New debates

Debates over the threat posed by P2P to information security in the USA were rekindled recently. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), offered its opinion on the dangerous new threat posed by P2P and file-sharing programs.

Mark Gorton, founder and chairman of The Lime Group (the company behind Limewire), offered testimony about the role he feels ISPs should play in preventing file sharing from occurring on their networks.

Gorton has publicly discussed the problems of copyright infringement and child pornography (amongst other issues) that are an unfortunate side-effect of P2P file sharing – and indeed problems which he and his company have taken heat for in the past. He goes so far as to suggest that ISPs should be part of an ‘enforcement mechanism’ to prevent such problems on P2P networks.

“The Internet is a technology which allows for many novel behaviors. Unfortunately, some of these new behaviors are detrimental to society. The regulatory framework that surrounds the Internet has not kept pace with technical advancements, and currently, no effective enforcement mechanisms exist to address illegal behavior on P2P networks.”

Passing the buck?

www.zeropaid.com notes in their take on the story:

“Now why Gorton would suggest that ISPs begin engaging in a hopeless and invasive attempt to monitor their customers traffic is beyond me but, I think it smacks of passing the buck and trying to make Limewire look like the innocent one in all of this.”

It will be interesting to see where this all leads. Will Limewire can their hands of any of the trouble they’re in? Will legislation finally catch up with the problems that P2P file sharing presents? With some kind government intervention now a possibility, what does the future hold? Watch this space: it’ll be interesting to find out.

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