Two updates to last week's note on the so-called INDUCE ACT to stiffen copyright enforcement activities. I will also note that the bill title has been changed to something a bit more rational than its prior proposed title -- it's now known as the "Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act (IICA)." I wonder if the OS vendors will be considered as inducing infringement by allowing their systems to connect to the internet. Or how about for providing protocols such as ftp, scp, smtp, etc. that facilitate P2P sharing? Are the inmates running the asylum? No, wait -- don?t answer that. - rick Infowarrior.org UPDATE (1): Some quick thoughts on the revised bill and its broader goals TechLaw Advisor Susan Crawford also reports that "counsels" - an overly abusive term used here - has been dropped from the bill. Unfortunately there is no copy of the bill available at the moment. Susan also hears that the bill is fast-tracked to the Senate floor after a quick hearing either Thursday or Friday of this week. Susan's tech-law blog is located at: http://techlawadvisor.com/blog/ 2004_06_13_archive.html#108744622389089703 Susan also links to a discussion document at the Senate Judiciary Committee's website that shows the desire to make P2P equated as software that's illegal, illicit, immoral, etc. The Senate document is found at: http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/content_protection.pdf UPDATE (2): More in-depth information from News.Com Senate bill bans P2P networks By Declan McCullagh The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, which was made public Wednesday, represents the latest legislative attempt by large copyright holders to address what they see as the growing threat of peer-to-peer networks rife with pirated music, movies and software. Violations of the IICA would be punished with civil fines and, in some circumstances, lengthy prison terms. < snip > 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. In that decision, which the entertainment industry has appealed to the 9th Circuit, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson wrote that "Grokster and (Morpheus operator) StreamCast are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights." Wilson said those networks were not as centralized as Napster, which the 9th Circuit declared to be illegal in 2001, and could continue to exist. < snip> http://news.com.com/Senate%20bill%20bans%20P2P%20networks/2100-1027_3 -524479 6.html?tag=techdirt ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen@leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]