Congress mulls prison terms for KaZaA users

The Register ^ | Posted: 17/07/2003 at 12:40 GMT | By Thomas C Greene in Washington

[vannrox]

Congress mulls prison terms for KaZaA users

By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 17/07/2003 at 12:40 GMT

Not satisfied with hacking P2P networks, or destroying the computers of file sharers, House Hollywood sock puppet Howard Berman (Democrat, California) is now sponsoring legislation that would jail people who trade as little as one MP3 on the Internet.

Berman has hooked up with House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (Democrat, Michigan) to produce this Hobbesian proposal. "While existing laws have been useful in stemming this problem, they simply do not go far enough," Conyers is quoted as saying.

Details are sketchy but it appears that the legislation would simply assume that any P2P activity with a copyrighted file involves more than ten copies and represents a retail value of $2,500, automatically making it a felony and bringing in the possibility of incarceration. That's ten copies and a minimum of $2,500 assumed per individual file, we believe.

It's some pretty fuzzy math, the idea that a single song would cost $250 at retail, but that's what we elect these guys to do: ignore common decency for the greater benefit of the cartels that own them.

Berman has proven himself to be among the most eager of the RIAA's toadying eunuchs on Capitol Hill. He's proposed letting the recording industry attack P2P networks with malicious code; he's proposed forcing the FBI to drop anti-terror investigations in favor of copyright protection; and now he's offered to put people in jail for making a single music file available to others. A sterling record of devoted service by any measure. ®

[mhking]

Our borders are unsecured, AQ animals are chomping at the bit to kill Americans both home and abroad, gangs are in the streets, drug dealers are on street corners, our schools are going to pot, and all Hatch can worry about is people downloading music!?

WTF?!?!?!?

[mhking]

Our borders are unsecured, AQ animals are chomping at the bit to kill Americans both home and abroad, gangs are in the streets, drug dealers are on street corners, our schools are going to pot, and all Hatch can worry about is people downloading music!?

WTF?!?!?!?

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

If you want on or off this list, please let me know!

[King Prout]

Hatch is REALLY confusing me these days.

[eno_]

Time to cull the Republican herd.

[King Prout]

When's the next election out in Utah?

[King Prout]

for his seat, that is.

[Normal4me]

If you think of the obvious problems with this "Threat" it's actually comical. We have a 400B deficit this year, Iraq war going on, Troops still in Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc...

Our prisons are over crowded NOW from those evil drug users, States don't have money to build addittional prisons let alone prosecute file swappers, who is going to pay to keep prisoners fed?

Maybe this government will just legislate itself into extinction and we can start over...

[Justa]

What's next, cars that blow their engines if they run a red light?

[vannrox]

"...What's next, cars that blow their engines if they run a red light?"

Pretty close, though. In 1999, I was personally involved in a GM-Oldsmoble program that would cause the transmission of a car to be shut down remotely by a police officer if given the "right" conditions.

[AdA$tra]

GM-Oldsmoble

Off Topic: Why on earth is GM shutting down Oldsmobile. There is new Alero in my neighborhood about every day. Some of my favorite cars are/were Oldsmobiles.

On Topic: We are letting child sex offender out of jail. Now there will be room for downloaders there. Hey man, what are you in for? I downloaded "enter sandman" by metalica and the FBI kicked my door down before I could even play it back.

[eno_]

Off Topic: Why on earth is GM shutting down Oldsmobile.

Olds, Pontiac, and Buick are all value-subtracting brands that have become associated with crap cars and bad taste. Cadillac is almost as bad. GM will have to fight pretty hard to get anyone under 70 to buy a Caddy.