LAUNCH ON WARNING: AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS

There has been a growing interest in "self help" mechanisms to counter Internet-mediated threats. Content providers such as record labels and movie studios have favored proposed federal legislation that would allow them to disable copyright infringers' computers. Software licensors have backed multiple-state legislation, permitting the remote disabling of software in use by the licensee when the license terms are breached. Internet security professionals debate the propriety, and legality, of striking back at computers which attack the Internet through the introduction of worms, viruses, and so on, collectively "malware."