Powerful Senator Endorses Destroying Computers of Illegal Music Downloaders

[mad1]

CNN


"The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (search) said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet."

"During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate federal anti-hacking "

[mad1]

Allready posted by M_Six.

[M_Six]

That's ok. It's a fine lesson in descriptive titles. I need to work on that.

[Droppyale]

lol I Posted it too....

give me some credit

[mad1]

Originally posted by M_Six
That's ok. It's a fine lesson in descriptive titles. I need to work on that.

That ok, your title fits the subject. I wonder who will pay for the damaged computers,maybe he has a computer repair business on the side? Isn't that a crime to intentionally break property of another person?

[dunbar]

Think abouit who is losing out there....

Picture this: the artist releases a new CD. They get paid exactly one time, for the first CD, which CD goes to a kaza user. Then the release gets P2P'd to the whole world for $zip. Net income from the sale of one release? $2. Illegal for a reason. I pity the artists, but the new distribution method is unrestricted digital data. It was developed for consumers, not for the recording labels. I have no pity for the labels - we do not need the older distribution channels, not one whit is technically necessary.

However.

Before you embark on a mssion to destroy P2P, provide the alternative which people are already using. Digital distribution. Teach everyone that as an individual, they can (and should) have legal, totally unlimited access to properly licensed works (e.g. paid for), which works are made available over the internet, rights to which can be inherited legally by designated heirs, and works which are provided at a total cost savings to the consumer.
Just the exact same as wax cylinders, 78's, 33's, wire recordings, reel to reel tapes, 45's, cassettes, 8-tracks, and CD's can be handled right now. IMO, the issue is that my rights are thoroughly grandfathered by a lack of legal restrictions over more than 4 succesive generations of media transport, and I won't sign onto less rights than that which I presently have.

Blow the P2P stuff to smithereens, but only after you solve the problem, not before.

[Siliconjunkie]

Picture this, you download an MP3 from P2P that is perfectly legal, the artist has allowed it out to the public for promotional purposes or some such thing. You happily listen to the song, when BANG your PC goes up in smoke after displaying a message that the RIAA has determined that you may have downloaded copyrighted material and is destroying your PC. What now? You were accused of commiting a crime, tried and punished for it by 1 person without any of the legal provisions that are provided by the constitution. How wonderful is that?

Yeah, after that happens I am sure you will be getting a new PC saying "those poor poor artists, it sure is great that they are protecting their copyrights" while you shell out the cash.

If you dont think it can happen just go look at what the RIAA is already doing when their automated system finds MP3s that have suspicious names on public FTPs. They have already sent out plenty of threatening letters without even actually LOOKING at the content they are speaking of.

I am not saying that it is ok for people to download copyrighted materials, but I am saying that the fact that the chair of the judiciary committee would even THINK about such and obvious violation of our right to a trial is a sad comment on the people we elect and who they truely serve.

[Telexen]

Let them destroy P2P...it's horrible.

[Bushmaster]

The quality of most MP3's are garbage anyway. I hate diginoise while listening to music.
But the crap will hit the fan after they have blown up a few hundred thousand PC's and the PC's owners are looking for revenge, and no longer give a rats rectum about legal issues.
The more computer savy ired masses will simply take their laptops with wireless, find broadband to log onto and launch their attacks that way. Un-traceable.
The more neanderthal approach will find the rest of the ired masses doing property damage.

I personally use Bit torrent to download .shn files of live concerts that the artists encourage people to share. That way I'm downloading some really high quality music that doesnt pop and skip when I play them in my CD deck in my car.

If I want to listen to commercially recorded music for free I just turn on the radio.

IMHO they would be doing the web a great service by doing away with the likes of Kazza and morpheus and the rest of the likes of file sharing apps where alot of the files are loaded with worms and virii.
I mean it's great for business when some stooge thats been downloading porn like theres no tomorrow calls me up and says his or her PC is doing wacky stuff, and could I please come over ASAP.

[Mike]

Actually Bushmaster it's not too hard to find very good quality songs on the internet. Just have to do a little bit of work.

The problem with the radio is this:
Lame DJ's
Commercials
Who knows what they're playing at the time.

The RIAA has been sending letters to all sorts of universities telling them about "illegal file trading" and has made plenty of mistakes. They don't do any research into what the person was sharing, they just send a letter anyway.

Their is no way that they can kill p2p. They can drive it underground again, and make it harder but I highly doubt that it will ever die.