Berman's office replies to Politech!

So, its nice to see this guy actually open a dialog up with the people who are most concerned about his proposal. I agree that the press has exagerated the rights that the law offers copyright holders. However, my fundamental concern with this law is that I feel its an invitation to anarchy. Hackers will be far better at building systems that can survive attack then systems that make law suits a pain. The result is going to be further escallation of capability on both sides, until there really is no law online nor can there be.

I think what follows is the least reasonable peice of Berman's statement. It seems a straw man arguement, but I'm having trouble drawing the line. What is the difference between repoing a car and running your own law enforcement. IS it the fact that you own the car, where as in the latter instance you are defending other people's property, or is there some other distinction on another level that is more important then this difference? I feel that there is, but I can't put my finger on it.

I wish I had the discussion boards working. Anyway, what do you think?

"Does the P2P Piracy Prevention Act authorize copyright owners to do illegal things that no one else can do?

No. H.R. 5211 just ensures that copyright owners are treated like other property owners. Current law allows property owners in many contexts to use "self-help" to protect their property. Satellite companies face no liability when they use electronic countermeasures to stop the pirating of their signals and programming. Banks face no liability when they repossess automobiles for delinquent loan payments. A bicycle owner faces no liability for grabbing his bike from a thief's yard. A victim of a pickpocket faces no liability for tackling and taking back his wallet from the pickpocket. However, due to the overbreadth of many anti-hacking laws, copyright owners do not have a corresponding ability to prevent the theft of their property through P2P systems. H.R. 5211 would correct this unintentional inequity."