Security News > 2002 > July > Recording industry Web site swamped after anti-pirating proposal

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/483384p-3859845c.html NEW YORK (July 30, 2002 6:42 p.m. EDT) - In an apparently deliberate denial-of-service attack, an onslaught of traffic crippled the Web site for the Recording Industry Association of America over the weekend. The disruptions began Friday, a day after Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., formally proposed giving the entertainment industry broad new powers - including deliberately interfering with file-sharing programs - to try to stop people from downloading pirated music and movies. A denial of service attack directs so much traffic to the Web site as to effectively render it unusable for legitimate visitors. The RIAA said the attack continued through Sunday and did not involve breaking into internal systems. "We can only wonder if some of these people don't have something better to do during the summer than hack our site," said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy. "For some, perhaps it at least provided a temporary distraction from illegally downloading music." Berman's bill would not allow such denial-of-service attacks against Web sites. However, his office said it would allow copyright holders to overwhelm peer-to-peer networks by making repeated requests for specific pirated files. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.

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