Castro and Robert Holleyman, the BSA's president and CEO, also asked Congress to update ECPA to better protect stored data.

Congress also needs to consider ways to better protect stored information on cloud services, Lofgren said. The U.S. Department of Justice, when it shuttered the Megaupload file-sharing site in January, left the data of many innocent users in limbo, she said.

Holleyman, whose trade group supports strong law enforcement actions against file sharing sites, said he didn't have a suggestion for how to protect innocent users.

"Nobody seems to feel any responsibility toward people who are completely innocent here," Lofgren said. "There seems to be no interest or obligation to innocent bystanders to this action."

The IDG News Service