Slashdot Mirror
RIAA Plans Cyberwar Effort
Richie Z writes "This article at the New York Times talks about new anti-piracy efforts from the music industry, some of questionable legality. One idea simply redirects users to a website with legal downloads. But two other programs freeze the user's system or delete music files determined to be illegal. Another proposed idea is basically a DoS attack against downloaders. I guess the RIAA believes the law only applies to their enemies." They had a solution to illegality planned.
Not only will they get sued if they use these tactics, they'll be in violation of many federal and local laws in many countries. Thus opening themselves up to criminal prosecution not only in the US, but in every country they use these tactics.
Yeah, it's hard and expensive to "sue" a big concern like the RIAA, but it only takes one small-town prosecutor to nail them to the wall.
And even if the RIAA managed to get US Gov and every locality with similar laws to legalize these tactics, they'll eventually or accidentally infect a bunch of Canadian or European users with these illegal programs. Those countries will have absolutely no compunction in filing criminal complaints against the RIAA and their directors.
And if the RIAA doesn't show up to defend itself, I'd expect those countries to file criminal complaints against the companies that make up the RIAA, the big record companies.. As all those recording companies have a large worldwide presence, it will be impossible for them to duck prosecution. Because if they did, they'd likely lose all assets and import rights to those countries.
I too hope they take this route, because the day they do is the beginning of the end for them.
Well,
Not so surprisingly the other side is already monitoring the RIAA activities and in this case some of results are already in public. For example, Peer-Guardian tries to protect the P2P-clients from the hostile IP-addresses. There's a quite nice article about the topic in Security Focus.
V.
You cannot be jailed for a tort. Being sued != being arrested. Being sucessfully sued != criminal conviction.
"dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope"
I can't believe no one has mentioned this. There is a known MP3/WMA buffer overflow exploit in Windows XP (even SP1). You don't need to open the file to trigger the exploit; simply hovering the mouse pointer over the filename is enough.
First, keep in mind that slashdot, as usual, isn't a collective hive mind. There can be conflicting opinions without being some great paradox.
Secondly, cyber-terrorism is a crime far more serious than copyright infringement. A man guilty of the former can get life imprisonment. A man guilty of the latter can get some hefty fines and up to 5 years in prison(IIRC). For an organization this big to be willfully taking part in such a crime, especially on the massive scale they seem to indicate, is a major breach, and in my eyes, cause enough to have such a criminal organization, no matter how big, shut down.
Thirdly, considering the holier than thou attitude the RIAA is taking on copyright infringement, a voluntary mass crime spree isn't really what most would expect. It certainly shows that their halo is made of plastic. If these companies can't even control their own actions, what right do they have to sue college students for 100 billion dollars? None, in my eyes. These companies are playing russian roulette with their PR in the best case scenario, and setting themselves up for international incarceration at worst.
Meanwhile, personal copyright infringement is still a pitifully minor law, and hacking on a massive scale is a strangely major one. Odd...isn't it?
It's been a long time.