PIRATE Act Introduced in Congress

certron writes "Xeni Jardin has written a story for Wired about the "Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act of 2004" aka the PIRATE Act. It and another related bill are designed to criminalize P2P filesharing by lowering the burden of proof for law enforcement and proposing jail terms of up to 10 years. The bill was introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy, both of whom received large contributions from the entertainment industries. Under the bill, even sharing a single file (if a judge decides the value is over $10,000) could land a user in jail. Read the full text of Orrin Hatch's remarks."

Scary

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Under the bill, even sharing a single file (if a judge decides the value is over $10,000) could land a user in jail

Given the strength of the dollar these days, that's like the price of a single Anne Murray CD...

Something shorter?

[LionKimbro]

...you mean, like...

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! ..?

You mean something like that?

It's time

[ericdano]

It's time to start outsource all that file sharing......just like all these companies are outsourcing jobs......

Re:Best legal system money can buy..

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Well, and there's also the fact that Orrin Hatch thinks he's a
really great singer [edgecity.net], and therefore likes to say of himself that he has a personal stake in seeing file sharing criminalized. Of course, anybody who's heard his music knows his musical "hits" aren't very likely to get swapped like crazy, and so the truth is that he has rigorously no risk of losing any money from P2P whatsoever...

Aint Slashdotting great

[Aczlan]

Less than 30 comments and the server running Orrin Hatch's Senate page is slashdotted..... Well now we know where the budget is not being spent

Re:Yet another gun control law...

[VValdo]

Last I checked copyright infringement was still illegal.

Yeah, but now it's illegaler.

W

Re:Scary

[bfg9000]

If you're pirating Anne Murray, you have already suffered enough.

Re:Yet another gun control law...

[tomstdenis]

"illegaler".

Touche. I can just imagine the senate now... "my bill is bigger than yours! Yeah well my lobbying can beat up your lobbying!"

[in the middle of the floor, two tall senators and one short citizen in the middle]

Tall1: Keep away, keep away!
Tall2: Hey hey, hehehe come get it, whoop missed!
citizen: Hey gimme my rights back!!! ;-)

Tom

Yay us!

[Spad]

Slashdotting the US Senate webserver - that's got to be a new high point for /.

Re:Yet another gun control law...

[tomstdenis]

Canada is like most other countries. The politicians are corrupt [e.g. voting their own raises, letting Quebec do whatever they want, Liberals misappropriating money] but at least they're not "oh lets kill people to make us more secure" randomly.

On the plus side though we don't have planes smashing into our office buildings...

tom

Re:Excuse me while I smash my head into the wall.

[JustinXB]

Mein Gott, what can we do?

Hmm... Have you ever considered to STOP FUCKING PIRATING?!

Couldn't they have waited...

[ScottSpeaks!]

...to introduce this on Talk Like a Pirate Day [talklikeapirate.com]?

It was bad enough when legislators just gave their bills doofy Orwellian names like the No Child Left Behind Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or the Defense of Marriage Act. Now we have to put up with nonsense like the Call Responsibly and Stay Healthy (CRASH) Act, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act, and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN SPAM) Act, and now this. At least geeks recognise the joke value of acronyms such as these. Do our president and legislators?

Re:Welcome to my world

[Anonymous Coward]

inmate one: "Whats you in for?"
inmate two: "rape, you"
inmate one: "downloading Britney Spears"
inmate two: "You know, you look a little like her."

Re:alright the acronym is ridiculous

[MicktheMech]

How about N.O. A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.S. -- New Order Addressing Continuous Reuse of Novel Yet Meaningless Short-forms

I have only ONE question

[StandardCell]

How many hours did it take Hatch and Leahy to scour a thesaurus for words to be able to spell a meaningful phrase with the letters PIRATE?

Sounds reasonable..

[-tji]

Public health and safety are also directly threatened by business models that tempt children toward piracy and pornography and then use them as "human shields" against law enforcement.

Umm... Yeah.. P2P users are human shields.. so, this is a risk to public health and safety. Thank you Senator Hatch for bringing this to our attention.

Re:Social Evolution of Corporate Power

[black mariah]

Er... like Socialism? Sounds good to me.

Re:Scary

[smchris]

Under the bill, even sharing a single file (if a judge decides the value is over $10,000) could land a user in jail

I was wondering if that meant it was still OK to pirate Gigli.

which country should i be moving to?

[Anonymous Coward]

My conditions:

1: high speed internet access
2: relaxed copyright/pirating issues
3: good food
4: not on US bombing list OR bombers of countries on said list.

there must be somewhere suitable..

Re:Excuse me while I smash my head into the wall.

[stephenisu]

Furthermore, downloading songs for free hardly qualifies as a "business model".

Next thing you know, money laundering will no longer be a legitimate business model..

that's a good start, but...

[pb]

I think we need *more* laws like this. For example, how about this one:

Any Congressman who receives $10,000 or more from the RIAA should be put in jail...

Current inmates support bill

[obsid1an]

The new influx of skinny white, 18-25 year old males is sure to make the current prison population happy.

Re:Excuse me while I smash my head into the wall.

[dacarr]

Jane, you ignorant slut.

Frank can't benefit from it, but he left a legacy. It's up to his estate - Gail, specifically - to deal with that legacy in how she sees fit.

May she not abuse it.

Auto-generated response

[Safety Cap]

"The `Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act of 2004' (aka the PIRATE Act) is designed to criminalize P2P filesharing by lowering the burden of proof for law enforcement and proposing jail terms of up to 10 years."

This article advocates a

( ) technical (x) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante

approach to fighting copyright violation. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work.
(One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may
have other flaws based upon your lack of understanding how the internet works.)

(x) People outside the reach of US law can easily continue to swap copyrighted works
( ) Networking and other legitimate p2p uses would be affected
( ) No one will be able to find the guy or slam him in the clink
(x) It is defenseless against encryption/sourcehiding
( ) It will stop p2p sharing for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
( ) Users of p2p networks will not put up with it
( ) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
( ) Requires too much cooperation from ISPs
( ) Assumes that no Freenet-style p2p networks will be developed
( ) Many p2p filesharers are children; when you bust them they will be paraded on TeeVee as an example of government excess
( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business

Specifically, your plan fails to account for

( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
(x) Lack of centrally controlling authority for the internet
( ) Open p2p networks in foreign countries
( ) Ease of developing circumventive technology
( ) Asshats
(x) Jurisdictional problems
( ) Unpopularity of weird new laws
( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money
( ) Willingness of users to install OS patches
( ) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes
( ) Eternal arms race involved in all monitoring approaches
( ) Extreme availability of copyrighted files online
( ) Joe jobs and/or identity theft
(x) Technically illiterate politicians
( ) Extreme intelligence of people who will fight you
( ) Kazaa

and the following philosophical objections may also apply:

( ) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown practical
( ) Any scheme based on filename matching is unacceptable
(x) Network protocols should not be the subject of legislation
( ) Witchhunts suck
(x) We should be able to trade indi songs (that they themselves post to p2p) without being busted
( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public networks
( ) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually
( ) Sharing any non-copyrighted files should be allowed
( ) Why should we have to trust you and your servers?
( ) Incompatibility with open source or open source licenses
(x) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) Roving bands of vigilantes tend to attack more innocent people than those who are committing crimes
( ) I don't want the government monitoring my net access
(x) Supporting a failed business model via the legal system is not sustainable over the long term (see SCO)

Furthermore, this is what I think about you:

( ) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
(x) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it.

Re:Read the article before submitting it

[evilviper]

If you are going to criticize the PIRATE act, first do your homework and learn about it.

Why should we be held to a higher standard than our Senators? They rarely ever read the bills they vote on.

I hear that in some countries...

[Quiet Sound]

"The bill was introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch and Patrick Leahy, both of whom received large contributions from the entertainment industries."

I hear that in some countries corruption is not only illegal but that corrupt politicians go to great lengths to hide their crookedness. Probably just a rumor though.

Anti-trust

[nfotxn]

In defending the Pirate Act, Hatch said the operators of P2P networks are running a conspiracy in which they lure children and young people with free music, movies and pornography. With these "human shields," the P2P companies are trying to ransom the entertainment industries into accepting their networks as a distribution channel and source of revenue.

I think this is the first admission by the entertainment industry and/or their political cronies of their intention all along. The record and movie industries especially did not embrace digital distribution earlier or seriously enough. What will they do once the PIRATE act (ugh, as if PATRIOT act wasn't sensational enough) is in place and harmless people have ruined lives? They'll start selling digitally distributed content. The MPAA and RIAA want the federal governement to foot their legal bill to control the distribution channel.

Translation of "Article"

[Artega VH]

Mr. President, I rise to join Senator Leahy in sponsoring the Protecting
Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act (the "PIRATE Act"), a
measure that will provide the Department of Justice with tools to combat the
rampant copyright piracy facilitated by peer-to-peer filesharing software.

Mr. President, I'm going to join with Senator Leahy and prove once and for all
that democrats and republicans are equally as corrupt when enough money is
waved under our noses. Our "owners" would like to stop people giving away
works which don't actually belong to them, but yet, they make a considerable
amount of money from as they signed prohibitively restrictive contracts
with the actual copyright owners. My "owners" would like to continue to
make money (and short of being given access to the money printing press)
want to prevent a tool which can actually harm their monopoly by providing
an efficient way for independant artists to distribute their works.

Let me underscore at the outset that our bill does not expand the scope of the
existing powers of the Department of Justice to prosecute persons who infringe
copyrights. Instead, our proposal will assist the Department in exercising
existing enforcement powers through a civil enforcement mechanism. After
considerable study, we have concluded that this is the most appropriate
mechanism.

Some of us want to lock these pirates up and throw away the key, but others
want to keep them hooked to my "owners" products. So basically we've decided
we want to destroyt their current lives, and still give them a chance to
buy our stuff.

Peer-to-peer file sharing software has created a dilemma for law-enforcement
agencies. Millions of otherwise law-abiding American citizens are using this
software to create and redistribute infringing copies of popular music, movies,
computer games and software.

We think that millions of law-abiding americans are criminals but don't want
to come out and say it like that, so we'll back-hand them instead.

Some who copy these works do not fully understand the illegality, or perhaps the
serious consequences, of their infringing activities. This group of filesharers
should not be the focus of federal law-enforcement efforts. Quite frankly, the
distributors of most filesharing software have failed to adequately educate the
children and young people who use their software about its legal and illegal
uses.

We don't want to harm the stupid ones since they probably don't know how to
cause serious harm anyway. And since most of my constituents are as thick
as two planks and I'd like to be re-elected I don't want this either.

A second group of filesharers consists of those who copy and redistribute
copyrighted works even though they do know that doing so violates federal law.
In many cases, these are college students or young people who think that they
will not get caught. Many of these filesharers are engaging in acts that could
now subject them to federal criminal prosecution for copyright piracy.

There do exist a group of people that would probably never vote for me anyway,
as they think I'm a complete turd, and who happen to be poor because our education
system is up shit creek without a paddle but still enjoy listening to music and
watching movies so they do share alot of these copyrighted works. They know its
wrong but since we continually shaft them most of the time anyway they do it
as a type of protest. Basically we want them to stop.

... But recently, some unscrupulous corporations may have exploited new technologies
and discovered that the narrow scope of civil contributory liability for
copyright infringement can be utilized so that ordinary consumers and children

I need to learn to read a bit more betterer...

[Artega VH]

I thought that said "A PIRATE is introduced to congress" and had visions of a peg-legged, bearded dirty man with a parrot on his shoulder looking around at all the politicians thinking to himself: "So this is what the real pro's look like..."

Re:Regarding the issue of control...

[AstroDrabb]

Believe me, I do not like this "PIRATE Act" either, but it is a piece of legislation and needs to be addressed that way. Write a letter to your senators / presidential candidate.

For this to be effective, remember to include a personal check for no less then $10,000 USD!

Re:Excuse me while I smash my head into the wall.

[fucksl4shd0t]

Question: What's more vacuous than putting Family Guy into the same category as Friends?

Answer: Wondering "what's more vacuous than putting Family Guy into the same category as Friends".

Re:God bless the idiots...

[mst76]

> Novels, inventions, music, art all becomes public domain the day you die.

That would create an incentive for Disney et al to employ hitmen (if they haven't already).

War on Music Sharing

[greystormcloud]

Coming soon to a street scene near you the sequel to "The War on Drugs". It is the "The War on Music Sharing" - they live amongst us, they go to the same school as your children those evil people on the dark side of society. They are the mp3 pushers. Hey man can i score some mp3's!

Re:Excuse me while I smash my head into the wall.

[jon787]

Not everyone's goal is to screw everyone all the time.

Somebody wasn't paying attention in biology class...