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Sony Rootkit Redux: Canadian Business Groups Lobby For Right To Install Spyware
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist reports
that a coalition of Canadian industry groups, including the Canadian
Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Marketing Association, the
Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and the
Entertainment Software Association of Canada, are demanding
legalized spyware for private enforcement purposes. The potential
scope of coverage is breathtaking: a software program secretly
installed by an entertainment software company designed to detect or
investigate alleged copyright infringement would be covered by this
exception. This exception could potentially cover programs designed
to block access to certain websites (preventing the contravention of
a law as would have been the case with SOPA), attempts to access
wireless networks without authorization, or even keylogger programs
tracking unsuspecting users (detection and investigation)."
will you be installing your spyware on my computer.
Law enforcement computers, politician's computers, government computers, homeland security computers. My bet is within a week 50% of those folks wouldn't have jobs, and 75% in a month.
Screw off. Sincerely, Canadians.
On every machine I find.
This makes a good argument for using open source. Removing a secret rootkit is a lot easier when the underlying layers of the operating system aren't obscured. I'll be this goes nowhere. Either that or proprietary OS vendors suffer sales losses as people flock to Linux and *BSD
It's getting pretty hard to differentiate between living in North America under corporate controlled government and China under government controlled corporatism.
If only there were a similarity that I could put my finger on, it seems there is but it escapes me.
I guess we'll see how similar if this passes. I doubt it will, but it indicates we have more in common that I'm comfortable with. Hell, just the fact that this has been proposed is a lot more egregious than I'd have ever imagined possible just a few years ago.
My own computer running Windows 7 was hacked in a drive-by when I visited a website (didn't download anything), and the drive began spinning wildly. The router logs showed connections to the Dutch anti-piracy group, BREIN. If it's not currently legal, it isn't stopping them.
Money, my dear boy. (best spoken aloud with a posh British accent)
Why should the powers that be do anything logical, if logic dictates that they make less money? They'll gladly spend millions to ensure their archaic practices are retained as long as it takes to recoup the millions they spent ... with interest.
This signature is false.
How far all thess jokes will go until we decide collectively for a stop, and just throw all those IP crap out the window?
Video of some good progressive thrash music
I say absolutely. As long as part of the law is continuous video surveillance of all executives of the companies that install the spyware. (Bedroom, bathroom, mistress' place, hotel room, etc.) And their families. And it has to be accessible by any Canadian citizen to do with as they please at any time.
Not even if it is open source.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Brutal, but effective.
It is amazing that corporations do not recognize this simple truth.
...these so-called "business groups" will get everything they're asking for. With extra tongue.
The U.S. administration has probably given this up long ago, we just haven't heard about it yet.
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The only appropriate response to such a request is, "Go fuck yourself."
This space unintentionally left blank.
However, I hate the problem more than I dislike the solution.
That doesn't solve the problem, though - more and more people are using Linux on a regular basis, and while they are shielded from a good majority of threats seen on Windows, it doesn't meant that 1) there isn't spyware that can affect them and 2) that they would know how to lock down their systems just because they have an OS more capable of being finely-tuned and locked down. Don't mistake a great tool for a great carpenter.
I don't, for a minute, believe this is there for the business guys.
more and more, government does an end-run around laws by having a company do its dirty work and then contracting to the company. we see this a lot in lots of areas, where it would be 'bad' if the gov directly did X, but if they were clean-hands and did not do X directly, they can escape the laws.
this is what I worry the most about. not sony or some stupid company but the fact that this lets governments who are out of control (ie, all modern ones) skirt the laws that are supposed to ensure a just and lawful society, where we could trust our leaders to look out for our interests.
don't look one step ahead, look two steps and you'll agree that this is not just possible but a standard MO.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
But it doesn't work on vampires.
I don't use a PC for copyright infringement anymore.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
And when the software inevitably bricks a few thousand (or hundred thousand, or million) devices and people lose untold billions worth of data...Will these companies be required to provide just compensation since no EULA was even clicked?
How much are those lost photos of a couple's new baby worth to them, anyway?
I imagine if the computer had a webcam, they would snap a picture along with the infringement evidence.
CAD **AA Lawyer: Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if we examine exhibit A you will see that at on November 12th 2014, at 11:24 PM Sally Smith visited a known website which engages in piracy or illegal downloading if you will. She downloaded what is called a torrent file which enabled the defendant to download an illegal copy of Star Trek: Into the Darkness. From that illegal copy our "copyright law enforcement software" logged that seventeen copies were uploaded to other users. We are seeking damages equal to the cost of making the film, squared.
Judge: what proof do you have that it was in fact Sally Smith who was actively engaging in the heinous crime of illegally downloading a precious piece of Hollywood?
CAD **AA Lawyer: Your honor, our "copyright law enforcement software" detected the presence of a web camera which allowed us to record the user as she committed the crime. Article 5 paragraph 34 of the Canadian copyright enforcement act explicitly allows us the right to enable remote viewing of criminal behaviour once it is detected.
Judge: proceed.
http://tinyurl.com/9wpxjg6 Page 11-12
These exceptions they are asking for are so very broad. Take a look this exception they're seeking,
(a) a program that is installed by or on behalf of a person to prevent, detect, investigate, or terminate activities that the person reasonably believes (i) present a risk or threatens the security, privacy, or unauthorized or fraudulent use, of a computer system, telecommunications facility, or network,
Do you believe the RIAA poses a reasonable threat to your privacy from their new rootkits? Well then it seems, under this law, you could install a trojan horse on their computer, read their files, and then crash programs that might end up help the RIAA from violating your privacy...Like Windows
This raises a very valid point: once this spyware is on a system, it'll be trivial for malware authors to co-opt the malware to steal data for their own use. Not to mention, the temptation for PRIVATE GROUPS to misuse information lifted from private citizens in secret is huge.
Luckily, this goes against Canadian Privacy law in so many ways, I don't see how even the Conservative government could succeed in ramming this through.
Hangin's too good for 'em. Burnin's too good for 'em...
I have a drill press in my garage for dealing with such defective equipment.
The very fact that the 'evidence' is collected by spyware is full evidence that spyware is performing activities the user is unaware about. It implicitely proofs the machine is not under full user control. It therefore proofs not all actions performed at the machine are endorsed by the user.
Since one piece of spyware/malware managed to get installed on the computer means users anti virus and anti malware software is not up to its task. If that is the case, then the installation of other spyware/malware packages is very likely. Meaning there is reasonable doubt about who or what did a download.
And you can not convict a suspect if there is reasonable doubt - not yet anyway.
Simply stop buying their crap, there are alternatives. I think the choices will start to become more apparent to the masses over time, and the losers will be those depending on unsupportable business models.
Consider: You can buy DRM-free music, today, where they make no attempt to lock it to specific devices. Emusic is one, and Magnatune is another. In the latter case, you are even encouraged to share your purchase in limited amounts, and there's also free streaming if you are OK with the per-song nag message. Non-lossy formats are supported too, and they go for quality content instead of large amounts of crap. (Yeah, preaching here, but I just bought a lifetime membership.)
In TV/movie terms, Netflix has just released a season of a series, "House of Cards", that *they* produced. Screw Sony and their ilk, this is produced and distributed without their help. I'm hoping this gives big media companies a shocking wheeze, where it's apparent even to them that they're becoming irrelevant.
But it doesn't work on vampires.
There is always guillotines. Those work.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I thought he was going for pyrrhivacy, as in pyrrhic privacy :)