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US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

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131–140 of 269 posts

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#131
Why should the entertainment industry get special treatment?

Local, state, federal police, IRS should install rootkits to monitor all transactions and activity, turn on audio and video capture from webcams.

Of course it's absurd and would destroy consumer trust of any device connected to the internet.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#133
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why Stallman doesn't wear something a bit more presentable, like a suit and tie and shave his beard. It looks a little repulsive to be honest.

He was actually a really attractive guy. [1] You can still see he's fairly attractive for a 60 year old under the disheveled hair and beard, and excess weight. [1] http://en.wikinoticia.com/Technology/linux/33921-the-young-r...

I don't mean to split hairs, but you might be exaggerating just a bit.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#134
post #9

I tried to be rational and then I got to the second paragraph of their own brief: "The second and even more pernicious effect is that illegal theft of intellectual property is undermining both the means and the incentive for entrepreneurs to innovate, which will slow the development of new inventions and industries that can further expand the world economy and continue to raise the prosperity and quality of life for…

> "illegal theft of intellectual property" Say what? Such bizarre phrases make me seriously doubt the intelligence and education of the people who wrote this.

But they are petitioning for legal theft of control over your computer. I think they know what they are saying.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#135
Are there any congressfolk actually buying this specific report?

I could release reports all day long about how incredibly beneficial it is to eat my soufflé, but that doesn't mean congress is going to pass a "t0mcat soufflé protection act of 2013" bill.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#136
post #102
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mostly for the publicity, and 'cheap thrills. You mean... for the lulz?

I purposely expanded 'for the lulz' into something a bit more succinct.

You actually expanded it into something that by definition is less succinct.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#137
post #10

Would it also then become illegal to program software that would defend against such software rooting your machine and erasing things that goes against its views of fairness? I'd like see them try to root my Gentoo box.

Remember when you couldn't watch DVDs on Linux? And then someone wrote DeCSS, which provided decryption of DVD for Linux users.

It'll be similar if this law passes. There's a binary blob for Windows and OSX. It's illegal to reverse engineer that blob. It's illegal to circumvent the need for that blob.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#139

Are they also going to push for laws that mandate that all anti-virus software must ignore their rootkits? And with secure boot in Windows 8, it will be harder for rootkits to remain undetected by hiding in the boot loader. Will the entertainment industry push for laws that force operating system vendors to provide back-doors for the official malware?

No it won't be harder for the entertainment industry to create rootkits. You just buy a proper certificate and sign it like any other driver developer. Secure boot does nothing to protect the users from the entertainment industry.

And if we remember what happened the last time that happened when an entertainment company deployed a rootkit. They made it much easier for unskilled malware writers to hide their work. And IIRC it wasn't trivial to remove the rootkit Sony deployed.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits

#140
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Microsoft signs the rootkits purposefully.

No way ... MS can buy Hollywood with pocket change. Also the moment they sign something like that - no more business with enterprises and national governments. The integrity of windows and office is imperative for them.

Last time I checked MS was still in business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sony_BMG_copy_prot...

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