RIAA/MPAA Want Monitoring Software, Border Checks

“Another article on intellectual property enforcement? Yes,
since I consider this to be the most important struggle technology
has to face over the coming decade. We already know that content
providers don’t care one bit about hard-fought concepts like
freedom and privacy, but the joint proposals by the RIAA and MPAA
to the US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator really blew
my brains out: monitoring software installed on people’s computers,
border inspections – it’s all there, and then some.

“As you may recall, the US Intellectual Property Enforcement
Coordinator made a request late February for comments on how the
United States should handle intellectual property enforcement
within the current administration. Apart from advice from the
public and organisations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
big content itself is of course also allowed to shine their light
on the matter. Which is good.

“What isn’t good, sadly, are the idiotic measures they’ve come
up with. If it were up to the RIAA, MPAA, and similar
organisations, the American public’s privacy isn’t worth a darn
dime. For instance, they state that people should install software
on their computers that continuously scans the hard drive for files
that may infringe copyright, similar to how antivirus software
works. While they add the “voluntary” modifier, the Sony rootkit
fiasco has shown us that these people are not to be trusted.”

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