Whoa - an industry sponsored attack?

January 13, 2003 21:36:43.002

The Register is reporting that the RIAA has paid for the development of a worm to propagate into p2p networks. Have a look at the story here. This is a scary precedent, if it's accurate.

Comments

It's their IP, why not let them trash it?

[Troy] January 14, 2003 11:02:52.506

Well, we're in the same type of business as musicians and I certainly don't like it when people steal my software or my company's software. I think this is a viable approach as long as the infection does not infect other files or programs. Paying consumers and independent artists can choose to boycott groups that do this sort of thing if they want. The free market can then decide.

Except...

[James Robertson] January 14, 2003 11:44:09.626

You then put your faith in the worst programmer that any of these outfits hire. Bleah.

Untitled

[alan] January 14, 2003 13:26:51.796

So, if I think you have a pirated copy of my music, does that mean I have the right to break into your house, search for it, and destroy it? Also, the term worm suggests to me rather more damage than just affecting the thing in question. It sounds like if you connected to Napster I have the right to short out your CD player. I seem to recall a news story about a US law making this possible, and the speculation that if anyone ever actually did it, the responsible parties (e.g. record company executives) were likely to be criminally charged in other jurisdictions.

Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants

James Robertson