[Politech] More on distribute pre-release movies, etc. go to prison for three years [ip]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Mon Apr 25 2005 - 19:58:33 PDT


Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/04/20/go-to-prison/


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Distribute pre-release movie, music, software, 
go	to prison for three years [ip]
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 13:08:01 -0700
From: Alan <alan@private>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>
References: <42670CAB.6080403@private>

On Wed, 2005-04-20 at 22:15 -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
 > Text of legislation:
 > http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.00167:
 >
 > A lively Slashdot thread:
 > http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/04/20/1733215.shtml?tid=95&tid=17
 >
 > ---
 >
 > http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5677232.html
 >
 > Prison terms on tap for 'prerelease' pirates
 > April 19, 2005, 4:33 PM PDT
 >
 > File-swappers who distribute a single copy of a prerelease movie on the
 > Internet can be imprisoned for up to three years, under a bill that's
 > slated to become the most dramatic expansion of online piracy penalties
 > in years.

I wonder how "prerelease" is defined.

If the movie has not been released in the US, but is available on DVDs
from Asia would that count?

Would all of the people who posted "Shaolin Soccer" while Miramax
diddled around and mutilated the film get three years?  (Even though
they never planned on releasing it intact.)

 > The bill, approved by Congress on Tuesday, is written so broadly it
 > could make a federal felon of anyone who has even one 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. Stiff fines of
 > up to $250,000 can also be levied. Penalties would apply regardless of
 > whether any downloading took place.

So all those TV programs that they have no plans on selling, but are
distributed anyways will get jail time.

The people who are spreading the new episodes of Doctor Who that will
never be shown in the US will be in trouble, as will any other TV show
that has not been approved for use by our masters.

They are going to have to build a whole bunch of new jails.

-- 
"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the
American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."
   - Jack Valenti in 1982 in testimony to the House of Representatives on
why the VCR should be illegal.






-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Distribute pre-release movie, music, software, 
go to prison for three years [ip]
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 09:26:54 -0600
From: Eric Goldman <egoldman@private>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>


Declan, as I've thought about the law, I don't think it's going to be
a particularly impactful law, and therefore I think the concerns
stated in your article aren't as troubling to me as they are to you.
I've posted my argument to my blog:
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2005/04/artists_rights.htm.

(If you do a follow up to your post on Politech, feel free to include
this if you want).

Eric.

-- 
Eric Goldman
Marquette University Law School
egoldman@private
Personal website: http://www.ericgoldman.org
Blogs: http://blog.ericgoldman.org and http://blog.ericgoldman.org/personal/
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