Bill Would Put Internet Song Swappers in Jail

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 7/17/03

[I_Love_My_Husband]

http://au.news.yahoo.com//030717/11/kvue.html

Thursday July 17, 11:15 AM

Bill Would Put Internet Song Swappers in Jail

Internet users who allow others to copy songs from their hard drives could face prison time under legislation introduced by two Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday.

The bill is the strongest attempt yet to deter the widespread online song copying that recording companies say has led to a decline in CD sales.

Sponsored by Michigan Rep. John Conyers and California Rep. Howard Berman, the bill would make it easier to slap criminal charges on Internet users who copy music, movies and other copyrighted files over "peer-to-peer" networks.

The recording industry has aggressively pursued Napster, Kazaa and other peer-to-peer networks in court and recently announced it planned to sue individual users as well.

In a series of hearings on Capitol Hill last spring, lawmakers condemned online song swapping and expressed concern the networks could spread computer viruses, create government security risks and allow children access to pornography.

Few online copyright violators have faced criminal charges so far. A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to distributing a digital copy of the movie "The Hulk" in federal court three weeks ago, but the Justice Department has not taken action against Internet users who offer millions of copies of songs each day.

The Conyers-Berman bill would operate under the assumption that each copyrighted work made available through a computer network was copied by others at least 10 times for a total retail value of $2,500. That would bump the activity from a misdemeanor to a felony, carrying a sentence of up to five years in jail.

It would also outlaw the practice of videotaping a movie in the theater, a favorite illicit method of copying movies.

"While existing laws have been useful in stemming this problem, they simply do not go far enough," said Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

The Recording Industry Association of America praised the bill and said it would help them fight illegal online copying.

One copyright expert said the bill paints online song-swapping with too broad a brush as much of that activity does not rise to a criminal level.

"We don't think it should be the role of the FBI to treat all copyright infringement as criminal," said Mike Godwin, staff counsel at Public Sector, a nonprofit group that frequently disagrees with the RIAA.

A Conyers staffer said the bill had won the backing of many Democrats but Republicans had yet to endorse it.

The staffer said backers hoped to discuss the bill at a hearing on Thursday and combine it next week with another sponsored by Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, who chairs an intellectual-property subcommittee.

"Once we have the opportunity to analyze the bill language we will be able to determine how it affects our fight against piracy," a Smith spokesman said in an e-mail message.

[P.O.E.]

Why not just reimburse the record companies from the public coffers? /sarc

When's the last time anyone bought a "record", anyway?

[Portnoy]

So...how is Conyers going to stop the "Black MArket" on CD reproduction? Everyday I go to Downtown Detroit, I always see street vendors hocking illegally copied CDs and DVDs.

How is COnyers goingto stop people from copying their own cds and passing hard copies on to friends? Is his good squad going to go door to door checking every computer with a CD or DVD burner?

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I don´t see how this can be enforced without spending a zillion dollars or more. Also, if this law passes, it will only affect the U.S.A. and not the rest of the world. Hey!!! Why don´t they get the UN involved (sarcasm intended)?

[truenospinzone]

I like the way these liberal writers refuse to identify which party these congress critters belong too

With all due respect, the first sentence of this article says "two Democratic lawmakers", and later mentions that the bill has the backing of "many Democrats". There's enough legitimate media bias without straining to find it where it doesn't exist.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

This thing is going to require so much resources in people, money, and equipment that maybe this should become a new cabinet level post.

[Tribune7]

Copyright laws must be changed. It should not be illegal to swap files.

[jjm2111]

the bill also has a provision that will track purchases of CD burners

It does????

[Spyder]

They pass this and they're going to pi$$ off a lot more than the teenage downloaders. Seems to me like this could be a bug that could easily get out of hand and whack a lot more than just someone downloading a song. The hackers will have a shield against the thing within a week of its release and the only ones hurt will be the relatively innocent folk who went looking for a song long out of circulation who just happened to stumble on the "virus."

[sergeantdave]

Conyers is not a liberal socialist, he's a hard core communist. If he had the power, most people posting here would be vacationing in gulags. This is the character who wanted to start proceedings to impeach Bush.

[DPB101]

No need to put Deadheads in jail for downloading. Just threaten to send midget clowns, dressed as Nazi storm troopers, in little firetrucks over to their house to goof on them.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I don't think Gen. Y is so liberal. Have you seen zeropaid? People in that generation are much more conservative. They also hate pc-ness.

Also, I was trying to come up with who the Repub./more conservative musicians were. I came up with this list:

Courtney Love (pro-war)
Johnny Ramone
Johnny Rotten (he's even PRO the Queen of England now and a property owner)

As well as I myself am a punk gen girl. The punk gen did not follow rules and started out anti- the libs. It got sidetracked with Max Rock n Roll taking over everything, but it seems that it was very "not left or right"....

And now there are conservatives on a lot more campuses (UC Berkeley for instance).

:)

[KneelBeforeZod]

Johnny Rotten is great. A totally sarcastic, WTF?? kind of guy.

[alrea]

Conyers is not a liberal socialist, he's a hard core communist. If he had the power, most people posting here would be vacationing in gulags. This is the character who wanted to start proceedings to impeach Bush.

this should be repeated

[alrea]

The record industry believes that anyone caught copying someone else's CD should be fined.

America's great advantage is not technology, but the willingness to allow technology to damage while wiping away old technology.

Bureaucrats everywhere have a stake in this file swapping war.

[Dante3]

We can't even arrest illegal aliens -- many of whom post serious dangers to us, so how can we deal with the millions who swap music?

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Good point!