FC: Look out, pirates: RIAA wants to hack your PC

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

Text of original RIAA amendment to the anti-terrorism bill, which RIAA says 
it no longer supports:
http://www.wartimeliberty.com/article.pl?sid=01/10/14/1756248

---

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47552,00.html

    RIAA Wants to Hack Your PC
    By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
    2:00 a.m. Oct. 15, 2001 PDT

    WASHINGTON -- Look out, music pirates: The recording industry wants
    the right to hack into your computer and delete your stolen MP3s.

    It's no joke. Lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of
    America (RIAA) tried to glue this hacking-authorization amendment onto
    a mammoth anti-terrorism bill that Congress approved last week.

    An RIAA-drafted amendment, according to a draft obtained by Wired News,
    would immunize all copyright holders -- including the movie and e-book
    industry -- for any data losses caused by their hacking efforts or
    other computer intrusions "that are reasonably intended to impede or
    prevent" electronic piracy.

    In an interview Friday, RIAA lobbyist Mitch Glazier said that his
    association has abandoned plans to insert that amendment into
    anti-terrorism bills -- and instead is supporting a revised amendment
    that takes a more modest approach.

    "It will not be some special exception for copyright owners," Glazier
    said. "It will be a general fix to bring back current law." Glazier is
    the RIAA's senior vice president of government relations and a former
    House aide.

    The RIAA's interest in the USA Act, an anti-terrorism bill that the
    Senate and the House approved last week, grew out of an obscure part
    of it called section 815. Called the "Deterrence and Prevention of
    Cyberterrorism" section, it says that anyone who breaks into computers
    and causes damage "aggregating at least $5,000 in value" in a one-year
    period would be committing a crime.

    If the current version of the USA Act becomes law, the RIAA believes,
    it could outlaw attempts by copyright holders to break into and
    disable pirate FTP or websites or peer-to-peer networks. Because the
    bill covers aggregate damage, it could bar anti-piracy efforts that
    cause little harm to individual users, but meet the $5,000 threshold
    when combined.

    [...]




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