<nettime> HACKING LEGALIZED

[David Mandl <dmandl@panix.com>]

{...for record companies)

http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=technologynews&StoryID=1252923

Bill Lets Music Firms Hack Napster-Like Systems
Last Updated: July 25, 2002 04:09 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Media companies would be allowed to sabotage
Napster-style networks to prevent songs, movies and other copyrighted
materials from being swapped over the Internet under a bill introduced
in Congress on Thursday.

The bill would permit recording companies and other copyright holders
to hack onto networks to thwart users looking to download free music,
and would protect them from lawsuits from users.

Although Congress has little time to debate the bill before the August
recess, sponsor Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, said the
measure was necessary because the decentralized systems were
impossible to shut down.

"No legislation can eradicate the problem of peer-to-peer
piracy. However, enabling copyright creators to take action to prevent
an infringing file from being shared via P2P (peer-to-peer) is an
important first step," Berman said in remarks on the floor of the
House of Representatives.

[snip]

--
Dave Mandl
dmandl@panix.com
davem@wfmu.org
http://www.wfmu.org/~davem

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