Re: [dvd-discuss] Hang the RIAA in their own noose.

["John Zulauf" <johnzu(at)ia.nsc.com>]

"D. C. Sessions" wrote:
>
> 
> AFAICT, they're counting on the current law's $5000 threshold.  The idea is
> that the law allows big companies to DOS, crack, etc. individuals because
> the damages are miniscule, but individuals shouldn't DOS, crack etc. large
> companies because that would be enough money to be important.
> 
> They may even be right, although a court might see collective damages as
> meeting the threshold -- I don't see the text of the law as being clear on
> that point.

When you consider the inflated "damages" figures cited in Mitnick et.
al. "use of computer time worth X dollar/hour" (ignoring of course most
hackers use idle cycles to better hide the cycle stealing) and "required
administration costs of X dollars/hour for Y hours..." it should be easy
to get to $5000.  Many in the IT industry regularly see $100-$200/hour
for consulting.  If I have to rebuild my system, or recover files worth
their creation time -- shouldn't be hard to get to.  For every MP3 I
rip, it takes X minutes of computer time, Y minutes of my time -- that's
a real historical cost basis.  If someone accidentally leaves open the
file sharing port on Win9X (that is the default), or mistakenly shares
(through honest user error) their MP3 folder and the RIAA hacks in a
deletes them, $5K should add up fast.

Also if the RIAA continues in a pattern of such illegal activity in an
organized way acting as a cartel and agents for the music companies, a
RICO charge could be a very interesting counter attack.

.002