The music industry came very close to offloading the costs of enforcing its view of copyright onto you, the taxpayer.
They still may do it.
Credit for their failure (so far) must go to a Republican, Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota.
Under Senate rules "non-controversial" measures can be passed without debate, without even a hearing. And the industry's so-called "Pirate Act," which would allow the Justice Department to launch civil suits against anyone the industry accuses of leaving files out there to be shared, was sailing along under that rule -- no hearings, no debate.
Imagine. No more RIAA suits. No more RIAA costs. John Ashcroft would do it, with your money, to anyone he wished. Maybe to you. Maybe you have files in a shared directory. Maybe he can get the money out of your kids, ripping your life apart, at the behest of "recording artists" like Sen. Orrin Hatch.
This abomination was sailing along toward passage, under cover of media darkness, "non-controversial."
Coleman stopped it. Now there will be a debate.
A debate will give users around the country the chance to put their Senators' feet to the fire, starting with Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.
Leahy, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, has spoken out on behalf of this bill, calling the RIAA's problems in enforcement "an intolerable predicament."
Under civil law, by the way, cases don't have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Under civil law, it only takes "a preponderance of the evidence." Yet civil law results can destroy you, and your family, just as easily as criminal actions can.
And it is this attack on fair use that Leahy was prepared to endorse, calling it "non-controversial."
The man should be ashamed.
But -- and this is the big but -- this thing could still pass. It could pass this year. And it will pass this year, unless some very loud voices -- yours -- are heard -- and right now.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Brad Hutchings on May 27, 2004 07:46 PM writes...
Dana,
I think you need to look closely at the proposed PIRATE act. The text of Leahy's speech introducing the act on 03-25-2004 actually is enjoying strong appeal among smallish software developers. It addresses our biggest business concern: that wholesale violators of our copyrights do it with impunity, and we are powerless to defend our rights in any meaningful way. Maybe Apple and Microsoft can... Adobe sure can't -- browse these sites sometime. There is a big problem that goes beyond the music industry.
Copyright is something that the Internet is going to have to come to grips with, that is that if someone has a copyright on some digital work, you can't just go share it with your closest 20 million friends . That's not fair use, it's theft.
Coincidentally, today is kindof a landmark in the battle against another big Internet problem. A spammer was sentenced to 7 years in prison (apologies to Dana for finding this on the un-credible Drudge Report). Pull quote:
Carmack [the perp] told the judge he believed the case against him was overblown, saying there were no victims. "I obviously regret this whole involvement," he said.
Ironic...
Permalink to Comment2. Brad Hutchings on May 27, 2004 07:58 PM writes...
You can download the text of the act here.
Interesting note... Copyfight claims that it introduces a double jeopardy provision. In fact, if you read the text, any amount recovered for the copyright owner will be offset against a subsequent judgement.
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