Check this out. The Recording Industy Association of America (RIAA) is trying to amend the Anti-Terrorist act (you know, the one intended to prevent thousands of needless deaths in a terrorist attack) to allow them the ability to hack into our computers and delete mp3s.
It doesn’t look like they’re going to get exactly what they want, but they might get some idiotic power. Does anyone know any more about this?
http://news.lycos.com/news/story.asp?section=LycosBreaking&storyID=47552&from=lycoshp
Actually, they’re not trying to make it legal. It’s already legal. The new terrorism bill alters that, saying that damage in excess of $5000 caused by hacking is an act of terrorism. The RIAA is attempting to close that down, since it’d suck for them if they wiped your hard drive accidentally and were branded a terrorist organization.
Check out Slashdot’s first thread on this, with some insightful commentary (amid all the chaff, like always) and their second thread where the RIAA backs down from this. Links provided to various news sources, etc.