I posted a note about this bill now in the US Senate about a week ago. I
talked it up at the meeting tonight. Some present at the meeting wanted more
information about this proposed law. Here are some links to information.
Title: Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004
Bill Number: S. 2560
Sponsor: Orin Hatch, UT
Co-sponsors:
Barbara Boxer, CA
Hillary Rodham Clinton, NY
Thomas A. Daschle, SD
Bill Frist, TN
Lindsey O. Graham, SC
Patrick J. Leahy, VT
To get to the official bill status page, enter the above bill number in the
first search option on this page:
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c108query.html
I am not a lawyer but after reading lots of stuff about this bill, this is my
understanding of it.
If passed, this bill would make manufacturers of products that enable
copyright infringement liable as infringers for the actions of their
customer's use of the product. ie. Your MP3 player manufacturer would be
liable at around $11,000 for *every* song that *every* customer ever copied
to the player that they did not have the right to copy. The liability for a
manufacturer would be *huge*.
More information:
Electronic Frontier Foundation description and action items. Don't forget to
read the fake lawsuit based on this bill if it were law. (eff.org seems to
be down for me tonight. Check again later if you need to!)
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2004_06.php#001641
Fake lawsuit
http://www.eff.org/IP/Apple_Complaint.pdf
A great explanation of history, terms and meaning of the current bill! Read
through it. It's really good!
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=113695&cid=9634008
This is a LONG but pretty good, line by line refutation of Senator Hatch's
bill introduction speech. The writer has some additional links to stories
about the bill also, if you don't want to read his whole thing.
http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/004563.html
This bill is scheduled on a fast track approval process and may even be out of
the Judiciary Committee by tomorrow for a full Senate vote soon. Call your
reps, Senate and House both, and mail them now if you want to defeat it!
Alan
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