The entertainment industry could be given new powers to deliberately sabotage internet music and movie file-sharing services, under proposed US legislation.
Californian Congress representative Howard Berman has proposed a bill that would make it legal in the US for companies to disrupt peer-to-peer file-sharing to protect their copyright.
At a meeting with the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Berman said: 鈥淐opyright owners could employ a variety of technological tools to prevent the illegal distribution of copyrighted works over a P2P network 鈥� tools such as interdiction, decoys, redirection, file-blocking, and spoofs.鈥�
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Peer-to-peer networks allow users to connect directly to each other鈥檚 computers to search for and transfer files. Popular file-sharing networks such as Morpheus and Kazaa have come under legal scrutiny for allowing internet users to share copyright protected music and film.
Usually, the networks include a number of distributed servers that help computers to connect.
Berman said the legislation would not allow a copyright owner to cause damage to an individual computer or an intermediary server.
Privacy concerns
But Julian Midgley, director the UK internet organisation Campaign for Digital Rights, says he is concerned about the proposal.
He told New 杏吧原创: 鈥淸The law] says you can鈥檛 go around messing about with other people鈥檚 computers without their permission. And anything that does that is illegal for a very good reason.鈥�
Covertly installing so-called 鈥渟pyware鈥� on users鈥� computers to report back on copyright infringement would raise privacy concerns, he says.
He adds that disrupting file-sharing network servers could also disrupt legitimate services running on those servers. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 sound like a piece of legislation that the rights community are going to support.鈥�
Tricking users
Adam Langley, a peer-to-peer network developer based in the UK, says that some record companies already upload 鈥渄ummy鈥� files to file-sharing networks in order to trick users into downloading advertisements rather than real music or movie files.
Langley also says it would be technically possible for companies to gain access to individuals鈥� computers or block file network servers. 鈥淚t depends where you draw the line.鈥�
Napster, the best-known file-sharing network, was first taken to court by the Recording Industry Association in December 1999. The company recently filed for bankruptcy after failing to make a new service designed to prevent copyright infringement successful.
