Ernest Miller over the weekend has concluded that the PIRATE Act will faciltate wiretapping for civil copyright infringement.

"...having thought about the proposed law a little more, I came to an interesting realization: you can get wiretaps for federal copyright infringement investigations...

...Under a regular civil suit for copyright infringement by means of file sharing, the copyright holder can only observe that the infringing files are available for download. They can't really tell how many people have downloaded them, if any. Furthermore, copyright holders have no way of going after people who are only downloading files and not uploading them. Wiretaps to the rescue. The RIAA may not be permitted to wiretap file sharers, but the government certainly can. The RIAA must be salivating at the prospect."