On Mon, 29 Jul 2002 14:25:37 -0400 (EDT), you wrote: > > Congressman Wants to Let Entertainment Industry Get Into Your Computer > > Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., formally proposed > legislation that would give the industry unprecedented new > authority to secretly hack into consumers' computers or knock > them off-line entirely if they are caught downloading > copyrighted material. > > I've been reading things like this for a while but I wonder how practical > such an attack would be. They won't be able to hack into computers with > reasonable firewalls and while they might try DOS attacks, upstream > connectivity suppliers might object. Under current P2P software they may > be able to do a little hacking but the opposition will rewrite the > software to block. DOS attacks and phony file uploads can be defeated > with digital signatures and reputation systems (including third party > certification). Another problem -- Napster had 55 million customers. > That's a lot of people to attack. I don't think Hollywood has the troops.
I like this scenario: Adam places his copyrighted content on his web site. His friend, Eve, violates his copyright and places Adam's copyrighted content on her site. Hollywood downloads the copyright-infringing content from Eve's site. Eve confesses that Hollywood did so, in a good faith effort to repent from her copyright infringement. Now Adam hacks Hollywood, as authorized by the proposed law. Lawsuits all around.