I must admit that I have little interest in the recording industry other than the occasional subrational bloviations of the "stars". But Jack Russell in The Inquirer calls attention to a really bad idea - RIAA, MPAA threaten software cluster bombs:
According to Cnet, all of the major record companies including Vivendi's Universal Music Group, AOL Time Warner's Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Bertelsmann's BMG and EMI Group have invested into small software companies dedicated to building programs to attack the PCs of people who download pirated music or movies.Aside from the inevitable lawsuits, it's clearly a recipe for internet warfare that the recording industry isn't sure to win.
The effects of such programs range from re-directing the user to a site where they can download the media legitimately -- which is rather harmless -- to locking up a system for minutes or even hours. It's been suggested that other programs are under development that would trigger a DoS (Denial of Service) attack against an offending customer as well.
