- Congress appears to be preparing assaults against peer-to-peer
technology on multiple fronts.
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- A draft bill recently circulated among members of the
House Judiciary Committee would make it much easier for the Justice Department
to pursue criminal prosecutions against file sharers by lowering the burden
of proof. The bill, obtained Thursday by Wired News, also would seek penalties
of fines and prison time of up to 10 years for file sharing.
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- In addition, on Thursday, Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced a bill that would allow the Justice
Department to pursue civil cases against file sharers, again making it
easier for law enforcement to punish people trading copyright music over
peer-to-peer networks. They dubbed the bill "Protecting Intellectual
Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act of 2004," or the Pirate
Act.
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- The bills come at a time when the music and movie industries
are exerting enormous pressure on all branches of government at the federal
and state levels to crack down on P2P content piracy. The industries also
are pushing to portray P2P networks as dens of terrorists, child pornographers
and criminals -- a strategy that would make it more palatable for politicians
to pass laws against products that are very popular with their constituents.
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- In defending the Pirate Act, Hatch said the operators
of P2P networks are running a conspiracy in which they lure children and
young people with free music, movies and pornography. With these "human
shields," the P2P companies are trying to blackmail the entertainment
industries into accepting their networks as a distribution channel and
source of revenue.
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- "Unfortunately, piracy and pornography could then
become the cornerstones of a 'business model,'" Hatch said in a statement.
The illicit activities of file sharers "then generate huge advertising
revenues for the architects of piracy."
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- The Recording Industry Association of America and the
Motion Picture Association of America welcomed the Pirate Act.
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- "I commend Sens. Patrick Leahy and Orrin Hatch for
their vision and leadership in combating the theft of America's creative
works," said Jack Valenti, MPAA's chief executive.
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- "This legislation provides federal prosecutors with
the flexibility and discretion to bring copyright-infringement cases that
best correspond to the nature of the crime," said RIAA chairman and
CEO Mitch Bainwol.
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- So far in 2004, Leahy has received $178,000 in campaign
contributions from the entertainment industries -- the second-biggest source
of donations to Leahy behind lawyers. Hatch has received $152,360.
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- The draft bill obtained by Wired News circulated among
intellectual property subcommittee members in the House of Representatives.
The document, titled "Closing the P2P loophole in 17.U.S.C. Section
506," was drafted in coordination with the Justice Department in response
to concerns that federal prosecutors lack sufficient legal powers to go
after serious abusers, people close to the matter said. They also said
they believe Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is willing to propose the bill
if he can find co-sponsors.
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- If the draft becomes law, anyone sharing 2,500 or more
pieces of content, such as songs or movies, could be fined or thrown in
jail. In addition, anyone who distributes content that hasn't been released
in wide distribution (for example, pre-release copies of an upcoming movie)
also would face the penalties. Even a single file, determined by a judge
to be worth more than $10,000, would land the file sharer in prison.
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- Whether the leaked draft will be put forth as legislation
remains unclear, and Smith's press secretary Christopher Chichester declined
to comment.
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- Smith has received almost $25,000 this year from the
music, movie and TV industries.
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- "This was not put together by our staff," said
House Judiciary Committee spokesman Jeff Lungren. "But the intellectual
property subcommittee is working on text to address the problem of digital
piracy prosecutions, and it looks like this was one suggested iteration."
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- In response, P2P United, an organization that represents
software companies that run file-sharing networks, asked the subcommittee
in a letter hand-delivered to Smith on Friday to put off enacting new laws
aimed at punishing file sharers and instead explore ways in which copyright
holders can be paid through P2P networks.
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- "It's unfortunate that the entertainment industry
devotes so much energy to supporting punitive efforts at the federal and
state level, instead of putting energy into licensing their content for
P2P distribution so those same people could be turned into customers,"
said Philip Corwin, an attorney with Butera and Andrews in Washington,
D.C., who represents Kazaa distributor Sharman Networks. "The Pirate
Act effectively gives government the authority to use taxpayer dollars
to bring civil actions against file sharers on behalf of copyright holders."
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- All these efforts by Congress to impose severe penalties
are misguided, said P2P United executive director Adam Eisgrau.
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- "As the 40 percent increase in downloads over the
last year makes alarmingly clear, like it or not file sharing is likely
to (continue) on a massive scale no matter how many suits are brought and
what the fine print of copyright or criminal law says," Eisgrau said.
"Second, putting a tiny percentage of tens of millions of American
file sharers behind bars or in the poorhouse won't put one new dime in
the deserving pockets of artists and other copyright owners."
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