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Thread: DoS legalised in USA??

  1. #1
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    DoS legalised in USA??

    I've just read on http://www.zataz.com (sorry, it's in french) that an american senator named Howard Berman (in California I think but I'm not sure) wanted to legalise DoS atack to protect Disc majors.
    They could use DoS in order to block peer to peer comunications!!
    He also want to use viruses against crackers!!!

    I think he's mad.
    Life is boring. Play NetHack... --more--

  2. #2
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    Re: DoS legalised in USA??

    Originally posted here by KissCool
    I've just read on http://www.zataz.com (sorry, it's in french) that an american senator named Howard Berman (in California I think but I'm not sure) wanted to legalise DoS atack to protect Disc majors.
    They could use DoS in order to block peer to peer comunications!!
    He also want to use viruses against crackers!!!

    I think he's mad.
    Not being able to read french I couldnt find the article(funny how the site seemed to make vague sense though), but if he is proposing such a thing he clearly underestimates the scope of what he intends to do.
    -Shkuey
    Living life one line of error free code at a time.

  3. #3
    The Iceman Cometh
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    Granted, I don't know French, nor pretend to, but I do know Dutch and Spanish, which, using that combination allowed me to find the article.

    Click here for the full article.

    For a *rough* translation, click here.

    For more articles on this (in English) click here. The site contains a blurb about Berman's idea, as well as a list of different sources wherey ou can do further research.

    AJ

  4. #4
    GreekGoddess
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    Here is the article translated:
    (I apologize in advance if there is anything that I misunderstood when I translated the text)

    Under the feather of Marc Olanie, the magazine and telecom networks have just explained , why the USA wants to make DoS attacks legal. Why and how? To defend the interests of disc majors, it will be perhaps possible with these companies to use methods of pirating to block the exchanges of mp3s via p2p engines. Thus unveiled, the proposal of senator Howard Berman, which beautifully proposes the use of viruses to destroy a pirate's computer.

  5. #5
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    This is all really pretty funny. First you have the silly Senator trying to legalize DoS attacks on P2P networks. Then you have the Uk Parliament declaring that DoS attacks are illegal.
    ------
    Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002Jun25.html

    Lawmaker tries to foil illegal file-sharing
    Copyright holders would receive carte blanche to use aggressive tactics to stop the illegal distribution of their works on online services like Morpheus and Kazaa under legislation outlined today by Rep. Howard Berman (D- Calif.).

    Berman's bill, to be introduced in the next several weeks, would attempt to minimize the illegal trading of copyrighted songs and other content on "peer-to-peer" (P2P) networks by permitting copyright holders to use technology against pirates.

    While content owners now can try to block access to intellectual property pirates, they cannot use the range of technological options that they want, chiefly because some tactics are illegal under state and federal law. Berman's bill would legalize some techniques over the protests of file-sharing advocates.

    Berman, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee's intellectual property and Internet panel, represents a California district adjacent to Burbank and Hollywood -- major capitals of the entertainment industry that have long clamored for better online piracy deterrents.

    Despite the passage in 1998 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, piracy continues to nag at copyright holders and businesses. The DMCA has been used to threaten suspected copyright violators, but questions about what constitutes legal sharing and illegal piracy continue to dilute the law's power.

    Following the court-ordered shutdown of the popular file-sharing service Napster, P2P systems like Morpheus have become popular because they make it harder for the entertainment industry to detect copyright infringement. Two people sharing music through the Morpheus service establish connections to each others' computers instead of using a Napster-like central server.

    Berman said such P2P networks should not be "cleared out," but "cleaned up."

    His bill would allow copyright holders to set up decoy files and use other techno-tricks like file- blocking and redirection to throw P2P pirates off the trail, but it would forbid those holders from employing tactics that would damage or destroy pirates' own computer systems.

    Destroying, crashing or damaging people's computers, software or other technology systems is illegal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as are many of the ideas Berman is suggesting should be available to content owners - though he said that viruses should not be used as defense mechanisms.

    "A copyright owner should not be allowed to damage the property of a P2P file trader or any intermediaries, including ISPs," Berman said. "(I) wouldn't want to let a particularly incensed copyright owner introduce a virus that would disable the computer from which copyrighted works are made available ... "

    Ellen Stroud, spokeswoman for Morpheus' parent company StreamCast Networks, said that Berman's proposed bill would legalize tactics that currently are considered illegal because they allow online misrepresentation.

    "(Berman) has called for a posse of copyright vigilantes," she said.

    Howard Coble (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property subcommittee, said in an interview that he likes Berman's proposal, but said it could be "tweaked."

    Coble also said that he is awaiting approval from the House Judiciary Committee to hold a July hearing on Internet copyright violations.

    "My philosophy, and I think Howard's philosophy, is to prevent larceny and to prevent piracy," Coble said.

    The Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement that it supports the Berman proposal, adding that "Internet piracy undermines the growth of legitimate online music sites and hurts all consumers in the long run."
    ----

    And then you have the Uk Parliament banning DoS attacks. It is in PDF format.

    Source: http://www.publications.parliament.u...79/2002079.htm
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  6. #6
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    http://www.zataz.com/zataz/news.php?...1&file=02.html looks like a better link to the article directly.....

    GG > ever thoght of a name cange to GreekGoddessTheTraanslator? he he he, thanks for the translation tho cause my french is alittle rusty, also, beautiful proposal? i think that belle translates to something else also and is screwy....... then again mabee its just a french saying like flip the bird? i dont know?

    [edit] something more like translated to 'the good deal that senitor..........."?[/edit]

  7. #7
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    Translation by me..

    Ok, here's a human translation of the Zataz article ... (translator's notes in brackets)

    (http://www.zataz.com/zataz/news.php?...1&file=02.html)
    -------------------------------------------------
    The networks and telecoms magazine just explained under Marc Olanie's pen [in Marc Olanie's words], that the USA might legalize DoS attacks.

    Why and how? To defend the interests of the recoding industry's big names, it might be possible for these enterprises to use hacking techniques to block mp3 exchanges via peer-to-peer tools.

    So this is Senator Howard Berman's nice proposition, which also proposes the use of viruses to destroy pirates computers. In brief, we are in complete science fiction, proving that in California, the sun shines hard.
    -------------------------------------------------

    Ammo

  8. #8
    GreekGoddess
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    I have taken 6 years of French.....was in several translating-travel programs, but since then I've become quite rusty at it....I had to check a couple of words to begin with in my dictionary...

    This Senator is looking for a major DoS war if what he intends to do goes through. And how does the government justify viruses? I mean, that's almost saying, that if you deal drugs out of your house, the government can burn it down after they arrest you. They're going to damage your box?

    Maybe it's some economical ploy.....heh

  9. #9
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    This bill is not going to pass (at least not how it is proposed). File Sharing of copyrighted materials is legal in some cases (let's say you own a copy of the CD, if you download a backup copy, it is perfectly legal). Now, the fun part, since some people have the right to download the material that is posted, and the companies that make the product are posting "clones" of it on the server and making it appear to be something it is not. Hiding virii in the files, hitting servers (or clients with DoS attacks), and things of this nature are all suspect activities that will end up messing up the wrong person's machine who happens to have a REALLY good lawyer that could get OJ off of a murder conviction. Basically if this is ever introduced, it might make activities such as DoSs legal for copyright holders, BUT those holder would still be civilly liable for thier actions. Since they are liable in a cival court, they have a choice of paying a LOT of court cost for EVER user of a PtP network, or they can save thierselves and just let it happen.
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  10. #10
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    That was anounced a few months ago on Tech TV's The Screen Savers
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