Jari Ketola
26 May 2004 16:47
The U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on a proposal, that could send the government after peer-to-peer pirates. The so called Pirate Act would let federal prosecutors file civil lawsuits against suspected copyright infringers. Up until now the lawsuits have had to be filed by copyright holders under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act law.
Obviously the proposal has raised concerns among copyright lawyers and several peer-to-peer lobbyist groups and companies. They feel that the Pirate Act is a product of RIAA's lobbying, and that its sole purpose is to make the taxpayer pay for the expensive lawsuits instead of the copyright holders. In addition the proposal is vague, and doesn't rule out the possibility that a person sued under the Pirate Act could also be sued under, for example, the DMCA. The possibility is against the ne bis in idem, or the double jeopardy doctrine.
RIAA and senators supporting the act say that federal prosecutors would be suing P2P pirates if they only had the tools, that is an appropriate law, to do so.
"We view this as a key component of an enforcement package," RIAA lobbyist Mitch Glazier said Tuesday. "If you're going to try to make sure that you have effective deterrence, then one of the tools you'll need is to make sure that prosecutors have flexibility."
The Senate may vote on the proposal as early as next week.
Source: News.com