Copyright Law

Congress Reopens Investigation of Limewire

By soulxtc

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says it has “become increasingly concerned about the significant risks posed to American citizens and entities from the accessibility of sensitive private and government information on P2P file-sharing networks,” and wants to know what’s being done to address it.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent letters recently to the Attorney General Eric H. Holder Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission Chair Jon Leibowitz, and Lime Group CEO Mark Gorton. The letters, signed by chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and ranking Republican Darrell E. Issa of California, ask what is being done to protect P2P users in light of recent news stories about privacy and security breaches.

“We have become increasingly concerned about the significant risks posed to American citizens and entities from the accessibility of sensitive private and government information on P2P file-sharing networks,” reads the letter to Holder.

It then goes on to cite several examples of breaches of security by P2P, presumably Limewire, users.

The biggest is last month’s leak of classified military information about President Barack Obama’s helicopter.

But, it belies the same response that Gorton made to Rep Issa two years ago during the initial investigation when the congressman asked if P2P and file-sharing programs could lead to a “cyber Pearl Harbor.” Gorton rebutted by asking why a P2P program like Limewire was on sensitive home or govt PC in the first place.

The letter to Holder closes by asking what the Justice Dept is currently doing to protect P2P users.

“We are hereby requesting that you provide the Committee staff with a full briefing on the Department’s role in protecting Americans from the dangers associated with P2P networks,” it reads. “We are particularly interested in learning the extent to which federal law enforcement action may be taken to protect private citizens, commercial entities, and government agencies from the security risks posed by P2P networks such as LimeWire.”

So what can his response be? You can’t make P2P software illegal, or sue Limewire for being a so-called “defective product” as rep Issa hinted at the first time around. Limewire has already changed the default shared folder settings, requiring users to manually add them instead.

?Our newest version, LimeWire 5.0, by default, does not share sensitive file types such as spreadsheets or documents,? said LimeWire spokeswoman Linda Lipman. ?In fact, the software does not share any file or directory without explicit permission from the user.?

Undeterred by the truth, and ignoring the fact that some Limewire users are either using outdated versions or are simply ignorant, Rep Issa insists Limewire insists it is ignoring their concerns in the letter to Limewire.

?It appears that nearly two years after your commitment to make significant changes in the software, LimeWire and other P2P providers have not taken adequate steps to address this critical problem,? Rep Towns and Issa wrote.

He obviously hasn’t used the program himself - EVER. A 9yo could configure it properly if he wanted to.

The letter to Limewire also asks if what it’s doing to prevent the sharing of copyrighted material (yes, PREVENT.), as though it somehow could. If it suddenly did somehow people would just switch to a modified version or another like KaZaA Lite, BitTorrent, etc., etc..

“‘What measures have you taken to identify and eliminate illegal activities associated with the use of Limewire, including any measures to refer violators to law enforcement or other authorities?”

Laughable right?

It’s always funny to hear members of Congress try to make public policy about something they know absolutely nothing about. Remember former Sen Ted Stevens and his calling the Internet a “series of tubes?”

I haven’t used Limewire since BitTorrent came on the scene years ago, but it’s still fascinating to hear about members getting so worked up about something that not only could they never possibly hope to control, but that seems seriously irrelevant in the context of so many other more pressing issues this country faces like the economy, healthcare, the environment, and why it is we have so many darn people behind bars.

Instead of going after Limewire, how about going after the knuckleheads who think it’s a good idea to open up a govt PC containing sensitive data to the rest of the world so they can grab some songs or a movie or two.

Bet we’ll never see hearings on that one.

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on April 27, 2009 (boomark / email).