Lobbyists representing the RIAA hoped to make it legal for copyright owners to hack into computer networks in search of copyright infringing material and to destroy any such material found.
The proposed amendment read:
"No action may be brought under this subsection arising out of any impairment of the availability of data, a program, a system or information, resulting from measures taken by an owner of copyright in a work of authorship, or any person authorised by such owner to act on its behalf, that are intended to impede or prevent the infringement of copyright in such work by wire or electronic communication; provided that the use of the work that the owner is intending to impede or prevent is an infringing use."
In any event, the RIAA’s attempt to attach the above words failed, but not before they faced public and industry criticism for seeking to legalise these covert and dubious methods of defending copyright at all costs.