RIAA, MPAA would like to scan your hard drive for infringing content


I don’t get it either, mister

There really isn’t any particular point to the following story other than to get you riled up as your begin your weekend. The U.S. government is actively trying to figure out how best to handle intellectual property rights, so it has asked the concerned parties to submit all sorts of information in order to better understand what’s going no. The person in charge of this is the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, and what the RIAA and MPAA have submitted borders on the insane. Well, it would border on the insane if it weren’t totally their modus operandi. The most glaring “suggestion”? That computer users install software that would scan the contents of their hard drives, looking for examples of “infringement.” If the software discovers what it thinks it infringement, bam! Deleted! I’d be surprised if this were the year 2001, but after so many years of insane RIAA/MPAA stories it’s hard to be shocked anymore.

The exact verbiage of the suggestion reads:

There are several technologies and methods that can be used by network administrators and providers…these include [consumer] tools for managing copyright infringement from the home (based on tools used to protect consumers from viruses and malware).

So, the same technology that protects you from Internet nonsense—”hey, knucklehead, that 1MB DVD rip of “Avatar” you’ve got there is a trojan, delete it—would instead be used to spy on you. A sort of, “Well, look at that, the new LCD Soundsystem album before its official release date? Where did you get that from? No worries, we’ll just delete it right now… OK, as you were.”

That’s not a world I want to live in.

Then again, this is a world where volcanoes are exploding left, right, and center; meteorites are falling from the sky; and Manchester City might actually get fourth place, so who knows what’s going on anymore.

The funniest is that the RIAA/MPAA expects federal agencies, like the FBI, to keep an eye out for pirates on opening weekend.

Yes, because our nation’s law enforcement officials have nothing better to do than make sure people aren’t recording Kick Ass for later CAM distribution…

Again, it would be funny if weren’t utterly predictable.

via Tom’s Guide

Flickr’d