American Entertainment Industry wants to infect pirates with malware

eTeknix reports the American Entertainment Industry has come up with a new crazy scheme to clamp down on piracy. The group proposes to pre-install a piece of controlled malware on your PC when you look at copyright protected content. Then if you download or watch copyright content without paying for it, these files and your computer will be locked until you pay to get your computer unlocked:

According to a proposal put forward by the American entertainment industry they would pre-install this controlled “malware” onto your PC when you “look” at copyright protected content. Then if you download, house or consume this copyright content without appropriately paying for it, those copyrighted files would be locked and so will your computer. There would then follow some kind of message about how you can turn yourself in and pay for your “crime” to get your computer unlocked.

This proposal, which can only be described as an idiotic and invasive money-grabbing venture, has received criticism from rights groups and the American government and is highly unlikely to ever make it through.

According to the official proposal: ”Software can be written that will allow only authorized users to open files containing valuable information. If an unauthorized person accesses the information, a range of actions might then occur. For example, the file could 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”