U.S. House moves to criminalize file swapping

A bill passed the House this week that would criminalize P2P file trading. People who share 1,000 songs online could face three years or more of prison. And people who share one unreleased album could face a similar penalty.

It’s obvious by now that the lawsuits the RIAA is launching against people who trade music are not working. Initially there was a drop in peer to peer users trading file, but the numbers have continued to increase this year again despite the threat of legislation. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out but scary too if they start loading up the federal prisons with people who shared files online. Is that an appropriate punishment for the crime? What do you think?

Here’s a news blurb via Edupage, an electronic publication of Educause:

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a bill aimed at helping the record and movie industries protect copyrighted works from being illegally traded online. Under the bill, those found to have shared more than 1,000 songs online or to have videotaped movies in theaters could face prison terms of as much as three years for a first offense. Record companies and movie studios have been pursuing prosecutions of alleged copyright violators, with the recording industry having brought more than 3,000 lawsuits against individuals accused of trading copyrighted songs. Under this law, the government would also bear responsibility for prosecuting copyright violators. A similar bill was previously passed by the Senate; differences between the two measures must be reconciled before it could be signed into law.
Reuters, 28 September 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6358345

Let’s hope this bill doesn’t make it because certainly that guy in the White House would sign it.