Bij Wired News kunnen we lezen dat de Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) het Amerikaanse Congres ervan probeert te overtuigen dat zij het recht moet krijgen om in te breken op computers om zo illegale bestanden te kunnen verwijderen. Op deze manier wil de RIAA de piraterij in de muziek- en filmindustrie een halt toe roepen. Uiteraard is er veel kritiek op het voorstel:
"It will not be some special exception for copyright owners," Glazier said. "It will be a general fix to bring back current law." Glazier is the RIAA's senior vice president of government relations and a former House aide.
[...] If the current version of the USA Act becomes law, the RIAA believes, it could outlaw attempts by copyright holders to break into and disable pirate FTP or websites or peer-to-peer networks. Because the bill covers aggregate damage, it could bar anti-piracy efforts that cause little harm to individual users, but meet the $5,000 threshold when combined. "We might try and block somebody," Glazier said. "If we know someone is operating a server, a pirated music facility, we could try to take measures to try and prevent them from uploading or transmitting pirated documents."
[...] The draft amendment is overly broad and poorly-written, says Orin Kerr, a former Justice Department lawyer now at George Washington University. Says Kerr: "It would deny victims their right to sue copyright owners and their agents if they engaged in vigilante justice by hacking or other means in an effort to block online music distribution."