Berman said:
“I am a strong believer in the beneficial
potential of P2P networks, but most people currently use them for
unbridled copyright piracy. Billions of P2P downloads every month
constitute copyright infringements for which creators and owners
receive no compensation. P2P piracy must be cleaned up. The
question is how.”
Berman’s proposed law, which has still to be introduced for
debate, would allow copyright owners, in effect, to sabotage P2P
networks. Under the proposal, he said:
"Copyright owners could employ a variety of
technological tools to prevent the illegal distribution of
copyrighted works over a P2P network - tools such as interdiction,
decoys, redirection, file-blocking, and spoofs."
“Use of such self-help measures is nothing
new. Satellite and cable companies periodically employ electronic
countermeasures to thwart the theft of their signals and
programming. However, when such measures are used to thwart P2P
piracy, they may be illegal. Their use may run afoul of certain
common law doctrines and state and federal statutes, including the
federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act."
Berman argues that P2P technology is free to innovate new and
more efficient methods of distribution “that further exacerbate the
piracy problem,” but copyright owners are not equally free “to
craft technological responses.”
He proposes limits on the behaviour that is acceptable by a
copyright owner such as providing that the owner cannot damage the
property of a P2P file trader or any intermediaries, including
ISPs.
