Can anyone stop the music cops?

“As Hollywood wins one court case after another, one Republican senator is suggesting that maybe it’s time for some new laws — that protect consumers instead of entertainment companies….

Verizon has thrown in its support for an eight-page document that, in civil liberties circles, is referred to simply as the ‘Brownback bill.‘ That phrase is, technically, incorrect. The Brownback bill is not yet an actual bill in Congress; instead, it’s an idea devised by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, to explicitly prohibit some of the entertainment industry’s worst actions — such as its effort, in the Verizon case, to get at private information of Internet users, or its attempt last year to mandate that all digital equipment come equipped with copy-protection technology.

Drafts of the legislation have been circulating among consumer groups and other members of the Senate for a few months, but — apparently for lack of a Democratic co-sponsor — the bill has not yet been formally put forward. It’s not clear when that will occur. Salon’s calls to Sen. Brownback were not returned.”