Remember when the RIAA tried to get all criminal and civil liability for hacking your computer to protect copyright suspended under the new anti-terrorism laws? Well, now they’re strong-arming Billboard over its coverage of the story, insisting that they were misrepresented and demanding an apology.

In their letter to Billboard, they say “RIAA never lobbied Congress to give us the ability to hack into PCs, plant viruses, destroy MP3 files on people�s computers, or anything resembling such actions… The true story here is that the Senate drafted its anti-terrorism bill privately. When it was made public on October 5th it was discovered that one of the provisions would have had an unintended effect on anti-piracy measures that are lawful under current law,” and “We were asked to propose language to avoid the unintended effects on our industry. We did so � based on suggestions from the Department of Justice and Senate staff.”

So, ‘splain me Lucy, if all you were doing was ensuring that your legal countermeasures weren’t inadvertently criminalized, and you don’t intend to ever plant virii or delete files from a distance, then why did you feel the need to insert language that immunized you from criminal and civil penalties in the event that you stuck a virus on my drive or deleted my files? Huh?

Methinks the lawyer doth protest too much. Link Discuss