Internet in the past week will allow owners of the Rio MP3 player to do what manufacturer Diamond Multimedia had hoped would remain impossible. The hacks permit users to transfer data and music out of the portable unit and back into a PC.

“We’re not happy,” said Ken Wirt, vice president of corporate marketing for Diamond Multimedia Systems, based in San Jose, California. I think it’s clear we have not intended to provide this capability with the Rio.” The new software adds functionality to the popular player, it also could put a chink in Diamond’s defense in an ongoing court battle over the fate of the Rio.

But that didn’t stop the two enterprising hackers, one in England and one in California, who separately managed to restore the unit’s two-way transfer functionality. On 14 January, The Snowblind Alliance, an open-source software development group, released software that would allow Rio owners to interface their players with Linux-based computers. Diamond had previously only released a Windows 95 or 98-compatible software interface.

While the group’s code didn’t support the two-way transfer of files between the Rio to other devices, the two other coders added the feature. “I probably only wrote 20 or 30 extra lines of code,” said Matt, an 18-year-old student living in London, England, who on Sunday released RioGeo, a C++ program that will support uploading and downloading of files between the Rio and any Windows 95/98-compatible

machine. “I only spent a few hours on Saturday and Sunday writing it,” noted Matt, who declined to give his last name.

Matt said he wrote RioGeo simply to “add functionality” to his Rio, given to him as a birthday present. He said he has no intention of using the software for illegally duplicating MP3 files. But Matt realizes that he may have opened a can of worms. “I don’t know much about the court case,” said Matt, referring to the RIAA’s lawsuit against Diamond Multimedia. “I certainly don’t want to cause them trouble.”

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