The RIAA and the MPAA Want Pretexting Back

The RIAA and the MPAA are none-to-happy about the anti-pretexting bill put into place by President Bush back in January, and as such, recently submitted an amendment to the bill in California that would allow the two organizations to utilize pretexting in their endless search for online pirates.

Although the amendment has not gone through yet, it would certainly be a dangerous precedent if it did. The anti-pretexting bill really does a public service in protecting citizens from corporate overreach - we can only hope that it is turned down.

President Bush Signs Anti-Pretexting Bill Into Law

President Bush today signed into law a bill that outlaws Pretexting, or the act of posing as someone else to discover personal information. This is a technique often used by the MPAA to find out from a given ISP the personal information of alleged filesharers.

Pretexting began to come into the public light after the investigation by and eventual resignation of Patricia Dunn, a chairwoman of HP. The scandal that ensued was enough to drive media acceptance of the story, and from that point this bill was introducted (and passed) in the house in February 2006.

As was expected, there was a large backlash when this bill fully cleared congress in December, with the MPAA arguing that it needed the ability to use pretexting "...to stop illegal downloading." Lobbiests paid by the MPAA were confirmed to have been lobbying against the bill.

(via arstechnica)