RIAA Wants Right To Hack

An Anonymous Coward writes: "According to Wired, the recording industry wants the right to hack into your computer and delete your stolen MP3s." From the article: "It's no joke. Lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) tried to glue this hacking-authorization amendment onto a mammoth anti-terrorism bill that Congress approved last week. A copy of an RIAA-drafted amendment obtained by Wired News would immunize all copyright holders -- including the movie and e-book industry -- for any data losses caused by their hacking efforts or other computer intrusions 'that are reasonably intended to impede or prevent' electronic piracy." Does this give you the right to crack RIAA systems to make sure no one there is selling copies of your term paper?

Comments

THIS IS GREAT!!!

[TheMMaster]

If this won't help bringing linux to the desktop, what will?? you can give them every right you want... For them to enforce it, you'll HAVE to be running windows! ;-)

Re:will the last geek...

[ClubStew]

I hear ya! With each passing week, I want to move to Germany more and more. Heck, their government funds open source projects and is practically begging for computer engineers and scientists.

Re:Are we really surprised?

[cavemanf16]

Wrong. They're not passionate about their copyrights. They could care less if a million people copied the tunes, as long as they all paid their $2.00/mp3 for doing so. This whole copyright business with the DMCA is specifically about making the heads of recording studios richer, not about making the actual creators of the music rich, or even given credit for their works.

And yes, once you've been in corporate America, you'll see that this shitty money grabbing politics happens all the time. Enjoy college while you can.

And besides, the only computers they'll end up cracking into to delete files from will be the Britney Spears and NSYNC teenie bopper fans of the world, which just means that they'll be pissing off little teenage girls and boys, who will in turn cry to their parents, who will then go ballistic on the RIAA. Just another wonderful way to alienate their user base even more than they already have.

RIAA, sociopathy, and lobotomies

[Marasmus]

There is no such thing as 'the right thing to do' when it comes to the RIAA.

the "we claim to denounse the 'vigilante' actions of music piraters, but we are trying to become legally-protected vigilantes" hypocricy is, well, baffling. I don't think that any sane body of people could come up with anything as fundamentally and legally wrong. The RIAA just makes itself out to be a body of mentally-imbalanced sociopaths.

How far does the RIAA plan to take this? The mention of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is not only symbolically but literally relevant. Will the RIAA start burning books because we could translate the music into multiple sinusoidal equations and print it on paper? Are they going to get 'expert witnesses' to testify that the human brain never loses any data which it receives, and thus the human brain itself is a physical medium of piracy? Will they then lobotomize me to get their song back?

Of course this is an exaggeration... however, it is more possible today than it was yesterday.

Re:will the last geek...

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny you should mention that. ust last week was the first anniversary of my wife and I leaving Silicon Valley for Munich, Germany.

I have been freelance contracting here (software engineering) and getting a visa and work permit is absolutely no problem. in fact, they really cater to foreign tech workers (almost embarassingly so).

It's an awesome place to live with great people who are super friendly. the best part? I have a 10 minute commute on my bicycle nd we don't even own a car! Compare that to the old 2 hour total commute up and down 101!

What you are talking about can be done. We have done it. I cannot tell you how happy we are to have left. We made the ultimate vote. We voted with our feet.

Onnel

Re:Curses. Good call.

[Flower]

No, you misinterpret what I'm saying. Since all people want was the single song you have available (after all most of it is just filler but you've got 2-3 songs for radio airplay.) You are robbing them of $20 bucks for just the one song. After all it is the single which is driving the CD sale.

And as they roll out each hit one by one each hit is worth the $20 in and of itself. After all, once one song gets played to death you need a new song to milk that money out of the people holding out (You bastards!)

If we were playing Paranoid I think I'd have to say you owed the RIAA $60US for that song. &lt evil grin &gt

And what do you mean theoretical?

Re:Farenheit 451 is here early.

[NumberSyx]

The more of this crap I see the more inclined I am to seek work arounds for anything they come up with. They'll never win and in the end it will have cost them more than their lost revenues.

If this legislation passes, I plan to put up a honey pot system for the sole purpose of setting them up for a billion dollar law suit. Once the drive has been corrupted or wiped, how does the RIAA prove the MP3's were illegal copies of songs, instead of recordings of my children singing silly little ditties and also on the drive were irreplacable pictures and videos of my GrandFather, the day before he died. No $$$ value, but tons of sentimental value. Any decent litigation Lawyer could convince a Judge this was worth way more than $5000.