Tuesday, May 28, 2013

US entertainment industry group wants to unleash malware on file sharers...

The US entertainment industry is pushing to introduce regulations that would allow content owners to legally send out malware to individuals that are believed to involved with copying digital content.

That’s according to the the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property which presented a new 84-page report – spotted by Boing Boing – to the US government. In that respect, it is a serious proposal.

The theory is that software pre-installed on computers would identify whether an Internet user was illegally copying, housing or consuming copyrighted content, and then subsequently lock up their files, and/or computer, until the guilty party turned themselves in and deals with the consequences — perhaps paying up for the offending content or removing it.

Minding aside the illegalities for a second, it’s not clear exactly how the scheme would work. Already the proposal has attracted criticism from rights groups and we don’t expect Congress to be following up on any of the ‘proposals’ any time soon. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Music sales are not affected by web piracy, study finds...
  2. Switzerland put on US "watchlist" for not discouraging unauthorized...
  3. US government finally admits most piracy statistics are bullshit...
  4. Movie fans turn to piracy when the online cupboard is bare...
  5. British musicians: music downloading is NOT a crime...
  6. Illegal downloaders 'spend the most on music'

No comments:

Post a Comment