Earlier in the day opponents to the bill had mounted an unsuccessful attempt to urge House leaders to remove the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act from the floor schedule. Letters signed by groups including four library associations, the American Conservative Union, the National Taxpayers Union, and Public Knowledge argued that the measure would "radically expand the scope" of copyright liability and divert $15 million in federal funds from the war on terror to "protecting Hollywood's and Big Music's parochial interests."
The bill punishes P2P users that distribute over $1,000 of pirated material with penalties from prison terms up to three years to fines of up to $250,000. If it became law, prosecutors would not have to prove that $1,000 in copyrighted materials was actually downloaded; they would need to show only that those files had been publicly accessible in a shared folder. With Tuesday's vote, the legislation now goes to the Senate, which has not yet held hearings on it.
Source:
News.com
Written by: James Delahunty @ 28 Sep 2004 16:50
