Despite the headline spin, the main development here seems to be that the RIAA has agreed to oppose government mandates for copy-control technology in all digital media devices. The prime example of such mandate proposals would be last year's Senator Hollings-sponsored "CBDTPA."

The CBDTPA was a technologically and economically illiterate proposal from the start: more of a boogeyman than something with a real chance of being adopted. The new Republican Senate majority made it even less likely that such mandates would receive a serious hearing in Congress. Still, it's nice to see even the measure's natural constituency -- the record industy -- write it off as a lost cause, in the grand scheme of their strategy for protecting their interests. They've left their friends at the MPAA in an untenable lobbying position.