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Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy

Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
NYTIMES 

Some of the world's biggest record companies, facing rampant online
piracy, are quietly financing the development and testing of software
programs that would sabotage the computers and Internet connections of
people who download pirated music, according to industry executives.

The record companies are exploring options on new countermeasures, which
some experts say have varying degrees of legality, to deter online theft:
from attacking personal Internet connections so as to slow or halt
downloads of pirated music to overwhelming the distribution networks with
potentially malicious programs that masquerade as music files. ...

Some of this stuff is going to be illegal," said Lawrence Lessig, a
professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in Internet copyright
issues. "It depends on if they are doing a sufficient amount of damage.
The law has ways to deal with copyright infringement. Freezing people's
computers is not within the scope of the copyright laws." ..

for  rest of article see 
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/04/business/04MUSI.html
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