THE MUSIC INDUSTRY VS. THE WORLD….PART LXXVII….The music industry, frustrated beyond the bounds of rationality by internet music downloading, is apparently considering viruses as a way of fighting back:
A more malicious program, dubbed “freeze,” locks up a computer system for a certain duration ? minutes or possibly even hours ? risking the loss of data that was unsaved if the computer is restarted. It also displays a warning about downloading pirated music. Another program under development, called “silence,” scans a computer’s hard drive for pirated music files and attempts to delete them. One of the executives briefed on the silence program said that it did not work properly and was being reworked because it was deleting legitimate music files, too.
Other approaches that are being tested include launching an attack on personal Internet connections, often called “interdiction,” to prevent a person from using a network while attempting to download pirated music or offer it to others.
I’ve written before that I genuinely sympathize with the industry’s plight, and it’s unreasonable to expect them to just twiddle their thumbs while their entire business implodes. But even so, this is like lobbing a nuke at the Bay Area because you don’t like Nancy Pelosi. What the hell are they thinking?
