Hmm. Looks like the Dems are going to dump on the internet generation.
Quote:
House proposal targets file swappers
By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com
Peer-to-peer Users who swap copyright files could be in danger of becoming federal felons, under a new proposal backed by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Their legislation, introduced Wednesday, would punish an Internet user who shares even a single file without permission from a copyright holder with prison terms of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000.
WRITTEN BY MICHIGAN'S John Conyers, the senior Democrat on the House judiciary committee, the Author, Consumer, and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act (ACCOPS) represents Congress' boldest attempt yet to shutter peer-to-peer networks, which the major record labels and movie studios view as a serious threat.
Currently, under a little-known 1997 law called the No Electronic Theft Act, many P2P Users are technically already violating criminal laws. But if the ACCOPS bill were to succeed, prosecutors would not have to prove that a copyright file was repeatedly downloaded. Conyers' proposal would require them to prove only that the file was publicly accessible.
Other sponsors of ACCOPS are Reps. Howard Berman of California, Adam Schiff of California, Marty Meehan of Massachusetts, Robert Wexler of Florida and Anthony Weiner of New York. No Republican has supported the proposal.
One legal scholar viewed the legislation as an over-the-top measure.
"The business of expanding the criminal law so that making unauthorized personal copies of copyrighted works becomes a criminal violation is overreacting six ways from Tuesday," said Jessica Litman, who teaches copyright law at Wayne State University. "It's exceptional. But that does seem to be what the bill is trying to do."
Litman said that without ACCOPS, copyright infringement currently is "hard to prove because you had to prove that a copy was actually distributed."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group in San Francisco, also criticized the bill. "Jailing people for file sharing is not the answer," said EFF lawyer Fred von Lohmann. "Proponents of this bill are casting aside privacy, innovation and even our personal liberty as collateral damage in their war against file sharing."
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OK guys (and gals) lets line up and turn yourselvs in now.
[ July 18, 2003, 16:13: Message edited by: Thermodyne ]