Posted on 12/06/2007 12:04:39 PM PST by ShadowAce
In the aftermath of the $222,000 jury verdict that the Recording Industry Association of America recently won against a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs on Kazaa, the U.S. Congress is preparing to amend copyright law.
Politicians want to increase penalties for copyright infringement.
It's no joke. Top Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a sweeping 69-page bill that ratchets up civil penalties for copyright infringement, boosts criminal enforcement, and even creates a new federal agency charged with bringing about a national and international copyright crackdown.
"By providing additional resources for enforcement of intellectual property, we ensure that innovation and creativity will continue to prosper in our society," Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich) said in a statement.
The legislation, called the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act, or PRO IP Act, is throughly bipartisan. The top Republican, Lamar Smith of Texas, on the Judiciary committee is a sponsor. So is Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chair of the subcommittee that writes copyright law, and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).
The Motion Picture Association of America, which has long championed stiffer copyright laws such as this fall's legislation aimed at file trading at universities, applauded the PRO IP Act as well.
"I believe that the American business community can speak in one voice today in support of these legislative efforts to protect intellectual property," MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a statement. "I am pleased to see a concerted effort by Congress to address this growing problem, and the MPAA looks forward to working with congressional leaders in the weeks to come."
Here are some of the major sections of the PRO IP Act:
* Fines in copyright cases dealing with compilations would be increased. Right now, as in the case of Xoom v. Imageline, the maximum penalty for infringement of one compilation is $30,000. Now courts would be able to make "multiple awards of statutory damages" when compilations are infringed.
* Maximum penalties for repeat copyright offenders would be easier to obtain. Current law says that anyone who "willfully" infringes a copyright by distributing over $1,000 worth of material (including over a peer-to-peer network) is a criminal. The PRO IP Act keeps the 10-year prison term intact for felonious repeat offenders--but, crucially, deletes the requirement that repeat offenders must have distributed at least 10 copyrighted works within 180 days.
* Any computer or network hardware used to "facilitate" a copyright crime could be seized by the Justice Department and auctioned off. The proceeds would be funneled to the agency's budget. The process is called civil asset forfeiture, and typically the owner does not need to be found guilty of a crime for his property to be taken.
Probably the most extensive part of the PRO IP Act is its creation of a new federal bureaucracy called the White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative, or WHIPER. The head of WHIPER would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
WHIPER seems to be modeled after the U.S. Trade Representative, with the head of the new agency bearing the rank of "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary." WHIPER's head is charged with being the president's principal advisor and spokesman for intellectual property matters, as well as identifying countries that don't adequately protect IP rights. It gets to create its own official seal as well, and the WHIPER head appears to be paid as well as the attorney general and secretary of defense ($186,600 in 2007).
One of WHIPER's major tasks would be to create a "Joint Strategic Plan" that, in part, involves "identifying individuals" involved in the "trafficking" of "pirated goods." An annual report is due to Congress by December 31 of each year. In addition, 10 "intellectual property attaches" are intended to be dispatched to embassies around the world.
Finally, the U.S. Justice Department's intellectual property enforcement apparatus would be completely revamped. An "Intellectual Property Enforcement Division" would be created and subsume the IP-related functions that the department's computer crime section in the criminal division currently performs. The new division would receive $25 million per year to start with.
Solution to a bloated federal budget - a new agency! You know, for all the problems I have with Ron Paul, if he was president he would probably eliminate half the executive branch as unconstitutional.
I’ve had reasons lately to be looking at some of this kind of thing. There seem to be numerous websites marketing “pirated” material. Writers and artists are getting screwed out of their money while the guys who sell the CDs (or DVDs) pocket everything. I have no idea how government can ever get it under any kind of control between the anonymity of the internet, the P.O.Box addresses and the cell phone numbers.
"No person shall be....deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
The Congress is in the back pocket of the entertainment industry cartels (RIAA, MPAA). And the only folks who actually benefit are the lawyers.
I know very little about this issue, but I'm curious - is there headway being made against real "pirates"?
The impression I get from casually skimming the news is that all the efforts are being spent on suing casual music sharers, while the major culprits are all sitting in China or Russia and can't be touched.
PING!
What about the piracy of tax payer monies for these federal agencies?
Oh that’s right, all government cannot do wrong.
Writers and artists are already being screwed out of their IP rights by the non-producing middlemen for whom bills like this are written.
Any computer or network hardware used to "facilitate" a copyright crime could be seized by the Justice Department and auctioned off. The proceeds would be funneled to the agency's budget. The process is called civil asset forfeiture, and typically the owner does not need to be found guilty of a crime for his property to be taken.
"No person shall be....deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
The Congress is in the back pocket of the entertainment industry cartels (RIAA, MPAA). And the only folks who actually benefit are the lawyers.
There's plenty of blame to go around - the Justice Department eagerly uses civil asset forfeiture, and that's the Executive Branch.
It's a shameful and obscene practice, and ought to be expressly outlawed. It presumes guilt, flying in the face of our legal system.
Of course, illegal immigrants and Club Gitmo terrorists are never presumed guilty, but citizens are automatically guilty.
Just thinking about how that provision could be abused by a future Clinton administration should make your blood boil...
FReepmail to be added to the Congress Watch Ping List.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble,finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.-- Ernest Benn
And we will never see the popular culture enter the public domain. Can you say monopoly?
It isn’t the creators or heirs who see the money. It is the corporate interests that own controlling stake in the past 100 years of this country’s cultural legacy.
Meanwhile Europe still lets the music copyrights expire at 50 years. I wonder when they will prohibit importation of deluxe boxed sets of music.
Well, the govt can take your money, whether you like it or not.
Now, if this were to become law, they can take your computer.
Or, should I say, another avenue for taking your computer.
And if your copyright infringement just happens to
be that a poster (or blogger for those type of websites) PASTES an article copied from another website, instead of Excerpting it?
Bet they come and take those darn VRWC websites equipment away, for the good of the Muthaland.
This is incrementalism in getting the laws the entertainment industry wants.
There is a good synopsis of what has transpired in the supplements on the DVD for This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
The documentary isn’t very good but there is a decent chapter on copyright, monopoly, the DCMA, etc. The interview subject brings up Disney and how Mickey will never become PD, but he neglects to also bring up how Disney has actively fought to MAKE the Winnie The Pooh character PD so they no longer have to pay royalties.
Another good intention on the road to hell.
What type of material is being pirated on CD/DVD?
Advance release copies of albums/movies?
Unreleased concerts and B-Sides or Demos from albums?
Out of print albums?
Movies still in theatrical release?
Movies that have been re-edited for home video (only released as director’s cut or re-imagined versions of things, for instance Star Wars, Blade Runner, E.T., Disney cartoons...?)
Movies that are kept in the vault (e.g. Song of the South) because of political reasons?
Or is this knockoff merchandise of CDs/DVDs commonly available at any Best Buy for $10? Who’s forking over significant money for that?
They may be able to get that fine dramatically reduced. They are trying to show the “value” of each song was ~$0.70 instead of the thousands per song the entertainment industry claimed.
Punative fines are different than actual loss.
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