IP: Need for hacker laws downplayed

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Even amid dramatic attacks by cyber vandals on some of 
the Internet's flagship Web sites, the nation's technology industry appears 
reluctant to ask Congress for new or expanded anti-hacker measures. The 
industry appears to be maintaining its traditional reluctance against 
inviting government into its affairs, even in its defense against hackers 
and online vandals. Those sentiments, expected to be delivered to lawmakers 
at a congressional hearing Tuesday, illustrate the gulf between Washington 
and the high-tech industry beyond the 2,400 miles physically separating the 
epicenters of the two cultures. Panels from the House and Senate Judiciary 
committees organized Tuesday's hearing to determine what changes, if any, 
they need to make to existing crime laws in the wake of electronic attacks 
earlier in February that disrupted for hours Web sites run by Yahoo!, 
Amazon.Com, eBay, ETrade and others. see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2564631209-a2b