AfterDawn: News

The United States Senate approved a package of copyright bills on Tuesday that would make it a federal crime to camcord a movie and would protect the manufacturers of players that edit out purportedly offensive content from movies. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (FECA) of 2005 also would make it easier for Law Enforcement to crack down on illegal filesharing of copyrighted music and movie files on P2P networks and tackle the problem of new release movies, music and games appearing and being traded on the Internet before their official release date. Although this is the first time the 109th congress passed the legislation, it was already passed twice in the 108th congress but died in the end in a squabble over unrelated legislation.

"This important, bipartisan legislation will crack down on what has become a growth industry in this era of rapid technological development: the theft and distribution of copyrighted material. I appreciate my colleagues moving this bill so quickly and urge our friends in the House to do the same," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Sens. Cornyn and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the key boosters of the legislation in the Senate. Approval in the House however, could be more problematic even though the House approved different versions of the bill, according to industry sources. A dispute between Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, over boxing-reform legislation became the reason why the House failed to approve the bill last year. Industry officials hope the hangover from that fight and some resentment of the industry will not bring the current bill to a similar fate.



Source:
Reuters

Written by: James Delahunty @ 3 Feb 2005 6:04