Infima - The best executed compression fraud
Posted by Sachin Garg on 12th April 2006 | Permanent Link
On April 4th, Nir Halowani, CTO of Infima Technologies announced an Archiver called “Infima - Ultimate Compression” which claimed to achieve best lossless compression on *all* types of data. MP3: 56%, BMP: 96%, JPG: 32%, DOC: 96%, AVI: 65%, PDF: 50%
It created a lot of noise (threads at comp.compression, MaximumCompression Guestbook, HydrogenAudio Forums etc…) and it managed more than 7000 downloads within a few days. There were reports of minor bugs but everyone was amazed by their ‘achievements’. The CTO Nir Halowani was very responsive in the forums and it would have started giving sleepless nights to authors of other archivers.
But thatz just about as far as this fraud was going to go. And admitedly, this is the farthest any data compression fraud has been able to go. There have been many frauds which have captured interests and bagged huge investments from stupid investors, but none of them had come close to convincing anyone knowledgeable in this domain. Infima did managed to get attention and get kudos from everyone, but only for a few days.
The end of their party came on 7th April when Dwing and Johan De Bock figured out that Infima was nothing more than all the major command-line compression tools combined together under a buggy GUI, a massive copyright/gpl violation.
Infima was just command-line versions of a large number of great compression algorithms bundled together (packed and encrypted). Monkey’s Audio Console Front End (v 4.01), Lossless Audio Compressor 0.4b, SBC Archiver 0.970, BMF 1.1, J.Class Optimizer for Windows. Version 1.00, ImageMagick 6.2.4 09/10/05 Q16, UPX 1.93 beta, gzip 1.2.4 Win32 (02 Dec 97), library and tools for JPEG images, DURILCA v.0.4b, Monstrous PPMII compressor based on PPMd var.J, DURILCA v.0.4b, Fast PPMII compressor for textual data, variant J, Feb 16 2006, 7-Zip 4.31, LAME version 4.0 (alpha 14, Sep 25 2005 10:04:14), PAQ 8g, photo PGM(P5) < => BMF file convertor, v.2.0, flasm 1.52 build Sep 30 2004, Word Replacing Transformation, rebuild of WRT, pdftk 1.12, rebuild of Optipng, fCoder Batch Converters, FFmpeg version CVS
All their claims of ‘patent pending’ ‘innovative’ technology are obviously baseless. For compression of already compressed files (mp3, jpeg etc…) they tried a neat (and dangerous) trick of modifying the original files before adding them to archive (so that their lossy techniques wont get caught during bit-wise comparisons of decompressed files with original files).
The download count at their website is still climbing as more poeple are checking out this nicely executed fraud. But as expected, we haven’t heard from Nir Halowani since then.
May 9th, 2006 at 5:56 am
I am not sure if it is still relevant or not, but at least on their website there are quite a lot of updates regarding this issue which consist mainly on 3rd party software removal and fix for many bugs related to lossy issues:
28.4.2006: Infima Archiver 1.15 released which consist on the following:
Mp3 – All rates are now working (Retain full quality but not bit-to-bit).
Compression/Decompression speed improvements.
Fix for Mp3 ID3Tag bug.
Fix for Compression/Decompression bugs.
23.4.2006: Infima Archiver 1.14 released which consist on the following:
Fix AVI RIFF problems – bit-to-bit reconstruction.
Improvement for compression/decompression speed in most cases.
Compression improvement for text files.
Minimized installation package size.
18.4.2006: Infima Archiver 1.13 released which consist on the following:
Bug fix for some of the compression/decompression problems.
No quality loss optimization – used only when optimize source files option is set.
Fix mp3 decompression problems only for 128kb (Other rates are still lossy).
Mp3 decompression – not bit-to-bit reconstruction but retains quality.
Video codec’s are in some cases still lossy (effect quality) – will be fixed soon.
15.4.2006: Infima Archiver 1.12 released which consist on the following:
Removed 3rd party software’s.
Using ImageMagik, VirtualDub and ffmpeg only for sampling purposes.
Core implementation consists on FAST PAQ implementation + new concept modeling.
New Installation package.
Once again I am not an expert but at least with version 1.15 the results are quite good.
- Daniel Mido
May 16th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
They are only getting better at hiding the use of third party software. I have also heard that they now embed the Maximum Compression SFC files to allow them to seem to be compressed well while bit identical when decompressed.
The bottom line is that they are attempting to not only profit from other peoples hard work, but also defraud people by using lossy compression and calling it lossless.
May 24th, 2006 at 10:13 am
I think the word must get out about this fraud or else people are going to get hurt in the pocket soon.
May 28th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Make sure you digg this if you read it.
http://digg.com/technology/Infima_-_The_Best_Executed_Compression_Fraud_Ever
June 8th, 2006 at 5:56 am
January 10th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
[…] For those of you who missed the earlier story (go read it first), Infima 1.0 was nothing more than all the major command-line compression tools combined together under a buggy GUI, a massive copyright/gpl violation. […]
March 6th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Crazy!! I fell for it as well and downloaded the archiver. It crashed twice in 5 runs, and I don’t know what they did to it, but its actually increasing the size of mp3’s and pdf’s I tried it on, instead of decreasing them :p So much for the best compression in the world :-)
March 12th, 2007 at 1:39 am
So what compression software is the best after all?
March 12th, 2007 at 2:45 am
There is no absolute answer. Different tools/algorithms are meant for different types of data and at different speeds. Some are propriety and closed while for some support (like zip) is there on all platforms with open specs.
It depends on what you want to compress, and what is the right balance of speed , compression ratio, and openness/compatibility for you. If you can define your best, I might be able to suggest a few pointers :-)
March 27th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
What is the best compression algorithm for digital sound? Doesn any one know? Even in research? Are there in research some algorithm/method that has best compression ratio?
October 30th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Compression scams.
Companies That Have Promoted Fraudulent Compression Scams
Web Technologies, (1995)
Byte.com – November 1995
In an announcement that sounded too good to be true, WEB Technologies (Smyrna, GA) claimed it had developed a compression algorithm that could squeeze almost any amount of data to less than 1024 bytes. The company claimed that its DataFiles/16 program could compress files larger than 64 KB to about one-sixteenth their original size. Skeptics said what WEB claimed was impossible, yet BYTE received numerous inquiries from readers, many of whom said they felt obliged to investigate WEB’s claims, however implausible.
BYTE contacted WEB for a beta version of the software so that we could evaluate it. WEB at first declined to give us the beta, but we said we couldn’t write a story about the product without one. WEB relented and sent us the beta version, which we tested and wrote about in the June 1992 issue.
Not surprisingly, the beta version of DataFiles/16 that reporter Russ Schnapp tested didn’t work. DataFiles/16 compressed files, but when decompressed, those files bore no resemblance to their originals. WEB said it would send us a version of the program that worked, but we never received it.
When we attempted to follow up on the story about three months later, the company’s phone had been disconnected. Attempts to reach company officers were also unsuccessful. WEB appears to have compressed itself right off the computing radar screen.
Pixelon (2000) – Investor loss exceeds $40M
Pixelon, a beleaguered streaming media start-up, fired most of its remaining employees this week in a desperate attempt to reorganize itself, sources have confirmed.
The San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based company has come upon tough times after its founder spent more than $12 million on an over-the-top Las Vegas launch party last fall shortly before admitting he was a fugitive of the law.
Michael Fenne, as the founder was known, surrendered to Virginia authorities last month on charges that he bilked about $1 million from elderly investors in the late 1980s. Fenne, it turned out, was a convicted embezzler named David Stanley. He is in jail awaiting trial on a probation violation in Wise County, Va., authorities said.
If Pixelon was beset with problems before, publicity of the arrest combined with the wild spending on the glitzy party undoubtedly propelled its downfall, said Russell Reeder, the company’s vice president of product development.
“There were so many things, but the very bad news about the founder caused some investors who were prepared to back up the company to pull out,” Reeder said.
Creditors are seeking involuntary bankruptcy of the company to force some kind of payment.
Yesterday, the company’s remaining 55 employees, including Reeder’s son, Richard, were called into a conference room and told they were being laid off.
Founded in 1998, Pixelon promised to deliver crisp audio and video clips over the Internet. Advanced Equities of Chicago raised about $30 million to fund the company. Other deals with Sprint and UUNet seemed to set Pixelon on the right course.
Eventually, however, it became clear that the streaming software was not up to the task of providing live broadcasts over the Internet.
After Stanley’s arrest, PricewaterhouseCoopers was called in to do an audit of the company to determine, among other things, if embezzlement had occurred. The audit came up clean.
The senior Reeder and five other managers will continue to work without pay on a restructuring plan that includes filing for Chapter 11 protection while it reorganizes. Hope for survival remains high, Reeder said.
Zeosync (2002)
“Reuters is reporting that ZeoSync has announced a breakthrough in data compression that allows for 100:1 lossless compression of random data. If this is true, our bandwidth problems just got a lot smaller (or our streaming video just became a lot clearer)…” This story has been submitted many times due to the astounding claims - Zeosync explicitly claims that they’ve superseded Claude Shannon’s work. The “technical description” from their website is less than impressive. I think the odds of this being true are slim to none, but here you go, math majors and EE’s - something to liven up your drab dull existence today. Update: 01/08 13:18 GMT.
The ZeoSync Corporation website shutdown (June 3, 2002) after they announced (January 7, 2002) their invention to the world and after they funded (round March 1, 2002 an extra 40 million dollar private stock and the company was already started with 10 million dollar private funding).
Adam’s Platform Technology (2004)
The most recent talk of the town in the Australian IT world…….an incredible claim by a bloke named Adam Clark to send video quality image down a dialup telephone line. Media World Communications (ASX: MWC) who owns the rights to this technology otherwise known as Adam’s Platform Technology had ASX listing in sight when it sought to re-list in the ASX by September 2004 to raise a further $7.2 million, apart from the many millions raised earlier from private investors. It was discovered that the incredible claim could not stand to tests by other members of the company
It was reported in the Financial Review that Adam Clark had used a freely available open source video compression algorithms called On2 VP3 (www.vp3.com) by On2 Technologies (www.on2.com) as the basis of his technology and managed to fool the Tolly Group (http://www.tollygroup.com).
MEDIA RELEASE - 27 January 2005
Class Action Against Media World Communications
National law firm Maurice Blackburn Cashman today confirmed that it has filed a class action writ against Media World Communications in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The class action represents those investors who lost money in reliance on representations regarding Adams Platform Technology made by Media World, its directors and associated entities, and who instruct Maurice Blackburn Cashman.
It is alleged in the Statement of Claim that Adam Clark, his companies and others made misleading and deceptive representations to the investors in Media World, and that the prospectus did not contain all of the information that it was required to contain.
Maurice Blackburn Cashman senior partner Bernard Murphy said Media World predicted that it would achieve 14% penetration of Australian TV households within 5 years of commencing video-on-demand services and would derive annual operating income from those services in Australia of $145 million before launching into the international markets worth more than $127 billion.
Media World encouraged investment in Adams Platform technology, which it heralded as unique data compression technology that was invented by Adam Clark that would enable full-screen DVD-quality video to be transmitted in real time across standard copper-wire telephone lines.
“After collecting approximately $35million from investors between 2000 and 2004 Media World announced that the technology did not work even as well as already existing commercially available technology and went into administration.” Mr Murphy said.
“This is an important case. It is vital to the proper workings of the capital markets that prospectus type documents and presentations made when raising capital are accurate and reliable. Actions of this type play a significant ‘private enforcement’ role to ensure that the law is complied with and that shareholders are properly compensated when wrongs occur.” Mr Murphy said.
The claim relies on provisions in the Corporations Act, the Trade Practices Act, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act and the Fair Trading Act of Victoria in order to provide a basis for claims that all investors’ funds should be returned with interest.
In a related matter, an application by the administrator of the Media World companies will be heard by Justice Finkelstein in the Federal Court in Melbourne tomorrow morning at 9.30 am. The administrator has asked the Court to determine whether or not the investors should be declared contingent creditors in the administration of the company.
IPEX (2006)
Hyped by LA Trading firms this company briefly reached an 80 million cap value, not without taking investors for $4.2 million. This company now trades from a high of $6 to $0.06. The company was launched by the invesment firms of Ault-Glazer and Strome Securities, both from Los Angeles, California looking to make a quick buck and that they got.
Millions of shares traded hands in the early stages of this company with the stock soaring from $2 to $6 rapidly, then once the insiders had profited, the company was left to languish leaving most investors high and dry.
The company’s technology was acquired from Massimo Ballerini, who’s company is called RGB SRL in Milan, Italy. The software is referred to as Luminaxys. A quick Google search of the word “Luminaxys” will show that this software is a shareware program available for 99 euros for enhancing pictures, like thousands of other programs on the market, and it didn’t even win any awards!
The company makes outrageous claims published in its FORM 8-K dated June 29, 2005, “the company entered into a purchase agreement, dated June 7, 2005, with B Tech Ltd., Massimo Ballerini and Emanuele Boni (the “B Tech Agreement”). Under the B Tech Agreement, the Company purchased certain intellectual property rights including quadratic, circular transform algorithms, codes and formulas for image enhancement, compacting and content protection applications (the “B Tech Assets”). The purchased technology and formulas also include the concept of “floating pixels” versus a frame by frame system and the integration of sound into a digital image to stream live content for wireless systems based on 9,6Kbit/s and to be used on full display screens at less than 64Kbit/s (ISDN).”
The holy grail - full stream video over a standard phone line using a modem!! We’ve seen this promise for decades, all have failed.
To date the company has been reduced to a pink sheet status and investors caught in the reality are seeking justice. Last reports showed massive losses, as the company pumped its revenue brokering VoIP minutes for a gross margin less than 3%. No revenues are or will be received from its compression technology. Despite an informal review from the SEC no one is going to jail, pity.
For those who are looking for the finger print of a compression scam, we’ve outlined the steps below:
The standard compression scam is executed with the following steps:
• Visionary develops an astonishing breakthrough in compression.
• Company announces this amazing breakthrough without any validation, to promote himself and his company (the company has already issued several statements and releases on this technology).
• Visionary surrounds himself with key names, hires an ex-Qualcomm division president Jerry Beckwith.
• Makes sure that all management in the company are “in” through issuing stock (all upper management, the BOD and audit committee members have received stock or options from IPEX, or associated companies Digicorp (NASDAQ:DCGO) and/or Patient Safety Technologies (AMEX:PST)).
• Files patents with major patent firm (though they will never be issued). IPEX is working with Fish & Richardson which is the same company that represented Zeosync (above).
• Throughout the process, insiders sell off millions of shares pocketing a fortune.
• Investors spend millions on a triumph of “hope over reality”. The company eventually folds leaving investors holding the bag.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:45 am
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November 1st, 2007 at 7:22 am
If Arthur Heiley was alive he would write a new novel called “Smoke and Mirrors” that would be a best seller piece of insider view on technological fraud kitchen.
Same things are happening in other technologies and in other software development companies. This field is different only because it can be understood by public.
endlesscompression.com holds also some other stories and more details.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:42 am
It begins with compression softs…and now, why not a burning soft ?
Look at this, in the News section:
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
InfraRecorder is a victim of these same frauders…
They are calling their soft “Brisk DVD Creator” which is available on this website:
http://www.app-zilla.com/brisk_dvd_creator.html
…website, registred by Mr Nir Halowani…
November 10th, 2007 at 6:35 am
This is very unfortunate.