Journal: SBC Touts Digital Rights Management Bill

I noticed yet another SBC newsletter in my in-box today.

Nestled among the usual big-telecom come-ons I noticed a little item titled "Digital Rights Management Bill."

The rest of the item reads "Learn how this legislation would protect you and why we support it" and links to

http://www.sbc.com/corporate_citizenship/0%2C%2C1882%2C00.html

SBC recently sued the RIAA recently calling the recording industry's subpoena policy improper. But reading the headline touting the "Digital Rights Management Bill" left me uneasy, thinking anything with the initials "DRM" has to be bad.

It wasn't until I followed the link and read the article that I realized that SBC is still on the right side of the DMCA subpoena issue.

It turns out the legislation SBC supports is supposed to protect ISPs' (and maybe their subscribers') right to due process.

Quote:

On September 16, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) introduced important legislation that would require the owners of digital media products to follow the same rules as everyone else and file an actual case in a court of law in order to obtain the identifying information of an ISP subscriber.