Senate panel approves RIAA-backed copyright bill
WASHINGTON--A U.S. Senate panel on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill backed by the recording industry that would give federal prosecutors the power to file civil lawsuits against peer-to-peer users who violate copyright laws.
By a 14-4 margin, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act, which would create stricter IP laws, as well as increase the ability of the White House and Justice Department to enforce those laws. All four dissenters were Republicans: John Kyl of Arizona, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
"We all know that intellectual property makes up some of the most valuable, and most vulnerable, property we have," said Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who introduced the bill with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) in July. "We need to do more to protect it from theft and abuse if we hope to continue being a world leader in innovation."
Leahy added an amendment that he said would address some privacy concerns. The amendment expanded mandatory, court-issued protective orders to cover any records seized by law enforcement, to protect potentially confidential or private information. (The Justice Department's proposed power to file civil lawsuits remains intact.)
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) added two successful amendments to the bill: One adds the Department of Agriculture as a member of the interagency intellectual property enforcement advisory committee. His other amendment ensures a transition of power from the government's current IP efforts to a new IP coordinator, once he or she is confirmed by Congress.
The Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America have supported the bill. On Thursday, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also expressed their approval of the vote. Caroline Joiner, vice president of the chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center, said in a statement: "The full Senate can now demonstrate its solidarity with our talented innovators, workers whose jobs rely on intellectual property, and consumers who depend on safe and effective products."
In general, the bill toughens civil and criminal laws against counterfeiting and piracy. For instance, it amends current trademark law to double the statutory damages in counterfeiting cases.
Groups such as the American Library Association and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are opposed to portions, including the Justice Department pursuing taxpayer-funded lawsuits on behalf of private parties.
The act also expands the power of the White House by creating an IP Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) position within the executive branch. The IPEC would direct other agencies in a coordinated strategy to fight counterfeiting and piracy.
The bill also adds five new International IP Enforcement Coordinators to act as liaisons to foreign countries with respect to U.S. IP law enforcement.
The House of Representatives passed a similar bill earlier in the year called the "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act."
CNET News' Declan McCullagh contributed to this report
Stephanie Condon is a staff writer for CNET News focused on the intersection of technology and politics. She is based in Washington, D.C. E-mail Stephanie.
First, when you steal from 7-11, you are taking property from them, literally ? property they will no longer have because you stole it. Infringement of copyright is not the same. Infringement does not mean you have deprived them of their property. If you had, they would not longer have it. Instead, infringement means you have encroached upon their right to profit from and control the use of their property, by appropriating an illicit copy of their property.
Second, it is not a recapitulation of the justice system, or anything of the kind. On the contrary, protecting and promoting the public benefit over private concerns would be a recapitulation of the law and the justice system ? which is how the U.S. Constitution frames the relationship; itself predicated on the fundamental framework of English Common Law whence our law is derived.
What I hear is, "This bureaucracy can now enforce the will of our generous corporate sponsors, the wealthy elite who run them, and consumers who ... well, they didn't agree, but whatever."
What we need is more people using P2P, so much to the point that it becomes the majority. And, if this were really a democracy, the laws would reflect the will of the people.
Heck, it was the government that taught me to share and share alike through PBS and the public school system.
It is really a shame congress critters can be bought and sold by large corporations. It not unexpected since congress writes there own rules on ethics. Clearly they no longer care what people think cause they have historically low approval rating and yet they continue with business as usual.
--187 4life
1337
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/09/mccain-and-palin-once-again-play-barracuda/
McCain's camp says they got the right to play Barracuda, but Heart says they don't! Now I don't know which, but they had better investigate to find our for sure don't you think?
Is this what we've become? A country that has to investigate a presidential candidate to make sure they're not playing the wrong songs? Is that what our children have to look up to? An accused pirate that gets away with it? That's a crime more serious than a DUI! Imagine if he had gotten a DUI! The people would be outraged! But he just gets away with this crime?
See how ridiculous that last paragraph sounds? However, that's exactly the case. Given the choice I'd rather be convicted of a DUI than be sued for piracy any day of the week once you consider the potential fines. Also, the first DUI is usually a misdemeanor and not a felony. That's not the case in a criminal piracy case. That's exactly how ridiculous our laws are. More laws like this are just absolute madness. It's exactly things like this that are just turning America into a huge pile of trash.
Second, what happen to the case against the Cable companies for throttling bandwidth?
Did you hear anything other than they were found guilty? What penalties were imposed and refunds given?
Our present government is for corporations and foreign interests. Worst than communism!
Protecting big business and suing for them at taxpayers expense.
This country begins to be run more and more by big corporate interests than the citizen's.
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sep 2008, the record label releases the lead single with 2 of those songs, one won't be on the album ($5).
oct 2008, 12 songs go on the album ($15).
dec 2008, the second single is europe only "import" release with 3 songs, 2 aren't on the album ($11).
mar 2009, the third single is a remix EP, one song from the album, 3 remixes of it and another non-album song ($7).
apr 2009, the limited edition numbered japan-only re-release of the album with 2 bonus tracks that weren't on the US edition ($30).
sep 2014, 5 years later we see the double-disc edition anniversary special reissue with the original 12 songs plus that one more non-album song and a live DVD as the second disc ($28).
option 1: buy all of that to get all 20 songs recorded originally = $96. the band gets about $9 of that.
option 2: download all 20 songs from usenet = FREE. buy 2 t shirts from the band when they tour = $36. the band profits about $20.
no brainer.
If this is the case then now would be the time to email your Senator and let them know how much you oppose this legislation.
I disagree with the bill based on the fact we have far to many laws already without having the DOJ file civil suits and investigating our online activities any more than is necessary.
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September 20, 2008 12:21 AM PDT
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