BSA Wants To Make The DMCA Worse

Found on Techdirt on Thursday, 06 January 2005
Browse Legal-Issues

While the BSA has mostly sat back and let the RIAA and MPAA take the brunt of the bad publicity for suing customers, you can be pretty sure that they're also freaking out over file sharing and avoiding any and all evidence about how it could help their member companies. Just as the RIAA lost yet another case saying they have to actually file lawsuits before sending subpoenas to ISPs for user info, the BSA is asking Congress to modify the DMCA to force ISPs to cooperate and give up user info without a lawsuit being filed. This is very problematic for plenty of reasons -- not the least of which is that it would turn ISPs into an enforcement arm that will be forced to monitor how people use their network. ISPs just provide the service. If companies have a problem with what an individual is doing, they should file a lawsuit and then request the info from the ISP. Without a lawsuit, it's all just a fishing expedition.

Of course they want that; it would make their suing easier. But it is not the objective of a law to fulfill the industry's needs. Laws are made to create justice (yes, I hear you laugh, but hey).