MPAA Kills Anti-Pretexting Bill
Remember pretexting? It’s the cute name given to…well…fraud. It’s when you call someone and pretend to be someone else, in order to get information. Or when you go online and pretend to be someone else, in order to get something. There’s no question in my mind that it’s fraud and illegal, but it seems to be a gray area.
California is considering a bill that would make this kind of thing illegal, and allow victims to sue for damages.
Who could be opposed to this? The MPAA, that’s who:
The bill won approval in three committees and sailed through the state Senate with a 30-0 vote. Then, according to Lenny Goldberg, a lobbyist for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the measure encountered unexpected, last-minute resistance from the Motion Picture Association of America.
“The MPAA has a tremendous amount of clout and they told legislators, ‘We need to pose as someone other than who we are to stop illegal downloading,'” Goldberg said.
These people are looking more and more like a criminal organization every day.
EDITED TO ADD (12/11): Congress has outlawed pretexting. The law doesn’t go as far as some of the state laws—which it pre-empts—but it’s still a good thing.
Mike Sherwood • December 4, 2006 7:59 AM
Was there any doubt that the MPAA is an organized crime syndicate? While there is a legitimate side to what they do, their tactics say a lot about who they really are. If the law gets passed, can we use RICO against the MPAA?