[iwar] [fc:Recording.industry.exploits.WTC.tragedy.to.hack.you]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-16 09:28:00


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Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 09:28:00 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Recording.industry.exploits.WTC.tragedy.to.hack.you]
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Recording industry exploits WTC tragedy to hack you

By Thomas C Greene in Washington

Posted: 16/10/2001 at 10:51 GMT

Capitol Hill lobbyists representing the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) tried to attach a self-serving amendment to recent
anti-terror legislation which would have made it legal for copyright owners
to hack computer networks in search of copyright-infringing material and
destroy them, Wired News reports.

Panic over proposals which would have made all forms of hacking and computer
sabotage a 'terrorist act' punishable by life in prison appears to have
inspired the entertainment industry to secure itself an exception so it can
'go vigilante' to defend the precious sacrament of copyright.

The proposed amendment reads:

"No action may be brought under this subsection arising out of any
impairment of the availability of data, a program, a system or information,
resulting from measures taken by an owner of copyright in a work of
authorship, or any person authorized by such owner to act on its behalf,
that are intended to impede or prevent the infringement of copyright in such
work by wire or electronic communication; provided that the use of the work
that the owner is intending to impede or prevent is an infringing use."

We note the phrase 'any impairment', a blanket which would indeed sanction
network sabotage, and which implies the right to use nefarious means of
detection. If it didn't, it would have clearly specified 'action taken on
evidence lawfully obtained'. But it doesn't. 'Any impairment' includes
installing a Trojan on a file-share network, and then remotely wiping it
out. 

Fortunately this ignoble effort failed, but the RIAA still inclines towards
a presumption that existing law should shield them from such malevolent
activities. And if their little bought lapdogs, US Senators Fritz Hollings
(Democrat, South Carolina) and Ted Stevens (Republican, Alaska), have their
way with a proposed super-DMCA called the Security Systems Standards and
Certification Act (SSSCA), they might just make that mad assertion stick. ®

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