Feds Might Join Piracy Fight

[desdemona]

Feds Might Join Piracy Fight

David McGuire, washingtonpost.com Staff Writer

If you download copyrighted music from file-sharing services like Kazaa or Morpheus, you're already the target of a multi-million dollar anti-piracy campaign spearheaded by the music, movie and software industries.

And within a few months, you also could find yourself in the crosshairs of the U.S. Justice Department.

A bill circulating through the Senate would allow the Justice Department to file civil piracy lawsuits similar to the ones that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has used against hundreds of file-sharers for more than a year.

The other would make it a crime -- punishable by up to five years in jail -- for people to keep more than 1,000 illegally copied songs or other pirated works on their computer for online trading.

Both bills would alter the current landscape. Justice Department attorneys at this time can file criminal charges against music and movie pirates, but only if the the government can prove the defendant acted "willfully" and distributed music worth more than $1,000. In the case of file-sharing, those prerequisites are difficult to prove, especially because many of the people branded as pirates are stealing for their personal use, not to set up sophisticated bootleg distribution networks.

The bills are manifestations of a growing push, both here and and overseas in countries like Australia, to get the government into policing copyright violations, a job that traditionally falls to copyright owners themselves.

Movie and music industry leaders have long clamored for the Justice Department to be more aggressive in pursuing pirates, arguing that the government has a vested interest in defending one of the country's strongest exports.

Civil liberties advocates, meanwhile, greet such proposals with trepidation, arguing that taxpayers shouldn't be supporting one industry's efforts to protect its property rights.

The push for a tougher government crackdown on file swapping comes as two researchers asked whether file-sharing is actually hurting music sales.

In a research paper released in late March, two academics concluded that file-sharing has no adverse effect on music sales -- and in some cases augments them.

In response, the RIAA cited dozens of surveys and sales figures demonstrating a steep decline in sales that corresponds with the rise of the peer-to-peer networks.

But for all of the other people who can't be bothered with the specifics of the changing face of music in the digital age, it's important to remember one thing: Although the file-sharing networks are perfectly legal, using them to share and download copyrighted music without paying is not. It's tempting -- and easy -- to do it, but there's no reason to end up paying $2,000 to settle an RIAA complaint over a song you could have bought legally for less than $1.

If you're a stickler for following the law, take John Gilroy's advice from last week's "Ask the Computer Guy" column -- buy your music from legitimate download sites like iTunes, Napster and even Wal-Mart.

And save the date. washingtonpost.com will host Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig on Wednesday, April 14, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his new book "Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity." You can submit your questions in advance or during the discussion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/technology/

[Bombardier]

The feds have got to have something better to do than go after file-swappers.

Try fighting a real crime like terrorism or murder :rolleyes:

[DudeAsInCool]

I still (perhaps naievely) believe that technology will win out. Either 'fair use' sis allowed, or we are all under the thumb of the corporations...