As of this morning, the RIAA's website was down. This is after over 24 hours of a serious Denial of Service. Of course, the blatent irony of this is that the RIAA is (successfully) petitioning (bribing) the US government to allow them to execute Denial of Service attacks on individuals suspected of P2P trading. Note the word suspected; they can wreck your computer, and you have no reasonable legal recourse if they do. An interesting comment about the DOS:
"It's childish to declare a hacker war.
It's foolish to declare a war on all hackers.
It's pure ignorance to believe you can win."
If ever there was a time to support independent labels, this is the time.
Update: For those who are curious about the direct effects of the bill, I've added some information below.
Update: I should mention that by saying no reasonable legal recourse you should take special note of the word "reasonable"
The bill does provide for the ability to sue for damages (I don't think tort - i.e. pain and suffering, etc - is included though) However, in order to sue, you must demonstrate over $250.00 USD of damages AND you must petition the Attorney General of the United States directly. Suffice to say, this is not a reasonable way to seek damages.
Presuppose that you are sharing a file by your band, called Green May*; if the RIAA suspects that Green May is really Green Day, they can DoS your computer; now, let's say you're working on a term paper and your computer crashes. You lose your work, and you're screwed. The RIAA would not be at any fault, legally speaking for this.
* I know "Green May" is probably a dumb name for a band, but I'm making a point here.