how about an anti-RIAA virus?
Woman forces US record industry to drop file-sharing case
A group of US record labels agreed to drop a music piracy case in the US after the alleged file-sharer argued that it could not be proved that she downloaded any illegal music. The case may set a precedent that undermines scores of other music piracy cases. Tammie Marson of Palm Desert, California refused to pay the initial $3,500 demanded by a group of record labels and opted to fight the case in court. Marson and her lawyer ... argued that the fact that Marson's computer contained illegal music files downloaded over her internet connection was not proof that she had committed a crime.
How about a virus that copies copyrighted files onto people's PCs? Doesn't do anything destructive but consume some disk space, bandwidth, and CPU - and it could be polite about that. If such a thing existed and spread, then anyone could claim that the copyrighted files on their PCs did not get there from illegal activity by the computers' owners or users. The existence of such a virus would make these prosecutions much more difficult.
Downside - it wouldn't help the Mac and Linux/Unix users.
A group of US record labels agreed to drop a music piracy case in the US after the alleged file-sharer argued that it could not be proved that she downloaded any illegal music. The case may set a precedent that undermines scores of other music piracy cases. Tammie Marson of Palm Desert, California refused to pay the initial $3,500 demanded by a group of record labels and opted to fight the case in court. Marson and her lawyer ... argued that the fact that Marson's computer contained illegal music files downloaded over her internet connection was not proof that she had committed a crime.
How about a virus that copies copyrighted files onto people's PCs? Doesn't do anything destructive but consume some disk space, bandwidth, and CPU - and it could be polite about that. If such a thing existed and spread, then anyone could claim that the copyrighted files on their PCs did not get there from illegal activity by the computers' owners or users. The existence of such a virus would make these prosecutions much more difficult.
Downside - it wouldn't help the Mac and Linux/Unix users.