More senators question DMCA subpoenas

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

More senators question DMCA subpoenas
Lack of controls gives RIAA too much latitude in gaining user 
information
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service September 17, 2003   
 http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/17/HNsenatorsDMCA_1.html 
 
WASHINGTON - Three more U.S. senators have questioned a provision in the
1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that allows copyright 
holders to subpoena the names of alleged file traders without first 
getting a judge's permission, with one suggesting that the DMCA 
subpoenas give copyright holders more power than U.S. law enforcement 
agencies have to seek information on terrorists. 

... during a hearing in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Committee Wednesday. ....  (Senator) Brownback (Kansas)  suggested the 
DMCA subpoena provision gives the Recording Industry Association of 
America Inc. (RIAA), which has sought more than 1,600 such subpoenas in 
recent months, more information-gathering power than the U.S. 
Department of Justice has. He questioned why the RIAA and other 
copyright holders should be able to get a subpoena without a judge's 
approval when Justice Department investigators generally need to go
to a judge to subpoena terrorist suspects. 

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