Bainwol on PIRATE, ART
p2pnet.net News:- RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) boss Mitch Bainwol says the ART and PIRATE Acts are absolutely terrific.
And so he should since, no doubt, the RIAA, together with the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), were behind both in more than a figurative sense.
“I commend the passage of these common sense proposals that offer flexibility in the enforcement against serious crimes that damage thousands of hardworking artists, songwriters and all those who help bring music to the public,” he says in a puff piece which will no doubt be repeated verbatim and ad nauseum by the faithful.
“These Acts will provide federal prosecutors with the flexibility and discretion to bring copyright infringement cases that best correspond to the nature of the crime, and will assure that valuable works that are pirated before their public release date are protected.
“Despite some encouraging signs, piracy continues to plague the music community. There’s an essential role for education, enforcement by copyright owners, and federal prosecutions of the worst offenders.”
The Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act (S. 1932) from senators Dianne Feinstein and John Cornyn would establish new federal crimes for the unauthorized recording of movies in cinemas or other venues, and for “other acts relating to copyright infringement”.
As things exist, under some current state and local laws, cinema owners or employees who try to do what the RIAA and MPAA routinely do – go beyond the law in their own police actions – could be liable in criminal or civil trouble if they’re wrong. In other words, they have to think more than twice before ‘arresting’ someone they suspect is using a camcorder to copy a movie
However, under the Feinstein / Cornyn ART Act, theater owners and employees would be legally able to ‘detain’ anyone they thought was trying to illegally record a movie – with complete immunity from any civil or criminal liability that resulted from the ‘detention’.
And more ….
PIRATE is, of course, another of Orrin ‘Terminator” Hatch’s Hollywood-helpfuls. It amends federal copyright law so the US attorney general can, “commence a civil action against any person who engages in conduct constituting copyright infringement”.
As EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) lawyer Fred von Lohmann puts it, INDUCE is, “an over-reaching new form of indirect liability that will force technology companies of all kinds to ‘ask permission’ before innovating for fear of ruinous litigation if they don’t.”
PIRATE is short for Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation.
