Comments on: Hollywood defends ‘pretexting’

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 14:45:51 +0000

She’s no longer a state senator; in November’s ballot, she won election as California’s Secretary of State, and will take office next year.

Let’s hope she uses some of her clout to resurrect this issue, through the Initiative process if necessary.

If she does, I have one tip for her: Make pretexting a criminal offense, and not a civil liability. Otherwise, the MPAA and PI lobbies will simply run “shakedown lawsuit” or “taxpayer trap” type ads to defeat the initiative. These anti-lawyer, anti-lawsuit ads, while grossly misleading, work very well in the state of California; don’t let it happen to a law as important as this one.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 12:21:43 +0000

There’s no doubt that I’d be thrown in jail if I ever claimed to be a police detective, bank employee, or government official.

Why do these “licensed investigators” working for the MPAA receive an automatic – and perpetual – get-out-of-jail-free card when they do exactly the same thing?

George Orwell’s Animal Farm quote could certainly apply:

“All [people] are equal, but some [people] are more equal than others.”

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 07:47:34 +0000

And HP ‘needs’ pretexting to prevent leaking of ‘trade secrets’. The MPAA’s point being?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 02:23:18 +0000

According to Lenny Goldberg, a lobbyist for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the MPAA reportedly said, ‘We need to pose as someone other than who we are to stop illegal downloading,’.

WTF???

And besides, downloading is not illegal.