Recording industry Web site swamped after anti-pirating proposal

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

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.



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