I guess $10,000 bucks a song isn’t enough.
The “Prioritizing Resources and Organization of Intellectual Property Act of 2007” is newly proposed legislation that seeks to strengthen civil and criminal intellectual property laws while ensuring that it gets ample attention from federal govt by creating an office of intellectual property within the White House. That’s right, it would create a new federal agency whose sole mission would be to track down on those who illegally share content using P2P and file-sharing services.
Calling it “Good for American business,” MPPA head Dan Glickman thanked the bill’s sponsors for their “leadership in the fight to protect America’s businesses, workers and consumers.”
“Intellectual property fuels the U.S. economy and stronger enforcement measures are needed to protect the many American business sectors and American workers that depend on it,” Glickman said. “In the motion picture industry alone, film theft costs foreign and domestic distributors, retailers and others $18 billion a year, not to mention the loss of more than 100,000 America jobs.”
It’s pretty obvious that he failed to mention to lawmakers that his industry made record profits last year, but I guess the real truth behind all those powerpoint “loss screens” isn’t important to him. What matters is potential profits, consumer freedom and privacy be damned.
Here’s some of the major details of the legislation:
- Fines in copyright cases dealing with compilations would be increased. Right now, as in the case of Xoom v. Imageline, the maximum penalty for infringement of one compilation is $30,000. Now courts would be able to make “multiple awards of statutory damages” when compilations are infringed.
- Maximum penalties for repeat copyright offenders would be easier to obtain. Current law says that anyone who “willfully” infringes a copyright by distributing over $1,000 worth of material (including over a peer-to-peer network) is a criminal. The PRO IP Act keeps the 10-year prison term intact for felonious repeat offenders–but, crucially, deletes the requirement that repeat offenders must have distributed at least 10 copyrighted works within 180 days.
- Any computer or network hardware used to “facilitate” a copyright crime could be seized by the Justice Department and auctioned off. The proceeds would be funneled to the agency’s budget. The process is called civil asset forfeiture, and typically the owner does not need to be found guilty of a crime for his property to be taken.
The most disturbing part of the legislation is Title III which establishes the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER), in the Executive Office of the President, to “enhance nationwide and international coordination of intellectual property enforcement efforts.” This new “piracy czar” would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The chief sponsors of the bill include House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA).
“This legislation is an important and necessary step in the fight to maintain our competitive edge in a global marketplace,” Chairman Conyers said. “By providing additional resources for enforcement of intellectual property, we ensure that innovation and creativity will continue to prosper in our society.”
“Protecting intellectual property, such as trademarks and copyrights, is critical to the preserving a strong American economy,” stated Ranking Member Smith. “Counterfeiting and pirating intellectual property costs American jobs, reduces American prosperity and threatens the existence of American companies. By protecting intellectual property, this bill preserves American jobs, encourages innovation and helps build a strong American economy.”
What’s funny is that the MPAA has allowed the debate over fake handbags, tires., and medicine to enter the debate over piracy.
“I believe that the American business community can speak in one voice today in support of these legislative efforts to protect intellectual property,” Glickman said. “From counterfeit medicine and fake automobile parts to pirated movies and knockoff handbags, the ill-effects of intellectual property theft are felt across many sectors of the U.S. economy. I am pleased to see a concerted effort by Congress to address this growing problem, and the MPAA looks forward to working with congressional leaders in the weeks to come.”
Though underhanded and deceitful, I have to admit it’s a pretty darn good tactic on their part. I mean it’s one thing to have to make case why the Feds should spend billions on busting little Billy for sending his friends a copy of “Transformers,” but when it’s about fake heart medication or faulty tires on a family SUV, the debate is pretty much over.
Lastly, you know its a practically a done deal when lawmakers start citing our founding fathers.
“Our founding fathers understood the importance of innovation so well that they specifically provided strong protection for intellectual property in the Constitution itself,” said Rep. Feeney. “Intellectual property piracy and counterfeiting undermine the creative spirit that drives our economy and constitute a threat to consumer health and safety, and this initiative will provide us with more tools to address this growing problem.”
Hmm. So you mean George Washington was Pro-DRM? Benjamin Franklin would’ve been upset if diagrams for his inventions appeared on The Pirate Bay?
With a number of Hollywood actors and actresses still able to make an obscene $20 million dollars a movie, and in light of it’s record profits last year, my gut tells me the movie industry is doing just fine.
Maybe a better way to take care of the unions and working class people it seems to be so concerned about would be by paying them a decent wage in the first place, and by not ripping them off like they do currently the writers who get a measly 3 cents for each DVD they sell.
But, we both know that what’s really going on here is that already rich movie studios and Hollywood producers aren’t making as much money as they THINK they could. But, unfortunately for them the “agony” of only making say $20 million instead of the $30 they think possible doesn’t play well in the media.
I guess last year’s record profits just wasn’t record-setting enough for them.
With Jammie Thomas already having been ordered to pay $222,000 for illegally sharing a measly 24 songs, is increased penalties really necessary?
Looking for more stuff to watch or download?
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uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
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I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
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Well what about Osama Bin Economy Destructo Laden What about Bill Shintons NAFTA Agreement to take away our jobs increasing crime piracy and drug dealing. Why isn't the RIAA blaming their loss of music profits on Terrorists Bill Clinton for taking away our jobs hurting poor people and blame it on the Iraq War because we are spending so much money on it I'm surprised the Govt. still gives out Social Security for the very poor Heck why are we blaming filesharers who share copyrighted data why don't the RIAA blame the credit card companies for putting Millions of Adults/Teens in debt and college student loans Plllllease. God why don't the RIAA blame their loss of sales on our Countries Real True Economical Problems why are we blaming file-sharers the RIAA needs to adapt that File-sharing is the future the ways of the Future Why Don't They Freaken Adapt geeze the RIAA are a bunch of idiots that rather sue the poor average Pirate file-sharer then sue Bill Clinton (who took away our jobs) Bush (The one who's wasting valuable tax dollars and putting our country billions in debt) Scammy Debt Collectors that rob from the poor and give to the rich (Lets call them Rochinhood) AT&T (because they stolen already $40 from my grandma and stole $5 from me and that money could be used to buy maybe wut 3 or 4 Music CDs). Why on't the RIAA sue the big cheese instead of the little guy they did nothing but freely share.
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