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Denial Of Service Attack On RIAA Site Following Hollywood Hacking Proposal
by , 11:00 AM EDT, July 31st, 2002
An apparently deliberate denial-of-service attack crippled the RIAA's Web site from Friday to Sunday. The disruptions to the site occurred not long after the RIAA gave support to a new bill before the US Congress that would allow the industry to be safe from prosecution if it were to use 'hacking' techniques to prevent media piracy. According to the Hollywood Reporter:
Reports from the site's technical staff throughout Monday and Tuesday showed intermittent problems caused by high numbers of people visiting, but there were none of the coordinated efforts seen during the previous two days.
"We are only left to wonder why these people don't have something better to do during the summer," an RIAA spokesman said. "For some, perhaps it at least distracted from pirating music for a few minutes."
He declined "to speculate or hazard a guess" as to the motivation behind blocking access to www.riaa.org.
Given that the RIAA and MPAA voiced their endorsement of the bill just a day before the attacks started, it appears clear that there's a link.
You can read the article in full at the Hollywood Reporter.
The Mac Observer Spin:
You'd be forgiven for secretly rooting for the script kiddies this time. The bill in question permits the industry to get away with committing the same cyber-crimes that would land anyone else in prison, and severely limits your ability to sue if their behavior managed to cause damage to your computer. The US Attorney-General would need to be notified of the activity, but there's no provision to make that information public. This is by no means a benign bill.Observer Comments
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