WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback today offered an amendment to the FTC Reauthorization bill during a mark-up in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transporation.

"This amendment responds directly to a recent court case, the Recording Industry Association of America versus Verizon," Brownback said. "In this case the RIAA sued Verizon, seeking to force the ISP to disclose the identifying information of one of its subscribers accused by the RIAA of making music available to others using peer to peer file sharing technology.

"It has been determined by a Federal court that a provision of the DMCA permits the RIAA to obtain this ISP subscriber's identifying information without any judicial supervision, or any due process for the subscriber. Today, right now, solely due to this court decision, all that is required for a person to obtain the name and address of an individual who can only be identified by an IP address is to claim to be a copyright owner, file a request with a clerk of the court claiming that an ISP's subscriber is pirating their property, the clerk will then send the request to the ISP, and the ISP has no choice but to divulge the identifying information of the subscriber - name, address, phone number - to the complaining party. There are no checks, no balances, and the alleged pirate has no opportunity to defend themselves. My colleagues, this issue is about privacy not piracy.

"The amendment I offer today requires the owners of digital media products to file an actual case in a court of law in order to obtain the identifying information of an ISP subscriber. I do not offer this amendment to debate the history and merits of the DMCA. Quite frankly, on this issue, I really do not care what the DMCA says. I offer this amendment for my colleagues consideration, because I find it untenable that any Internet subscribers' identifying information can be obtained, under government auspices no less, without any oversight or due process.

"The real harm here is that nothing in this quasi-subpoena process prevents someone other than a digital media owner - say a stalker, a pedophile, or perhaps more appropriate for today's markup, a telemarketer or even a spammer - from using this quasi subpoena process to gain the identity of an Internet subscriber, including our children.

"I want to be clear on an important point. This subpoena is being sought by digital media owners who are seeking to prevent piracy over peer to peer technology. I am opposed to piracy as much as any Member of Congress, and I have a strong record on property rights to back that up. I have no interest in seeking to shield those who have committed piracy from the law or the right of property owners to defend their rights. My concern with this quasi-subpoena process is with the clear threat of unintended consequences it represents. I have made it very clear to all stakeholders that I stand ready to work on alternative legislation if they prefer something else to this provision, but unfortunately that offer has been flatly rejected.

"I recognize that this amendment may ultimately have widespread support in this Committee, but many of my colleagues would like a little more time to study this issue. I think that is an appropriate course of action, but we cannot delay indefinitely due to the nature of the particular harms we seek to prevent," Brownback said.

Chairman McCain agreed to hold a hearing on this and other important digital rights management issues next month, and Sen. Brownback withdrew this amendment.