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Berman Bill Dead in the Water?

Posted by timothy on from the hope-it's-deep-water dept.

Masem writes "Last summer, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced a bill that would legitimize computer attacks by copyright owners on those users that they believed were illegally trading copyright material; the bill recieved a fair amount of criticism for the potental viligante tactics it suggested. That session of Congress ended without resolution of the bill, though Rep. Berman promised to reintroduce it this session. However, the LA Times reports that support for the bill is nowhere as strong as before, and many believe that laws already exist that allow copyright owners to punish illegal traders; as a result, Berman appears to be unwilling to support the bill further. For example, while the MPAA supported the bill, some of the liabilities introduced into it to punish those copyright holders that went too far in their attacks were too much for the Hollywood group." Unfortunately, the LA Times site requires registration.

2 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. la times and registration... by gimpboy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    i suppose timmothy dosent know the slashdot policy about linking to sites that require registration, except of cours the ny times.

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    -- john
  2. On the downside by lateralus_1024 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...I really wanted to hear the media hype up the not-yet famous "pre-emptive hack" phrase.

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