[NewsPoster]

The US Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property has released a report, calling for the use of malware and root kits to enforce US corporate-owned copyrights and media. As proposed, the report calls for the infringing file to be "rendered inaccessible and the unauthorized user's computer could be locked down, with instructions on how to contact law enforcement to get the password needed to unlock the account."

The commission includes former director of National Intelligence and US Pacific Command Commander in Chief Dennis C Blair, former Ambassador to China Jon M. Huntsman Jr., former chairman of Intel Craig R. Barrett, ex-Washington state senator Slade Gorton, former Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III, among others.

As intended, the Commission's goals in writing the report was to "document and assess the causes, scale, and other major dimensions of international intellectual property theft as they affect the United States, document and assess the role of China in international intellectual property theft, and propose appropriate U.S. policy responses that would mitigate ongoing and future damage and obtain greater enforcement of intellectual property rights by China and other infringers."

The report claims that the scale of the theft amounts to over $300 billion annually, but does confess that true amount is impossible to quantify. The Commission agrees with the US Cyber Command commander General Keith Alexander, calling the ongoing theft of intellectual property "the greatest transfer of wealth in history."

While the draconian measures suggested to stop infringers are universal, and not specifically aimed at one country, China is considered to be "between 50 percent and 80 percent of the problem," calling the country's growth strategy the acquisition of science and technology "in part by legal means -- imports, foreign domestic investment, licensing, and joint ventures -- but also by means that are illegal."

The report addressing trademark violations in China recalls a well-publicized incident in Kunming China, where an Apple store had opened: "The new store came complete with the large distinct wooden tables, sleek interior design, large colorful advertisements, and helpful staff members wearing the blue shirts donned by Apple store employees worldwide. Everything was seemingly in place, except for one major problem -- this was not actually an Apple store. The store in Kunming had appropriated Apple's trademarks and trade dress -- even convincing its own employees that they were working for Apple itself -- in order to sell Apple products and provide Apple-branded services, all without the company's permission."

While claiming difficulty in doing so, the report does address direct losses to the US entertainment industry. It claims that music piracy causes a loss of $12.5 billion annually, with movie piracy running $20.5 billion.

The report is calling for the White House to take action by establishing the secretary of commerce as the federal authority to draft laws and legislation involved the "protection of intellectual property, enforcement of implementation actions, and policy development." According to the report, the US International Trade Commission will need to be more nimble, and react faster to complaints than the current two to three years to complaint completion.

Perhaps most concerning, the commission is aware that US law would have to be dramatically revised. It calls for a "more permissive environment for active network defense that allows companies not only to stabilize a situation but to take further steps, including actively retrieving stolen information, altering it within the intruder's networks, or even destroying the information within an unauthorized network. Additional measures go further, including photographing the hacker using his own system's camera, implanting malware in the hacker's network, or even physically disabling or destroying the hacker's own computer or network."

IP Commission Report 052213

[Geoduck]

[q] The US Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property has released a report, calling for the use of malware and root kits to enforce US corporate-owned copyrights and media [/q]
And what could possibly go wrong

[jfgilbert]

I think they're just trying to get a job at Sony.
Either that, or they are incredibly stupid, but they are politicians and elected officials, so it cannot be. We know governments would never do anything blatantly idiotic and totally ineffective, just to look like they are addressing a problem.

[DiabloConQueso]

"...and the unauthorized user's computer could be locked down, with instructions on how to contact law enforcement to get the password needed to unlock the account."

Lock down my computer? Yeah, good luck with that. Wanna know who has the most power over my computer? Here's a hint: it ain't you.

[The Vicar]

Wow, what a surprise -- a bunch of people from the most paranoid, useless, money-wasting departments of the U.S. government (Intelligence and the Military) get together and produce a solution pretty much guaranteed to backfire and make everything worse for everyone.

Look, if you legally require backdoors and malware, it means that criminals will find a way to circumvent those things (eventually) while the people who legally buy your stuff will necessarily leave it in place. Furthermore, sooner or later someone will find a way to exploit the security holes opened up by these things, which means that legitimate users will be punished while pirates and hackers will escape.

But then, that's what U.S. foreign policy has been like for a very long time indeed. We were buddies with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden under Reagan, we propped up dictatorships all over the world (such as, for example, Egypt, where Mubarak was a close personal friend of Democrats and Republicans alike), we helped overthrow Iran's friendly and secular government back in the 20th century so as to install the Shah. These things worked for a very brief time, and then when they failed they failed massively and hurt us to an almost unbelievable extent.

There's a reason why the Constitution does not put the military in charge of the government; it's because even centuries ago, it was obvious that military thinking just isn't very good at long-term solutions or problem solving.

[kerryb]

Maybe dub all movies with really lame dialogue in Chinese. after downloading a few movies that make no sense the Chinese will not bother.

[jpellino]

It's not a trojan. It's a feature.

[WalterC]

Certainly nothing could go wrong with this 'brain-trust's" scheme.

[zunipus]

Darn! Encryption of IP data is so darned difficult. - - NO IT'S NOT. These dire, exaggerated cyberwar strategies are ridiculous. Again: R I D I C U L O U S . The fact that these seemingly technology illiterate analysts want to change US law actually indicates that the purpose of these draconian changes is NOT security. The purpose is instead is likely to be something to the effect of:

1) Further demolition of the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution,
2) Further infiltration of our Corporate Oligarchy into the lives of We The People, aka demolition of democracy and one man, one vote.
3) Further refusal of our Corporate Oligarchy to join the 21st century by way of using 20th century tactics against a 21st century problem
4) You tell me. I find the leaders of our Corporate Oligarchy to be verging on the psychopathic, a state of mind I doubt I will ever find justifiable or sane.

Summary: A total FAIL of a recommendation. I'm going to put the authors of this lunacy into a special list of loons to watch for in the future. Shameful.

[nowwhatareyoulookingat]

Um, this 'report' clearly was helpfully written by...industry. Specifically the MPAA and RIAA. It was merely passed on for implementation by this committee.

[airmanchairman]

Like Harpo and Groucho Marx said way back in the 40's: "Military Intelligence is an absolute contradiction in terms, an oxymoron"

[rumplestiltskin]

Wait a minute! It's not April 1st.

[b0b555]

I was so shocked, I actually downloaded read the report.
It turns out this article is over hyped sensationalist bs.
There's a reason no other publication has raised this issue, either the writer does not understand the report or they are intentionally trying to twist what it says. I expect better from macnn

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by b0b555 

I was so shocked, I actually downloaded read the report.
It turns out this article is over hyped sensationalist bs.
There's a reason no other publication has raised this issue, either the writer does not understand the report or they are intentionally trying to twist what it says. I expect better from macnn

I suspect you didn't completely read the article, then. There's a reason why we quoted entire paragraphs with nothing omitted.

The article does call China to blame for most of the problem, and we did mention that, unlike many of our competing publications. However, the countermeasures proposed by the committee are very clear, and not discriminatory as to target.

Claiming that this is a non-issue and the commission is benevolent is twisting what the report says.