California legislators are working on a bill designed to strengthen state privacy laws by banning pretexting, or the act of using misleading practices to entice people into giving up personal information. The RIAA, however, isn't happy with the bill, and is lobbying to get a loophole amendment that will allow the organization to use the ploy to gather information from potential music piraters, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Representatives from the music recording group claim the tactic is necessary to help capture music thieves. Brad Buckles, the RIAA executive vice president for anti-piracy, commented "Basically, we want criminals to feel comfortable that who they're dealing with is probably some other criminal and let us in on what's going on. We're not talking about trying to go in and get customer information."

But after Hewlett Packard hired private detectives last year to spy on journalists and its own board members, consumer rights groups aren't as inclined to agree with the RIAA. "I don't see why the recording industry shouldn't have to follow the same laws that everyone else follows," said Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann.

California legislators aren't likely to side with the RIAA, either. "I think it's going to be a very hard go for the RIAA on this because the underlying principal is so visceral to everybody," said Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). "I don't want people calling up and pretending to be me to get my personal information. They'll have a hard time convincing people that piracy is so different that they ought to be allowed to engage in these otherwise illegal acts."