Very soon, copying a movie and making it available on the Internet for downloading could put you in jail for three years or cost you up to $250,000 in fines. Those same penalties may also apply to anyone having even one song available to share. What?
That's right. Our congress has approved a law that says a file swapper who distributes a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet would face a possible prison sentence of up to three years. But, the bill is written so broadly that, if signed into law, it could make a felon of anyone who has even one copy of a film, software program or music file in a shared folder. Fines of up to $250,000 could also be levied. Penalties could apply regardless of whether any downloading took place.
The bill could also be used to target casual peer-to-peer users, although the Justice Department to date has typically reserved criminal charges for the most egregious cases.
Using a floor procedure reserved for noncontroversial legislation, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the measure, called the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act. Because the bill already has cleared the Senate, it now goes to President Bush for his expected signature.
Enactment of these criminal penalties has been a top priority this year for the entertainment industry, which has grown increasingly concerned about the proliferation of copyrighted works on peer-to-peer networks, especially those movies and music that show up there before their commercial release.
"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."
Peer-to-peer network operators criticized Congress' vote on Tuesday.
"It appears the entertainment industry has once again gotten Congress to use taxpayer dollars to clean up their internal problems," said Michael Weiss, chief executive of StreamCast Networks. Weiss, whose company distributes the Morpheus client, says that many movies and music files that find their way to the Internet early are provided by insiders in the entertainment industry.
Do I have a gripe with this bill? No, not really, although I think the penalties described are way too strong. I do not promote or use file swapping over the Internet. But, I do think our jails are already overcrowded and the spaces there should be reserved for more more serious criminals. I can imagine this conversation taking place in the future in one of our prisons between two cell mates:
"Why are you in this place?"
"I killed my wife, but the DA cut a deal to make it manslaughter instead of murder, so I will probably be out of here in two years. What about you?"
"I got caught with a copy of the latest 'Star Wars' movie on my hard drive. I still be here when you are paroled."
A little far fetched, to be sure. No, my gripe is not with making copyright violations punishable by law...they already are. Its the fact that an organized commercial group like the entertainment industry can buy just about any legislation they want, simply by making large campaign contributions to congressmen and political parties. And they can put their agendas ahead of more important issues whenever they want.
Writer and humorist P.J. O'Rourke put it best in his book about Washington DC politics, "Parliament of Whores:"
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
Having spent sometime on the inside of power and money politics at the state and federal levels, I know that to be true.
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