RIAA and MPAA Seek Permission To Engage in Pretexting

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pretext7apr07,1,1936238.story?coll=la-headlines-business&amp;ctrack=1&amp;cset=true">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pretext7apr07,1,1936238.story?coll=la-headlines-business&amp;ctrack=1&amp;cset=true</a><br /><br />"<i>The music and movie industries are lobbying state legislators for permission to deceive when pursuing suspected pirates. The California Senate is considering a bill that would strengthen state privacy laws by banning the use of false statements and other misleading practices to get personal information. The tactic, known as pretexting, created a firestorm of criticism when detectives hired by Hewlett-Packard Co. used it last year to obtain phone records of board members, journalists and critics."</i><br /><br />Well, there is a shock. The RIAA and MPAA want to engage in illegal activity to track down teenagers who swap songs or movies. <br /><br />From the RIAA's Executive VP of Anti-Piracy - <i>"Basically, we want criminals to feel comfortable that who they're dealing with is probably some other criminal and let us in on what's going on," said Brad Buckles, the RIAA's executive vice president for anti-piracy. "We're not talking about trying to go in and get customer information. In no case have we ever tried to do that."</i><br /><br />Oh, no, they would <i>never</i> use that information to file a lawsuit against a teenager that downloaded a few songs and pressure them to settle for an outrageous sum of money per song they claim to have found on their hard drive. I trust these guys completely. :roll:

[Jon Westfall]

It's so hard to do the right thing when the "good guys" are such d****bags :roll:

[WorksForTurkeys]

so in order to protect against dubious acts of piracy, they want the right to commit outright acts of anti-privacy?

such a nice lesson to teach children who purchase music legally: it's ok to violate the rights of individuals in order to protect the rights of large corporations. large companies are more entitled to the protection of the law than are individuals.

sounds like corporate communism to me.

[Ed Hansberry]

More RIAA goodness - http://p2pnet.net/story/11910

One woman is fighting back hard and winning. :way to go: Her kids are still in the crosshairs though.

[Chris Spera]

{rant}RIAA = Really Insulting Arrogant A**holes {/rant}

I hate these people. Personally, after the INITIAL Napster fallout in 1999-2000, I stopped the P2P stuff and bit the bullet. I buy all my music and movies. I don't need the grief; but these guys are relentless. I understand they are entitled to their money; but I truly feel they make enough...and I don't like the tactics they use.

This whole thing about pretexting is just a perfect example... We're going to take away some of your rights for our, uh your own protection. Great... Just great. You gotta love this guys....