New bill would boost DMCA

http://p2pnet.net/story/8619

A new copyright law with entertainment cartel favourite Lamar Smith fronting it would expand the DMCA's restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers, says CNET News ( http://news.com.com/Congress readies new digital copyright bill/2100-1028_3-6064016.html ).


The proposed bill, currently in Congress, "is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together that would follow on from the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act," says the story.


"The draft legislation, created by the Bush administration and backed by Rep. Lamar Smith, already enjoys the support of large copyright holders such as the Recording Industry Association of America. Smith is the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees intellectual-property law."


CNET says the proposed law:


Permits wiretaps in investigations of copyright crimes, trade secret theft and economic espionage. It would establish a new copyright unit inside the FBI and budgets $20 million on topics including creating "advanced tools of forensic science to investigate" copyright crimes.

Amends existing law to permit criminal enforcement of copyright violations even if the work was not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Boosts criminal penalties for copyright infringement originally created by the No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 from five years to 10 years (and 10 years to 20 years for subsequent offenses). The NET Act targets noncommercial piracy including posting copyrighted photos, videos or news articles on a Web site if the value exceeds $1,000.

Creates civil asset forfeiture penalties for anything used in copyright piracy. Computers or other equipment seized must be "destroyed" or otherwise disposed of, for instance at a government auction. Criminal asset forfeiture will be done following the rules established by federal drug laws.

Says copyright holders can impound "records documenting the manufacture, sale or receipt of items involved in" infringements.


The Big Four Organized Music cartel wants server logs, CNET has EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) lawyer Jason Schultz saying.

"They want to know every single person who's ever downloaded (certain files) - their IP addresses, everything." Pete

 

Hello,
Every time I read something like this, I add 10 more items into p2p download.
Use PeerGuardian and download like hell. The best fight against the Big Brother is to work your bandwidth to max through p2p.
Mrk