Berman said:
“I am a strong believer in the beneficial potential of P2P networks, but most people currently use them for unbridled copyright piracy. Billions of P2P downloads every month constitute copyright infringements for which creators and owners receive no compensation. P2P piracy must be cleaned up. The question is how.”
Berman’s proposed law, which has still to be introduced for debate, would allow copyright owners, in effect, to sabotage P2P networks. Under the proposal, he said:
"Copyright owners could employ a variety of technological tools to prevent the illegal distribution of copyrighted works over a P2P network - tools such as interdiction, decoys, redirection, file-blocking, and spoofs."
“Use of such self-help measures is nothing new. Satellite and cable companies periodically employ electronic countermeasures to thwart the theft of their signals and programming. However, when such measures are used to thwart P2P piracy, they may be illegal. Their use may run afoul of certain common law doctrines and state and federal statutes, including the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act."
Berman argues that P2P technology is free to innovate new and more efficient methods of distribution “that further exacerbate the piracy problem,” but copyright owners are not equally free “to craft technological responses.”
He proposes limits on the behaviour that is acceptable by a copyright owner such as providing that the owner cannot damage the property of a P2P file trader or any intermediaries, including ISPs.