Senate panel assesses standoff between file swappers and content owners.

Precipitated by this summer's onslaught of lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against individuals' downloading music off peer-to-peer services, the Investigations Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs held a hearing to explore potential compromises and technological solutions between the recording industry and illegal file swappers. At the hearing, held on September 30, 2003, panel speakers discussed the legality of the subpoena provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the impact of technology, including file swapping over the Internet, on the entertainment industry. Notably, for the first time at a …