The Pirate Act

Declan McCullagh reports that legislators are trying to sneak the "PIRATE" Act through Congress and the bill may be voted on by the Senate in little more than a week ('Pirate Act' raises civil rights concerns).

Ernest Miller writes that for those unfamiliar with the Act, it basically allows the Federal government to bring civil copyright infringement lawsuits instead of only criminal copyright infringement cases. Read the bill here: S.2237 Bill Summary and Status.

Ernest Miller, previously in his post Wiretaps for Civil Copyright Infringement? (3/29/04), wrote: "copyright holders have no way of going after people who are only downloading files and not uploading them. Wiretaps to the rescue. The RIAA may not be permitted to wiretap file sharers, but the government certainly can."

Funding the Pirate Act (3/26/04)
Xeni Jardin writes that "Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced a bill that would allow the Justice Department to pursue civil cases against file sharers, again making it easier for law enforcement to punish people trading copyright music over peer-to-peer networks."

Joe Gratz: "[This approach] shifts the costs of civil copyright enforcement from copyright holders to taxpayers." So far in 2004, Leahy has received $178,000 and Hatch has received $152,360. Find out where the money's flowing via opensecrets.org: TV/Movies/Music | Recorded Music Production.

Andrew Raff has a great round-up on the PIRATE Act here. See also: A Lesson for the RIAA and MPAA / Hollywood, Politics and File-Sharing Technology