Fergie's Tech Blog

RIAA, MPAA Lobbies for Permission to Deceive

Dawn C. Chmielewski and Marc Lifsher write in The Los Angeles Times:

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.

But the Recording Industry Assn. of America and the Motion Picture Assn. of America say they sometimes need to use subterfuge as they pursue bootleggers in flea markets and on the Internet.

posted by Fergie @ 4/07/2007 12:40:00 PM