Registered: Jul 2000
Location: aggressivly happy
Posts: 9120

Hacking into someone else's computer without permission, with the intent to damage or destroy data, is almost always illegal. In most states, the criminal statute is called "unauthorized computer access," "breach of computer security," or something similar. In addition to filing criminal charges, the victim can sue for actual, compensatory and even punitive damages under the civil system. At least, that's the way it works at present.

As you may have already heard by now, if the big entertainment industry lobbies (such as the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America) have their way, certain hackers will become immune to those laws - that is, hackers who work for movie studios, record companies and other copyright holders.

They've managed to get Congressmen Howard Berman of California and Howard Coble of North Carolina to sponsor a bill that would exempt these groups from all federal and state laws that would other wise apply if they disable, block or otherwise impair a "publicly accessible peer-to-peer file trading network."

There has been a lot of intense debate about this proposed law. Careful reading of the bill itself reveals that it's not really quite as bad as some of the media have implied. For instance, in several articles I've seen the implication that the exemption would apply only to the MPAA, RIAA and similar organizations. However, the language of the bill itself extends the exemption to ANY copyright holder - certainly a more fair application.

Additionally, I've seen stories alleging that the bill would allow hacking into private networks where persons are sharing files on a LAN. This isn't true; the bill specifically limits the actions to public networks. [Editor's Note: All computers that can connect to the Internet can be considered participants on a public network]

There are some pretty strict restrictions placed on the hacking copyright holders; they must first give notice to the file trader 7 days before engaging in the act, they must also notify the Department of Justice that they're going to do it, they are allowed only to impair the distribution of their own copyrighted works, not any other data or material, they are not allowed to cause any economic loss to anyone other than the file trader, and no more than $50 of loss to the file trader.

There is also a detailed procedure for the affected file trader to file suit if a copyright holder does not comply with all of these requirements, and the file trader can collect attorney's fees in addition to compensation [Editor's Note: This process goes through the Attorney General's Office, so that the odds of you winning drop from a trillion to one to a million to one]

Even though it's not as bad as it could be, I still see at least a few things wrong with this bill. The most important is that the bill (which you can read online in PDF format below) creates a federal law that overrides state criminal and civil laws. To American Constitutionalists, this constitutes (no pun intended) a serious breach of states' rights. I also believe it encourages a kind of "vigilante justice" on the 'Net that could set a dangerous precedent.

Recently, in response to an article I wrote about spam, a reader suggested that those who are fed up with unsolicited advertising should launch coordinated attacks against the spammer's computers and networks. I had to warn him that his idea, while it might be appealing after I'd just waded through an inbox full of unwanted commercial email, is not legal in most jurisdictions. But who knows? If the movie and music industries merit an exception to the hacking laws, surely we poor consumers who are drowning in an ever expanding ocean of spam could persuade some nice legislator to grant us one, too.

http://www.winxpnews.com/index.cfm?id=36

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: aggressivly happy
Posts: 9120

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-945923.html

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