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Unbelievable: USA Intellectual Property Theft Commission Recommends Malware!

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TaoPhoenix:

The gang at MouserLand will have a field day with this one!

http://boingboing.net/2013/05/26/us-entertainment-industry-to-c.html

"Additionally, software can be written that will allow only authorized users to open files containing valuable information. If an unauthorized person accesses the information, a range of actions might then occur. For example, the file could be rendered inaccessible and the unauthorized user’s computer could be locked down, with instructions on how to contact law enforcement to get the password needed to unlock the account. Such measures do not violate existing laws on the use of the Internet, yet they serve to blunt attacks and stabilize a cyber incident to provide both time and evidence for law enforcement to become involved. "
...
"While not currently permitted under U.S. law, there are increasing calls for creating a more permissive environment for active network defense that allows companies not only to stabilize a situation but to take further steps, including actively retrieving stolen information, altering it within the intruder’s networks, or even destroying the information within an unauthorized network. Additional measures go further, including photographing the hacker using his own system’s camera, implanting malware in the hacker’s network, or even physically disabling or destroying the hacker’s own computer or network. "

Yum, that tail they're eating is great! So lemme see if I have this straight:
If you "hack" a computer then you're a vicious terrorist, unless you're an Intellectual Property Rights Holder ... uh ... with a net worth more than six digits ... then you can deploy anything you want including malware that even when it works correctly will destroy your computer???!

:'(

Shades:
And as most of the malware makers are in it for the money, so they will hit the 6-digits soon and than they are legit (to US law).

I'll guess that the country that invented the internet is also allowed to kill it. Clearly an ID-10-T at work...

D0UG:
Some sites are not far from this at all with their honey pots.

40hz:
The only thing a move like that would accomplish is to start a full scale war of attrition on the Internet.

I hope they table this for the utterly stupid idea it is before killer bots, DNS poisoning, drive-by malware attacks and DDoS exchanges become the norm.

Cowboy style "justice" may appeal to our baser instincts. But anybody can assemble a posse. And the people who are asking for a blanket authorization of vigilante responses might want to consider that any number can play that game if you abandon good law and decent behaviour.

Besides, when it comes to the sort of technology (and creativity) needed for war game hacking, I think the court advantage is squarely with "the rest of us" rather than corporate security or IT departments.



So...shall we play a game?

app103:
Why not just ask for the right to bust down doors in the middle of the night, doing warrantless door to door searches of everyone's computers and forcing all the occupants of any home containing a computer with any type of audio or video files (children, babies, grandmas, and pets included), into the street to face a firing squad, while their neighbors watch?

Could it be that if they asked for that, that there would be no denying or misunderstanding exactly what they are asking for, by anyone in Congress?

I have a German friend that told me there there was an "MP3 police" in her neighborhood that made random raids of homes, looking for MP3 files, and arresting anybody that had any on their computers.

I doubt that was what they were really doing, but whatever was going on that lead to neighbors and friends of hers being locked up for "MP3 possession" it had her scared enough not to download any sort of MP3 file from any source, not even CC licensed stuff from Jamendo, and thinking that MP3 files had been outlawed in her country. She was truly terrified and there was nothing I could say that would convince her that downloading files from Jamendo wouldn't end up with her dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and thrown in jail.

And that is how the rights holders want all of us to be...too afraid to listen to music or watch a video unless they make a profit from it in the form of physical CD/DVD sales. Roll everything back to the days before home computers, the internet, and digital music and movies...back to when they had a full monopoly over production and distribution of ALL forms of entertainment.

Is there any wonder why I don't listen to commercially produced music any more? Is there any wonder why I only support indy artists that are trying to make it on their own without the help of any RIAA label? Is there any wonder why I go out of my way to promote the stuff I like on sites like jamendo and bandcamp? Is it any wonder why I promote artists I like that have album projects up on kickstarter? Is it any wonder why I welcome and encourage indy artists to friend me on sites like Last.fm?

It's because I don't know what else to do any more. And no matter what I do, how much I do, I feel like the effect is no better than a single mosquito trying to suck the life out of an angry, out of control gorilla, with Acromegaly, already the size of King Kong.

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