[DMCA-Activists] Felten: Berman Bill Attacks Internet Itself

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Boing Boing Blog.  The Internet = P2P.)

-------- Original Message --------
    Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 21:07:28 -0800
    From: "Cory Doctorow" <address@hidden>
      To: address@hidden


Great article about Ed Felten's political awakening and the
work that the Comp  Sci professor has done to turn lawmakers
on to the dangers of allowing  entertainment companies to
call the shots in the technology world. 

    In September, in written testimony before a House of
Representatives hearing, Mr. Felten criticized legislation
drafted by Rep. Howard L.  Berman, a California Dem-ocrat,
that aims to thwart sharing of music  through peer-to-peer
networks. If it became law, Mr. Felten said, the  measure
could also interfere with legitimate Web activity because
the  Web itself is a peer-to-peer file-sharing system.
Researchers, for  example, who post excerpts from
copyrighted material to their Web  sites without permission
from the copyright holder could have their  Internet service
disrupted, even though such postings may be fair use.

    Furthermore, he said, a provision in the bill that would
allow copyright  holders to launch denial-of-service attacks
against peer-to-peer  networks could prompt "an arms race"
between the creators of the  networks and copyright owners,
with the network creators ultimately  prevailing.
Denial-of-service attacks attempt to overwhelm computers  by
sending them such huge amounts of information that they
become  incapable of responding to legitimate queries.

    "The bill, as written, flatly authorizes 'self-help'
attacks on the World  Wide Web, and not just users of
file-trading networks like KaZaA and  Gnutella," Mr. Felten
said. 

Link (http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i14/14a02701.htm)
Discuss (http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/Ebat6zrdxwb)
(Thanks, Seth! [http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/latest.html])

--
Posted by Cory Doctorow to Boing Boing Blog at 11/26/2002
9:07:25 PM