Attorney General parrots music industry

By: BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | Tuesday, March 23, 2004 6:21 AM PST ∞

Bill Lockyer is California's attorney general. But judging from his mindless recitation of the entertainment industry's anti-piracy schtick, he's really a parrot.

Lockyer apparently wrote a letter railing against "peer-to-peer" file sharing, in which many computers hook up to distribute files among them. The undistributed letter, which was leaked to the press, identifies Lockyer as the author. His office neither confirms nor denies authorship, which I take as a no-contest plea.

The letter warns companies selling peer-to-peer software that they may be guilty of deceiving consumers. The software, it claims, is used almost exclusively to "illegally trade copyrighted music, movies, software and video games," and "also is increasingly becoming a means to disseminate computer worms and viruses."

The letter also cites a discredited New York Times article that calls peer-to-peer "the Mexican border of virtual sexual exploitation."

E-mail and Web browsers are also suspect by that bizarre logic, say peer-to-peer advocates. Moreover, peer-to-peer is used for legitimate purposes. San Diego-based Lindows.com distributes its version of Linux through peer-to-peer software.

The Lockyer letter reads like propaganda because it is. Hidden information called "metadata" discovered in the Microsoft Word document points to a person in the Motion Picture Association of America as a source. The person in question denies writing the letter, but admits that Lockyer contacted him about the issue.

The politically ambitious Lockyer wants to become governor. Seen in this light, the letter reads less like a noble attempt to protect consumers and more like a cynical kiss-up to wealthy entertainment industry campaign contributors.

This is also a lesson in the hazard of using Microsoft Word. Its metadata, which most people don't even know exists, makes Word dangerous to use for confidential documents. A previous version of a contract, for example, may contain information you don't want disclosed. This feature, like many other Microsoft security flaws, is turned on by default.

Embarrassing metadata was found last year in a public briefing document from the British government about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the so-called "dodgy dossier." The British government has now mostly given up on Word documents for public material. So should you.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at bfikes@nctimes.com or (760) 739-6641.