Coleman tackles recording industry: "In 1970, a long-haired Norm Coleman stood in front of his fellow college students on a Long Island campus and shouted 'Power to the people!'

"Hair trimmed, dressed in suit and tie, and now a Republican senator who praises President Bush, the 54-year-old Coleman may have found an outlet for his old counterculture side: investigating the music recording industry.

"Coleman, a freshman from Minnesota, will hold hearings on the Recording Industry Association of America's anti-piracy crackdown, starting on Sept. 30. He said he's worried that the RIAA campaign is heavy-handed and could ensnare 'the little guy.'

"John Moreno, a college friend of Coleman's at Hofstra University, wonders if the young college protester is peeking through. 'The idea of liberating music from the Web would probably have appealed to the 20-year-old Norm Coleman,' said Moreno, who now runs the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia. 'The idea of liberating property for the people would have appealed to him.'

"Coleman, who was once a roadie for the rock group Ten Years After, chuckled as he pondered this analysis. 'You'd have to talk to my therapist - if I had one,' he said.

"Then he added: 'I'm involved in this because I'm a parent. I don't want to make criminals out of kids. I'd like them to have a better sense of right and wrong.'"

[...]