Stopping the swapping-Senators induce major copyright revise

[LiviaOlivia]

Posted: Wed., Jun. 23, 2004, 5:00pm PDT
Stopping the swapping
Senators induce major c'right revise

By SUSAN CRABTREE

<snip>
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and the panel's ranking Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, introduced legislation late Tuesday that would usher in the most sweeping changes to copyright law in the 20 years since courts legalized the Betamax videocassette recorder. Linking online file-trading to child pornography and exploitation, the bill would effectively bar peer-to-peer networks where most online piracy takes place.

<snip>

Facing the extinction of their businesses, P2P leaders were quick to condem the legislation. "Congress should act in the interest of consumers and innovators providing alternative means of distribution, and not add fuel to the entertainment industry's well-lit fires," said Sam Yagan, prexy of P2P network eDonkey.

Consumer groups also reacted with strong opposition as soon as the bill was introduced, criticizing it as overly broad because it would regard any action that leads to copyright infringement as unlawful, even if no infringement was intended.

<snip>

Godwin also charged the bill would gut the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios. That case found that Sony, as the manufacturer of a copying device, the Betamax videocassette recorder, was not liable for any infringement just because its product could be used to make illegal copies of movies.

<snip>

full article at:
http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&a=VR1117906914&c=10
subscription req'd

[skooooo]

1. lol..you can't "ban" P2P....

...it's the foundation the Internet was built on. This is ridiculous.

[Occulus]

2. What will happen

is someone will write a P2P-style application based on some other protocol. Legislation is incapable of keeping up with the evolution of computing technology.

[Massacure]

3. I bet they can't even enforce it anyways.

It's too little too late. If they wanted to stop piracy they should have done this 10 years ago. There are too many people and too many P2P networks now.

[LiviaOlivia]

4. Reuters version

June 23, 2004
Senate Bill Targets Internet Song - Swapping
By REUTERS

Filed at 7:39 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate leaders late on Tuesday introduced a bill to make it easier to sue "peer-to-peer" services like Kazaa and eDonkey 2000, which allow users to copy music and movies for free over the Internet. The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004 would allow companies to be held liable if they "intentionally induce" copyright infringement.

<snip>

Under a recent U.S. court ruling, peer-to-peer networks cannot be held liable if consumers use them to distribute copyrighted works.

<snip>

The odds of any new bill becoming law are slim, as Congress has only 35 working days scheduled before the fall elections.

<snip>

The recording industry managed to use copyright law to shut down the first file-sharing service, Napster, which has recently been resurrected as an industry-approved pay service. But the industry has had less luck against second-generation services like Kazaa and Morpheus, which claim their decentralized architecture prevents them from controlling user behavior.

A U.S. district court last year said these networks could not be held liable because, like photocopiers and videocassette recorders, they do not commit copyright infringement but merely make it possible.