No, it obviously isnt a new law, however i imagine many users see info about it on the web/news and think it is. The DMCA as written forces internet providers to turn over the info, the recent appeal upheld that. The resultant publicity over the RIAA's filing a ton of civil lawsuits is prolly the first time many ppl heard of it and started worrying, hence their concept that its "new".
My guess is the original poster isnt aware that their ip is seen by the other end when they fileshare, and mistakenly thought the programs they use to fileshare is how the RIAA is finding them and was in hot pursuit of a "safe" way to steal copyrighted material.
A discussion on whether any program should or shouldnt log ips is pointless. The filesharers are handing their ips over all by themselves. The end result of the RIAA's activities, their success or lack thereof, what other industries and countries do, what laws pop up, all come under the heading of "only time will tell" and not something we need to get into here.
