John Malcolm needs killing.

[Matthew X]

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-954591.html?tag=fd_top
Stop thief! hand back that PROMIS software.pr.PROMIS # 0417.
John Malcolm, a deputy assistant attorney general, said Americans should 
realize that swapping illicit copies of music and movies is a criminal 
offense that can result in lengthy prison terms.
"A lot of people think these activities are legal, and they think they 
ought to be legal," Malcolm told an audience at the Progress and Freedom 
Foundation's annual technology and politics summit.
Malcolm said the Internet has become "the world's largest copy machine" and 
that criminal prosecutions of copyright offenders are now necessary to 
preserve the viability of America's content industries. "There does have to 
be some kind of a public message that stealing is stealing is stealing," 
said Malcolm, who oversees the arm of the Justice Department that 
prosecutes copyright and computer crime cases.
In an interview, Malcolm would not say when prosecutions would begin. The 
response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks temporarily diverted the 
department's resources and prevented its attorneys from focusing on this 
earlier, he said.
A few weeks ago, some of the most senior members of Congress pressured the 
Justice Department to invoke a little-known law, the No Electronic Theft 
(NET) Act, against peer-to-peer users who swap files without permission.
Under the NET Act, signed by President Clinton in 1997, it is a federal 
crime to share copies of copyrighted products such as software, movies or 
music with anyone, even friends or family members, if the value of the work 
exceeds $1,000. Violations are punishable by one year in prison, or if the 
value tops $2,500, "not more than five years" in prison.
Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America 
(RIAA), said his industry would "welcome" prosecutions that send a message 
to song-swappers.
"Some prosecutions that make that clear could be very helpful...I think 
they would think twice if they thought there was a risk of criminal 
prosecution," said Sherman, who was on the same conference panel.
Christopher Cookson, executive vice president of Warner Bros. and another 
panelist, said there was "a need for governments to step in and maintain 
order in society."
Swapping files in violation of the law has always been a civil offense, and 
the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have the 
option of suing individual infringers and seeking damages.
But, Malcolm said, criminal prosecutions can be much more effective in 
intimidating file-swappers who have little assets at risk in a civil suit. 
"Civil remedies are not adequate...Law enforcement in that regard does have 
several advantages," Malcolm said. "We have the advantage, when 
appropriate, of opening up and conducting multi-jurisdictional and 
international investigations.
"Most parents would be horrified if they walked into a child's room and 
found 100 stolen CDs...However, these same parents think nothing of having 
their children spend time online downloading hundreds of songs without 
paying a dime."
Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, said he 
was skeptical about the view that peer-to-peer piracy should be a criminal 
offense. "If we have 70 million people in the United States who are 
breaking the law, we have a big issue."
The DOJ already has used the NET Act to imprison noncommercial software 
pirates, which software lobbyists hailed as "an important component of the 
overall effort to prevent software theft."
During his confirmation hearing in June 2001, Attorney General John 
Ashcroft told Congress that "given the fact that much of America's strength 
in the world economy is a result of our being the developer and promoter of 
most of the valuable software, we cannot allow the assets that are held 
electronically to be pirated or infringed. And so we will make a priority 
of cybercrime issues."
The letter from Congress complains of "a staggering increase in the amount 
of intellectual property pirated over the Internet through peer-to-peer 
systems." Signed by 19 members of Congress, including Sen. Joseph Biden, 
D-Del., Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Ca., 
the letter urged Ashcroft "to prosecute individuals who intentionally allow 
mass copying from their computer over peer-to-peer networks." END
Having one of the biggest Gulags in the world isn't enough already?