ORAC
25th July 2002, 19:51
CNN/Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Media companies would be allowed to sabotage Napster-style networks to prevent songs, movies and other copyrighted materials from being swapped over the Internet, under a bill introduced in Congress Thursday.
The bill would permit recording companies and other copyright holders to hack onto networks to thwart users looking to download free music, and would protect them from lawsuits from users.
Although Congress has little time to debate the bill before the August recess, sponsor Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, said the measure was necessary because the decentralized systems were impossible to shut down.
"No legislation can eradicate the problem of peer-to-peer piracy. However, enabling copyright creators to take action to prevent an infringing file from being shared via P2P (peer-to-peer) is an important first step," Berman said in remarks on the floor of the House.
The bill does not specify what measures copyright owners could take to foil online song swapping, but does impose some limits on their efforts.
Rampant piracy?
Copyright owners would only be able to stop the trading of their own songs, and would be required to notify users and the Justice Department when they took action.
Overzealous companies could face a government ban and lawsuits from users who suffered economic harm.
The recording industry blames rampant online piracy for a decline in CD sales last year and has prosecuted online networks aggressively.
While the industry succeeded in shutting down the pioneer Napster service last summer, other, less centralized networks such as KaZaA and Morpheus continue to attract millions of users.
CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/07/25/copyright.reut/index.html)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Media companies would be allowed to sabotage Napster-style networks to prevent songs, movies and other copyrighted materials from being swapped over the Internet, under a bill introduced in Congress Thursday.
The bill would permit recording companies and other copyright holders to hack onto networks to thwart users looking to download free music, and would protect them from lawsuits from users.
Although Congress has little time to debate the bill before the August recess, sponsor Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, said the measure was necessary because the decentralized systems were impossible to shut down.
"No legislation can eradicate the problem of peer-to-peer piracy. However, enabling copyright creators to take action to prevent an infringing file from being shared via P2P (peer-to-peer) is an important first step," Berman said in remarks on the floor of the House.
The bill does not specify what measures copyright owners could take to foil online song swapping, but does impose some limits on their efforts.
Rampant piracy?
Copyright owners would only be able to stop the trading of their own songs, and would be required to notify users and the Justice Department when they took action.
Overzealous companies could face a government ban and lawsuits from users who suffered economic harm.
The recording industry blames rampant online piracy for a decline in CD sales last year and has prosecuted online networks aggressively.
While the industry succeeded in shutting down the pioneer Napster service last summer, other, less centralized networks such as KaZaA and Morpheus continue to attract millions of users.
CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/07/25/copyright.reut/index.html)