Remember how I wrote a while back about the RIAA and the Peer to Peer Piracy Act?

"It's a funny world when some folks get to behave like hackers under the aegis of legitimacy."

Portions of the legislation gave the music and film industries the right to invade any computer they felt was trading illegal files. It also said that if any damage was done to the offending computer, the invader would not be held responsible. To wit, the RIAA and the MPAA could fuck up a machine or a network without fear of prosecution. According to my latest searches, that act is still before a Senate committee.

It appears that the guardians of copyright don't want to wait for the lawmakers to catch up. This last weekend the RIAA, MPAA, announced they were already scrutinizing possible options to directly prevent downloads. They are entertaining the prerogative of using “self-help” methods to deter and perhaps destroy a user’s ability to snag a movie or MP3 file off a P2P network. The term “self-help” is a sanitized term. What the RIAA/MPAA really want to do is hack end users and networks.

How do they propose to do this?

By embedding their methods into files disguised as MP3s and movies. Some of the faux files will be harmless. They’ll merely redirect the downloader to a site where they can legitimately pay for their request.

Others are designed to stall or “freeze” the user’s connection to a P2P network. This “freezing” could be injurious because the user would probably have to restart their machine, therefore losing any other unsaved data. Another process mentioned has been nicknamed “silence”. The bug (an auto-downloading .exe file?) would literally search for and delete all files it deems “unauthorized”.

Strip these “self help” measures of their supposedly noble cause and the result is abundantly clear. They want to infect files with glorified versions of Trojans, Denial-of-Service attacks and worms.

Look. I understand the need to protect Intellectual property. The boss once found some schlub trying to auction off Cozy Academy lessons on the net. I know that we’ve all gone a little crazy with this MP3 P2P thing. I have songs and little video clips on my machine I did not pay for. I don’t have broadband and that’s probably the only thing that keeps me from pirating a whole movie.

I try to justify myself by claiming that I only download songs which are out of print or which I used to own on vinyl or cassette. I’m not reselling the stuff. I’m simply acquiring the files for my personal entertainment. I tell myself these things but deep down, I’m just tumbling through loopholes.

Just the same, It bugs me that these “respected” entities can be so bold. They get to send out a press release announcing their efforts. They get to jump the gun on legislation -like the Peer to Peer Piracy Act- and test the waters before the fact. Because their cause is “just” they get to behave in a manner normally thought of as criminal.

What if we did that? What if we began to booby-trap porn files with Trojans, Denial-of-Service attacks and worms? Do you think the adult Internet industry would be looked upon so kindly by the press? Would we be able to proudly announce that we too are simply defending our Intellectual property? After all, if it’s good enough for the RIAA, why not us? Don’t we own our images and movies? Do we not have the same right to defend ourselves? If we implemented such tactics would the RIAA or the MPAA come to our defense?

It’s a funny world when some folks get to behave like hackers under the aegis of legitimacy. It’s scary when the lines between criminal and crimestopper blur. The music companies and the film industry get to try the limits of the law because the law is limited.

I suspect they’ll use the pending legislation of the Peer-to-Peer Piracy Act as justification for their acts. Sad as it is, I don’t think we get to be so arrogant. I hope none of us are. I’d like to think that the members of the adult Internet industry are better than that.