State legislation isn't a frequent topic on our Newswire, but Wired News has a rather scary report that, back in August, the Motion Picture Association of America's lobbying efforts killed a California bill that would have prevented companies from getting private information about consumers under false pretexts. The claimed reason, of course, is that the MPAA needs to use those tactics to fight piracy. Oddly enough, the story says it doesn't appear the Recording Industry Association of America was involved, but maybe one hulking entertainment lobby is more than enough.
Meantime, Morgan Freeman's production company and Intel have founded an online movie service called ClickStar. Its first release? Well, technically it will be 10 Items Or Less, but on the website you can watch a video in which Freeman employs his elegant voice to lecture about piracy. "We believe that being informed about technology and new consumer devices will help us get ahead of film piracy," he says. Yeah, don't watch it unless you want all his little speeches in Se7en ruined for you. "Apathy is the solution."