Well, yes and no. Technically, when you or I or anyone else - let's say - refrains from speeding or decides not to shoplift, we're "working to protect the rights of those" around us. I know that may sound kind of far-fetched, but from a legal standpoint, it's true. As participants within the framework of our legal system, we're specifically empowered - to varying degrees depending on the state a person's in - to protect property we think we own. Someone breaks into your house, you can protect yourself and your property (esp. if you're in Texas. Yikes.). However, if you see someone walking down the street riding your bike, your technically not empowered to physically stop them and question them, because their protections under the 4th and 6th amendments trump your right to property protection. And really, that's the bigger deal here. When the RIAA tries to get Colleges and ISPs to hand over traffic data, they're exceeding any "investigative" power they may think they have; no gov't agency has issued them warrants towards obtaining that info, and if they had any real law-enforcement power they could simply issue such warrants themselves. Regardless of how it may sound on their website, I can assure you that they aren't legally empowered to go after P2P file-sharers (who, incidentally, I don't exactly support) in the ways they're doing it.