At least one Capitol Hill lawmaker thinks the music industry's subpoena and strongarm approach to online peer-to-peer file swapping is a little too heavy handed for comfort. Senate Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chairman Sen. Norman Coleman (R-Minnesota) announced his panel will hold hearings on the crackdown, which he has called a "shotgun approach," in a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Coleman knows a little more than usual about P2Ping: by his own admission, he's a former Napster user. But he told the RIAA in his letter that he wouldn't just look at the scope of their subpoena and strongarm approach, he'd look "at the dangers that downloaders face by making their personal information available to others," as Wired put it August 15.
But Coleman's RIAA letter also said his subcommittee hearings would also aim at bringing about reasonable remedies "narrowly tailored to fit the extent of infringement."
The RIAA began this summer filing hundreds of lawsuits against people swapping music files online, after a federal judge ruled they didn't need a judge's signature to hand down subpoenas. In a statement answering Coleman's plan for hearings, the group said such hearings "are part of any oversight process and we always look forward to having the opportunity to present our position."
But Coleman also said he was concerned about the RIAA campaign bagging innocent people, like parents and even grandparents whose home computers have been used for their children or grandchildren's P2Ping, Wired added, saying Coleman also thinks many RIAA targets don't even know they're breaking any law.
“The industry has legitimate concerns about copyright infringement,” Coleman had said July 31, in a formal statement in which he first declared his intention to investigate the RIAA campaign. “We are dealing with stealing recording artists’ songs and the industry’s profits. The industry has every right to develop practical remedies for protecting its rights.
"Yet, the industry seems to have adopted a “shotgun” approach that could potentially cause injury and harm to innocent people who may have simply been victims of circumstance, or possessing a lack of knowledge of the rules related to digital sharing of files," he continued. "I am sure it is not the industry’s intent to needlessly cause harm in its efforts to legally protect its rights. Indeed, the law of unintended consequences may be at work in this matter.”
