The RIAA's president Cary Sherman is lamenting that there's a lack of civility in the debate over sharing the music we love. He's complaining that people object to his effort to plant bombs in your computer. He says such people are irrational.

The New York Times reveals the record companies are preparing a program called "silent", which "Locks up a computer system for a certain duration - minutes or possibly even hours - risking the loss of data that was unsaved if the computer is restarted," the Times tells us. "It also displays a warning about downloading pirated music."

This latest bombing campaign follows the RIAA's attempt in October to get bombing prohibited from limited damages: a daring and unusual move for a bomber. Bombers usually light a fuse and then run away, or fly away at a very high altitude, but this bomber wants to return to the scene of the crime and deny the victims their right to get recompense for the destruction. That was the Berman Bill.

One other program can only be described as a kind of psychological "All Your Base" campaign, only for real. It deletes all the MP3s it can find on your computer so you have to buy the music again in DRM'd form. And then your music will truly belong to them, because once the DRM noose is around your neck, they only need to tighten it.

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