FWIW, it could be a cabal of service providers trying to become the only ones involved in ecommerce. So MS plus the RIAA is possible. MS Media Player already has some of the security features mentioned to prevent piracy of RIAA goods.

Personally I think the RIAA is into it somewhere already. The bill mentions devices as well as software (IIRC). Software only laws would allow portable mp3 players to be used to pirate songs. This bill clearly prevents any device capable of doing that, whether it has software or no.

Plus it feels more like a RIAA grab. MS has never really cared about laws (UCITA aside and many more companies than MS benefit from that one). MS just does what it wants to, when it wants to and how.

The RIAA, OTOH, has a history of changing laws to accomodate their own plans (eg copyright extensions). This really sounds like their old 'ban video players, they'll destroy the industry' line, but with knuckles this time. ____________________
Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.