A bill is being proposed which will legalize hacking by copyright holders to disable your computer http://www.msnbc.com/news/784908.asp?cp1=1 I'm not saying that I have anything to worry about...it's just that i don't like the thought of being hacked and not being able to do anything about it. Will firewalls and antivirus still protect me? Or maybe the firewall and antivirus manufacturers will be forced to skip over their viruses and trojans? If they do make this into a law, I guess now's the time to make up a stupid song, copyright it...and use the law to legalize hacking activities ("Oh, i thought he had an illegal copy of my song")

That was an interesting artical but I wouldn't worry just yet.

IMO 1. They may attach a "virus" to a zip file which has been done. 2. The won't make a virus or worm in a general form because someone could pervert it and they would be liable, bigtime and the law won't cover them. 3. Probability is that they may become a P2P member and offer files inwhich they would hack your IP address to destroy your computer. Thus providing proof for the Law enforcement. 4. Software firewalls will most likely stop the hacking but with all software firewalls, they are not true firewalls and are subject to "Holes" like the ones built in for Microsoft. 5. Make backups at regular intervals. A regular virus can do more harm. 6. They will stay away from modifing P2P software and redistributing it because they would be in violation of copyright laws. 7. Whatever they do will work for a little while. Their methods become clear and an adjustment will be made to the software or user. Soon afterwards they will become the victim or target, and counterattacks will start happening as they do for Microsoft. (Monthly security patches) What amazes me is that record companies always choose "greed" over "changing the company to fix the problem". They refuse to offer online cd production, give them the songs you want and they will burn them for you. They refused to cooperate with Napster to sell audio mp3s. They could even sell $3 cds in either regular or mp3 format with a "no copying restriction". You scratch it, lose it, want one in the car, you buy a another one.

shadow....it's a very interesting topic.... and some interesting comments by Ray ..... If you want to learn more and keep up to date on the topic start by visiting www.slyck.com ... Theft of copyright has become a global problem and different laws may apply in different countries (or states). The problem is that the law hasn't, and is unlikely to, keep pace with the change in technology. Like you i am anxious to keep my collection of mp3's, so make sure your 'firewall'is active! i'm told there are many record company executives who are taking up their old positions as car salesmen!.....

the fact is that to hack a computer they have to connect to a port... and most firewalls will block anykind of access to a port unless you initialize it... if they government decides to make a "backdoor" like they do with other protocols etc.. imap, pop... then hackers will just utilize the backdoor more than the government... it'll go around and around.... BUT if you haven't notcied already.. some music mp3's are being put out on filesharing nets that already have virus's on them... same with porn, programs... lol.. i just format a whole lot ;)

shadow i just read the link from another site. here is a problem with p2P, first if you connect two or three nodes( computers) together with out using a hub, switch or router. this is also a p2p network. as for them hacking into our files. i think the government and other people would speak highly against it. have you read what the patriot act says about electronic crimes. ok what if someone were to find copyrighted material on your system and wanted to hack in to get it off. they couldn't becuase under this law in it's self would make them the criminals because of there actions. also to bring up the anti virus and trojan thing there was one case that the federal goverment did do something like this. the program was called green launtern. this is now undetectable by vsanners that are out there today. the best way to stop this is to have a firewall tha looks at incomming and out oing

Your first step is to put up a firewall and secure your computer. Then, if companies start including backdoors and torjans to make the government happy, use open source. There are enough paranoid people in the *BSD and Linux community that if the government tried something, it would probably be noticed (and fixed) that day. If you have anything incriminating, encrypt it with PGP or GPG, ideally from a computer that's never been online.