Senate Bill Targets Internet Song-Swapping

[CShine]

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - Legislators are looking to give artists more ammunition in their legal battles over Internet piracy. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced Tuesday night the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004, a bill that would allow creative artists to sue companies that profit by encouraging the public to commit acts of copyright infringement. The bill's main target is the makers of file-sharing software products that have made free music and movie downloading a worldwide phenomenon, especially among teens.

"It is illegal and immoral to induce or encourage children to commit crimes," said Hatch, who markets albums featuring his inspirational songs. "Tragically, some corporations now seem to think that they can legally profit by inducing children to steal. This bipartisan bill would confirm that existing law should allow artists to bring civil actions against parties who intend to induce others to infringe copyrights."

Intentional inducement of criminal or illegal acts of infringement already is a felony. The new bill also allows companies that entice people to infringe copyrights to face civil liability.

"Some corporations distributing so-called peer-to-peer file-sharing software have hit upon a truly malicious business model," Hatch said. "These corporations know better than to break the law themselves, so they profit from infringement by inducing users of their software to do the dirty work of actually breaking the law."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=599&ncid=786&e=4&u=/nm/20040624/media_nm/music_copyright_dc

[Somawas]

1. The Inducing Bill

is a terrible idea. Look at it closely-darn thing could make a VCR illegal

[randome]

2. This is so not going anywhere.

I'm 45 years old. Am I one of these 'children' who was 'induced to steal'?

My God, what a joke.

[Beetwasher]

3. Because They Are Only Interested In The Important Issues!

Veteran's benefits be damned! We need to stop song swappers for our corporate masters!

[toopers]

4. I think this opens up a huge pandora's box.

This seems very dangerous eventhough the Sony issue is direclty mentioned.

[uberotto]

5. How can you tell a Politician is lying....

"It is illegal and immoral to induce or encourage children to commit crimes."

the two keywords to look for:
immoral, children

The next big lie...
"Legislators are looking to give artists more ammunition in their legal battles over Internet piracy."

last time I looked it was the RIAA suing everyone in a desparate attempt to maintain it's monopoly control over music distribution (as well as maintaining control over the artist).

I also find it a little suspicious that this bill is being introduced now, when more and more legitimate technologies are starting to sprout out of these P2P networks (i.e. VoIP, distributed distribution of large files (BitTorrent), Video Streaming).

[Tina H]

6. Have any Democrats spoken out against this . . .

proposed law (I think it is called "INDUCE")?

Has Candidate kerry come out against the proposed law? Should he?

(It is interesting that in Canada right now a *Liberal* Party politician is leading the charge as fara as overzealous copyright law goes.)

[shraby]

7. Would it be ethical for Orrin Hatch to introduce

this bill? He has a stake in the outcome as he used to write songs for Carly Simon.

[madrchsod]

8. no they haven`t

and they won`t. in fact two of the worst bills proposed are co sponsered by well known democrats in the house and senate. this new bill could be the first step kill the open flow of information on the internet. we will no longer be able to share information of any kind. don`t expect the supreme court to strike down any off these laws

[Tina H]

9. looks like there is a disparity between . . .

the Democratic rank-and-file and its leadership on these issues. Hopefully the leadership will find ways to coax us skeptics over to its position. Maybe if they would explain to us how valuable the monetary contributions and other lobbying efforts of media giants are for the Democratic party, then we would stop seeing all the complaints, like those on this very thread.

As far as the Supreme Court goes, I haven't lost faith in them to reverse some of the intellectual property expansion we have experienced over the past few years. It is true that the Supreme Court decided against Mr. Eldred last year, but I still have a feeling that the Supreme Court will put a stop to the nonsense at some point. Just like they did 20 years ago in Sony v. Universal.

Two reasons to think that the Supreme Court will eventually strike down overzealous copyright laws:

1. Democratic politicians like them; and

2. economic analysis (see, eg, Posner and Landes book from 2003) suggests that unlimited copyright is bad economic policy, even from a free marketer type perspective.

[GreenArrow]

10. don't these fuckers

have anything better to do? Waste of time and money.

[oldsneakers]

13. Agree absolutely

I have a friend in the music industry and he claims RIAA has over 50,000 potential 'targets' on their lists. It is also reported that the film industry is about to start a campaign against film swappers who d/l entire dvds and vcds from the internet.

[solich2004]

11. Looks like both sides are in on this one....

The new bill was co-sponsored by some of the Senate's most powerful members, including the committee's ranking minority member, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

[newyawker99]

12. Hi solich2004!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: