WASHINGTON–Congress remains reluctant to rewrite copyright law in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision on file-swapping–but Internet pornography on peer-to-peer networks is likely to be a legislative target this fall.
At a hearing convened Thursday by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said that she and a bipartisan group of senators were “very concerned” that peer-to-peer software makers were not taking “active steps” to stop copyright infringement by filtering pornography from minors using the software.
“If you don’t move to protect copyright, if you don’t move to protect our children, it’s not going to sit well,” Boxer said.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who chairs the committee, said he would be holding a hearing this fall geared toward illegal access to pornography through peer-to-peer software.
“We’re going to get specific about this, pornography over the Internet,” Stevens said. “People tell me we can’t do anything about it. I don’t believe that.”
Both Boxer and Stevens indicated that they would continue to seek legislation related to requiring filters on peer-to-peer software clients.
But Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, told the senators that any claim of a “technological magic bullet” to filter out illicit content “is simply false.”
Read the Rest:
