'Pirate Act' Would Shift Copyright Civil Suits To DoJ 440
mammothboy writes "News.com.com has a story about the new so-called Pirate Act, which seeks to allow federal prosecuters to file civil suits against file swappers. These lawsuits can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if you guessed that the RIAA is lobbying for it, you're right. What's scary is how fast and how quiet its march through the legislative process has been. In '97, the No Electronic Theft Act allowed for criminal lawsuits, but none have been filed, so isn't it clear that the Justice Department has better stuff to deal with?" There actually have been some prosecutions filed under the NET Act, but not many. Update: 05/26 18:51 GMT by T : Declan McCullagh (author of the linked News.com story) writes to clarify: "FYI there have been prosecutions under the NET Act, as you say. But
there have not been any of P2P users. That's why the Senate is doing this."
Best Governement $$ can buy! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:burden of proof differs... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Double fucked... (Score:4, Informative)
" nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;"
Your money is neither your life nor your limb. Like it or not Double Jeopardy is only for criminal prosecution.
LK
Virginia Slashdotters... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.house.gov/boucher/
(Having been raised Mormon, I also have a lot of other reasons to bitch about Hatch, but I'll save that for later. That whole state is run by asshats.)
Figures it involved Orrin Hatch (Score:5, Informative)
Hatch's boy is one of the lawyers for the SCO. No surprise there. Daddy's just trying to make the laws for his baby boy to enforce.
Call your senators (you have two) and tell them to oppose this bill. If you don't know who they are, go here to find out [senate.gov].
Re:My business plan (Score:3, Informative)
1. Convince all the software manufacturers in the country that they need someone to manage their industry.
We already have the BSA [bsa.org] to take care of this...And so we move to anonymous networks... eg.FreeNet (Score:5, Informative)
And there we go again... Apart from the fact that I find the influence that big industries have on the justice system in the US nauseating, the music industry seems to think that it can "stop" swapping in any way. This is typical black and white thinking
What is actually happening here is that the "system" (in this case the swappers and the music industry together) shift to a new equilibrium location, where the trade-off between speed and ease-of-use on the one hand, and speed on the other hand, is optimal for the given situation on the legal battle-field.
First we had Napster: very easy to use, but having the flaw of a single point of failure. Then we had the FastTrack and Gnutella networks (think KaZaa and LimeWire here): good bandwidth, but no anonymity at all, but at least without the need for a single point of failure. Then came eDonkey and his friends: less bandwidth, more obfuscation. A step further along the line lies FreeNet: anonimity beyond reasonable doubt, but a slow network and it's hard to find things. In the future, the balance might shift even further to the side of obfuscation, encryption and low bandwidth.
Now before you start yelling: "But FreeNet doesn't work!". Think again: Since about mid-May, it works well again! Try it!
So: go to their website [freenetproject.org] and download that client! Happy browsing!
Not quite. (Score:3, Informative)
So no, copyrights do not need to be asserted for infringement to occur.
-jason
Re:Crowded Courts (Score:5, Informative)
This might have something to do with it (quoted from the news.com article): "The Justice Department would receive an extra $2 million for the fiscal year beginning in October."
Re:burden of proof differs... (Score:5, Informative)
Take a look here [gigalaw.com].
So that is a minimum of $750 for every instance of infringment, even if it was not willful (i.e. even if you did not realise that you were infringing). That should give you some idea of why the people getting sued by the RIAA are all caving so easily. Even at $750 per mp3 (if they are lucky) the statutory damages can add up real fast.
Re:Not quite. (Score:4, Informative)
He is just making a very good point, that this is just to get the DoJ to pay for the RIAA's legal bills. The DoJ will just be able to bring charges on behalf of the RIAA (copyright holders).
How exactly does this benefit taxpayers?
Isn't this a good thing? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not quite. (Score:1, Informative)
Would it make sense for the DOJ to jump in and arrest your mom for making a copy of a snapshot you took when you don't care one way or the other? There would be no doubt that you own the copyright, but you probably wouldn't want to prosecute dear old mom for the offense.
Re:American Whoredom - False Assumptions (Score:4, Informative)
1. Republicans are for less government.
Regan authorized spending on an A$$LOAD of money in the 80's. Remember, Congress spends money, the President just authorizes it. Heck, just about every Republican president in the last 30 years spent more money than the last.
2. Democrats are for corporate responsibility
Except for those companies who pay their bills. The Pirate Act is sponsored by Patrick Leahy (D. VT)
It's simple, if you want less government control:
http://www.lp.org/
If you want more,
http://www.gp.org/
http://sp-usa.org/
(T
Re:American Whoredom (Score:3, Informative)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to conservatives isnt the 'invisible hand' of competition supposed to be a self-regulating force that works best without government intervention?
No that's liberalism a philosophy that seemed radical in the eighteenth century and so was mindlessly opposed by the conservatives of the period. Now in the early twentyfirst century such nonsense is just tired old dogma and part of the dominant ideology which means it is fervently and mindlessly promoted by the conservatives of today.
Re:Figures it involved Orrin Hatch (Score:5, Informative)
Better still, write to your senators (on paper) and tell them to oppose this bill, and why. Politicians place greater emphasis on number of letters received from their constituents than they do on number of phone calls or emails.
Re:American Whoredom - False Assumptions (Score:3, Informative)
Re:DMCA them (Score:3, Informative)
Call me a fool for responding here. Maybe you were intending to be silly, and the people who modded you up as Funny saw it right. But, let's be clear: this is a terrible idea.
Even if the network were broken into, the DMCA covers copyright law which is a civil matter. You acknolwedge this by saying 'sue' them. But then you would invite criminal charges being filed against you under the aforementioned NET act. You sue them, they charge you. And, once more, the original copyright owners also still have the right to seek civil action against you. What do you think the odds are a plea agreement might compel you to desist from any lawsuits?
If one were to try to make an example in this fashion, he may well find himself made an example of.
As always, IANAL.
Re:your tax dollars at work... (Score:5, Informative)
My understanding of the music biz is that in this type of situation, the retail price of the albums that are returned will be subtracted from the artist's royalities. So the only person receiveing a message are the musicians, who are learning that they should have never entered this line of work in the first place.
You didn't seriously expect that the music industry would not have figured out a way to charge the musicians for EVERYTHING that would be a cost for the record companies, did you?
The music industry is obsessed with the idea that they have the most desired product in the world (with the exception of refined opiates) and that everybody will do everything they can to get everything that they release. Therefore they must go to insane lengths to keep their product away from people except in small, measured, and expensive doses.
To a large extent this is the truth, but it is becoming less so every year. Eventually, the music industry will reach the point where they realise that their extended efforts to prevent people's access to their product has resulted in a significant decline in the demand for their product. Threaten enough people with prison, asset confiscation, and criminal records for using your product and people will stop using your product, regardless of the price that you charge for it. Tastes can change. The music industry may find out that the obsession with possessing pre-recorded music on disks might be a characteristic only found in western baby-boomers. When they pass from the scene, so may their industry.
I read that the music industry sales have fallen from 36 billion US dollars to 24 billion US in three years. That figure puts the entire business at less than South Korean prostitution (according to Asia Times -www.atimes.com) and almost as big as the toilet paper business. What other business this size gets special laws passed to put their customers in prison over pricing disagreements?
Re:And so we move to anonymous networks... eg.Free (Score:1, Informative)
1. There's plenty of stuff on Freenet besides "child pornography and software piracy". Mmmmkaaaay, maybe if you look for something else besides the above two items, you might find something else. Surprise!
2. Believing in the reasonably free flow of information AND personal privacy are NOT mutually exclusive. Idiot.
3. "In addition stop collecting a paycheck since..." Okay, I just stopped reading at this point because you're coming off like a whiny flake with an axe to grind...
ahh /me calls bullshit (Score:1, Informative)
Um, last time *I* looked at freenet, there was much more political blogs than kiddie porn or warez. Makes me wonder what you were looking for if that is all you found...
Re:your tax dollars at work... (Score:3, Informative)