Lobbyists for record companies and Hollywood movie studios laid out a case against online file-sharing before a group of attorneys general, suggesting the state prosecutors should examine whether such companies are breaking state laws. Addressing the National Association of Attorneys General Thursday, the entertainment industry representatives warned that consumers in their states needed to be protected from the impact of online file-sharing over so-called peer-to-peer networks. “P2P networks pose tremendous piracy problems … but they also pose very substantial threats to consumers,” said Fritz Attaway, executive vice president and general counsel for the Washington-based Motion Picture Association of America.
Copyright infringement laws are enforced at the federal level, and state courts have no jurisdiction. But on Thursday, Attaway and his counterpart at the Recording Industry Association of America, both repeatedly stressed consumer protection issues that might prove fertile ground for the state prosecutors to examine. One example, whether the distributors of file-sharing software like Kazaa, Grokster and Morpheus do enough to warn users that they could be liable for sharing copyright content. “The vast bulk of material distributed on P2P networks are pirated movies, music and pornography,” Attaway said. “And consumers who do so, knowingly or unknowingly, expose themselves.”
Related Posts
- File-sharing group proposes crypto pay plan
- Judges rule file-sharing software legal
- (Swedish) File-Sharing Police Need Better Training
- Court Urged to Hear File-Sharing Case
- UK Copyright Group Wants File-Sharers Disconnected, ISPs Say No
Loading ...
