[I've been behind on Politech because I've been busy reworking the
site and adding RSS/Atom feeds. More on this later today; meanwhile,
here are some items in the queue. --Declan]
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http://www.politechbot.com/2004/06/24/senate-induce-act/
A new Senate bill would effectively outlaw file-swapping networks, but
that's not the real news. It's easy to introduce legislation -- and
much more difficult to get it enacted.
The real news here is that the new Inducing Infringement of Copyrights
Act already enjoys serious, bipartisan support. Look at the list of
its sponsors: Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Minority Leader Tom Daschle,
D-S.D.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Here's a summary from my News.com article:
Their legislation says "whoever intentionally induces any
violation" of copyright law would be legally liable for those
violations... The IICA is designed to overturn an April 2003 ruling
from a federal judge in Los Angeles that said file-swapping
services StreamCast Networks and Grokster were legal to operate...
Critics were assailing the measure even before it was introduced,
saying that in addition to outlawing peer-to-peer networks, it
could imperil products like ReplayTV and even the VCR.
Here's the text of the bill, Hatch's statement, and Leahy's statement.
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