Somewhere in Orrin Hatch's mind, he thought...

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Federal law enforcers would get more authority to prosecute people who illegally trade songs and other copyrighted material on the Internet under a bill introduced yesterday by a pair of powerful senators.

 

The Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act (PIRATE Act) would let the Justice Department file civil lawsuits against file swappers. Under current law, the department only can prosecute criminal offenses.

 

"For this reason prosecutors can rarely justify bringing criminal charges, and copyright owners have been left alone to fend for themselves, defending their rights only where they can afford to do so," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) who co-sponsored the bill with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). "In a world in which a computer and an Internet connection are all the tools you need to engage in massive piracy, this is an intolerable predicament."

 

The bill also would require the Justice Department to train federal prosecutors to deal with the "difficult technical and strategic problems posed by enforcing copyright law in the digital age," said Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

 

There are millions of people trading music online in the United States, a trend driven to some extent by an escalating demand for lower compact disc prices as well as the easy availability of free items online. A Harris Interactive poll released in late January found that three out of four adult Americans think that downloading music from the Internet without paying for it is acceptable as long as it is for their personal use.

 

This has contributed to a dip in retail music sales, which dropped 4.3 percent in 2003 and almost 7 percent in 2002, according to statistics released earlier this month by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The industry has lost as much as $5 billion in sales worldwide in the last three years, at least some of that because of music piracy. RIAA chief executive Mitch Bainwol this month said that sales figures are stabilizing as legitimate download sites find firmer footing.

 

The RIAA has taken the lead in civil prosecutions to cut down on music piracy, suing more than a thousand people it accused of trading copyrighted music on popular peer-to-peer file-sharing networks like Morpheus and Kazaa.

 

RIAA President Cary Sherman said the lawsuits are a vital deterrent to online music piracy.

 

"When we see the impact our lawsuits have had on the general public's behavior, I can only imagine that a Department of Justice prosecution would have even more of a deterrent impact," Sherman said. "This is a very effective way of giving the government an additional tool to combat piracy."

 

Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Congress should be leery about pushing the Justice Department to fight the entertainment industry's battles.

 

"Copyright owners and the entertainment industry in particular have been frustrated that the [Justice Department] hasn't been willing to take this on," von Lohmann said.

 

He said that the legislation is the latest in a string of industry-backed proposals to broaden the government's copyright enforcement power. "Every one of these proposals has been at the behest of the industry, not at the behest of the DOJ."

 

The Justice Department did not ask for the authority that the legislation provides, said Senate Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler.

 

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller declined to comment.

 

If such a bill passed, the Justice Department could be forced to join the fray, von Lohmann predicted. "Once that power is there, the pressure on them to actually use it will become all the more intense. The drumbeat here is that the entertainment industry would really appreciate it if the DOJ would do their dirty work for them."

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Mar26.html

 

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 Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is willing to propose the bill if he can find co-sponsors.

 

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.

 

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,...tw=wn_tophead_1

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Oh.

[Vyce 0]

Someone explain to me again why Orrin Hatch should give a fuck what we download?

 

In Hatch's honor, I think I'll go download some graphic pornography on my P2P file share program.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

In Hatch's honor, I think I'll go download some graphic pornography on my P2P file share program.

...PM me.

 

 

KIDDING FOLKS. JUST KIDDING.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(no, seriously, PM me)

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Well, at least we could jail these downloaders with the recreational drug users so both parties don't get ass-raped by real criminals.

 

A fine is good enough for illegal downloaders, not jailtime *puts on flame-resistant suit...*

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Orrin Hatch, this is the same guy who once suggested to Congress that law enforcement take away the computers of those who download.

[NoCalMike 0]

My oh My........

[cynicalprofit 0]

Man at this rate its gonna be safer in jail then on the streets, cause in jail, it aint easy to get shot.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Orrin Hatch, this is the same guy who once suggested to Congress that law enforcement take away the computers of those who download.

No frikken way....

he really said that!?