Lawmaker would give corps right to vandalise P2P

[link|http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939333.html?tag=fd_top|Anything to fight piracy]

Excerpt:

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., whose district includes Hollywood territory, said Tuesday that copyright owners needed new legal protections to combat online piracy. Some of the labels' and studios' high-tech techniques for stopping online file traders might be illegal under anti-hacking laws, Berman said.

"While P2P (peer-to-peer) technology is free to innovate new and more efficient methods of distribution that further exacerbate the piracy problem, copyright owners are not equally free to craft technological responses," Berman said in a statement. "This is not fair."

The bill, which is still being drafted, would provide a shield against legal liability for copyright owners who used high-tech attacks to stop file trading. It would stop short of giving them the right to damage file-swappers' computers or spread viruses, however.

I say:

Giving up on the idea of effeective law enforcement by the authorities, eh?

So will ordinary citizens be free to hack spammers' databases? That would only be fair.

Post #43,542 by marlowe 6/26/02 5:06:53 PM Reply	Lawmaker would give corps right to vandalise P2P [link\|http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939333.html?tag=fd_top\|Anything to fight piracy] Excerpt: Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., whose district includes Hollywood territory, said Tuesday that copyright owners needed new legal protections to combat online piracy. Some of the labels' and studios' high-tech techniques for stopping online file traders might be illegal under anti-hacking laws, Berman said. "While P2P (peer-to-peer) technology is free to innovate new and more efficient methods of distribution that further exacerbate the piracy problem, copyright owners are not equally free to craft technological responses," Berman said in a statement. "This is not fair." The bill, which is still being drafted, would provide a shield against legal liability for copyright owners who used high-tech attacks to stop file trading. It would stop short of giving them the right to damage file-swappers' computers or spread viruses, however. I say: Giving up on the idea of effeective law enforcement by the authorities, eh? So will ordinary citizens be free to hack spammers' databases? That would only be fair. [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html] Truth is that which is the case. Accept no substitutes. If competence is considered "hubris" then may I and my country always be as "arrogant" as we can possibly manage.
Post #43,622 by drewk 6/27/02 9:42:02 AM Reply	Time for World Legal War I It will be interesting to see how this one plays out against [link\|http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/26/1648204\|this one]. === Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #43,695 by JayMehaffey 6/27/02 7:12:46 PM Reply	Re: Lawmaker would give corps right to vandalise P2P The big movie and record companies have been trying for years to get their enforcers some sort of legal authority so they can arrest / harras people without involving the police. It wouldn't suprise me if the big corporations come out with a big blitz to get some sort of legal authority to handle 'little stuff' and free up police and FBI to handle homeland security and the war on drugs. Jay

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