Submission + - MPAA Kills Anti-Pretexting Bill
Himring writes: Wired has a story about a bill which died in CA thanks to the MPAA. SB1666, which would have stopped the practice of lying — I mean "pretexting" — in order to gain private information about someone. "The bill won approval in three committees and sailed through the state Senate with a 30-0 vote," but suddenly was stopped by the powerful MPAA who stated, "We need to pose as someone other than who we are to stop illegal downloading."
So, with bills such as this getting killed, how will HP execs be brought to justice? "Lying" seems to mean different things according to which side of the law you are on. Martha Stewart served time in a federal pen, not for any stock violations, but for simply, "lying to federal investigators." Now, the MPAA can lie to me and you in order to find out if we are downloading copyrighted materials.
Apparently, the MPAA has gone so far as to pay hackers upwards of $15,000 to hack into email account of torrent users. This is all under the aegis of "pretexting."
So, with bills such as this getting killed, how will HP execs be brought to justice? "Lying" seems to mean different things according to which side of the law you are on. Martha Stewart served time in a federal pen, not for any stock violations, but for simply, "lying to federal investigators." Now, the MPAA can lie to me and you in order to find out if we are downloading copyrighted materials.
Apparently, the MPAA has gone so far as to pay hackers upwards of $15,000 to hack into email account of torrent users. This is all under the aegis of "pretexting."