Congress Declares War on File Leakers

An anonymous reader submits "Bush is expected to sign a law that essentially makes it a crime punishable by up to three years in jail for a user to put a single 'copy of a film, software program or music file in a shared folder and should have known the copyrighted work had not been commercially released.' Whichever side you're on in the copyright debate, you have to agree this legislation is draconian and excessive, to say the least."

Comments

To avert a flamewar...

[tcopeland]

...please note that Dianne Feinstein, a prominent Democrat, is a co-sponsor.

Re:Free Thinkers Declare War on the RIAA

[TripMaster Monkey]

From the article:

"This bill plugs a hole in existing law by allowing for easier and more expeditious enforcement of prerelease piracy by both the government and property owners," said Mitch Bainwol, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America. "We applaud Congress for taking this step."

You were saying?

Exactly

[YrWrstNtmr]

The only reason this part of the bill has a chance of passing is because it is attached to an entirely different concept

FTA:
"The bill's supporters in Congress won passage of the prison terms by gluing them to an unrelated proposal to legalize technologies that delete offensive content from a film. That proposal was designed to address a lawsuit that Hollywood studios and the Directors Guild of America filed against ClearPlay over a DVD player that filtered violent and nude scenes."

I hate riders like this.

There is no "copywrite"

[Angstroem]

Write 1000 times: "It's called copyright. There is nothing like a 'copywrite'."

Re:Draconian?

[mlyle]

Your statement is simply untrue. ...and if the suspect is convicted federal judges are required to impose the maximum possible sentence for that crime.

From the Washington Post:

Thursday, January 13, 2005; Page A01

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal judges are no longer bound by mandatory sentencing guidelines but need only consult them when they punish federal criminals.

Note that judges were not required before this to always impose the "maximum possible sentence", but rather one determined by sentencing guidelines. And now, with the SCOTUS ruling, the guidelines are purely advisory.

In addition, federal prosecutors retain prosecutorial discretion. So you're 0/2.

Check out the bill's co-sponsors

[HarryCaul]

Among them, Feinstein and Leahy.

Couple of well-known right-wing Republicans there.

Oh, wait...

Sponsored by none other than..

[StikyPad]

S.167
Title: A bill to provide for the protection of intellectual property rights, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] (introduced 1/25/2005) Cosponsors (4)
Related Bills: H.R.357
Latest Major Action: 4/19/2005 Passed/agreed to in House. Status: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote.
House Reports: 109-33 Part 1

Text of Bill

Re:Free Thinkers Declare War on the RIAA

[jp10558]

I'm currently in a criminal justice class, and I have to say, as far as I can tell, deterrance has been thrown out the window as not working at all.

What we use instead now is a mix of punishment (eye for an eye), rehabilitation (make criminal a part of society again), and Renumeration (heal the harm done community/society).