A Kinder, Gentler Copyright Bill? By Katie Dean Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65796,00.html
01:48 PM Nov. 22, 2004 PT The Senate passed a scaled-back version of a controversial copyright bill Saturday, keeping a provision that imposes severe penalties on people caught with camcorders in movie theaters but scrapping other provisions that copyright-reform activists had criticized. On Saturday, the Senate met and passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004, or SB3021 (.pdf), a revised version of the Intellectual Property Protection Act (HR2391), which had cobbled together a handful of copyright-related bills. Now the bill heads to the House of Representatives for consideration in early December. Digital rights groups said while there is still cause for concern in the bill, it is a vast improvement over the previous version. "We're just glad a lot of the really egregious stuff was taken out," said Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Public Knowledge, a group of activists and technologists working to keep copyright and intellectual property laws open. "Compared to what it could have been, it turned out better than before." "This legislation will help target critical areas of abuse," said Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, in a statement. "And, it will strengthen the hand of law enforcement to prosecute those who steal and illegally distribute music on the internet." The other powerful trade group that supported the bill, the Motion Picture Association of America, did not immediately return calls for comment. Provisions from the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act were kept in the bill. It could send a person who brings an audiovisual recording device into a movie theater (to make a copy of a film) to prison for three years. The legislation also increases penalties for people who distribute films or music before the products are released commercially. But the bill removed several provisions that had upset consumer advocates, like the Pirate Act (SB2237), which would have allowed the attorney general to file civil lawsuits against copyright infringers. Critics argued that this would use taxpayer money to fund the copyright battles of the movie and music industries. Entertainment companies have already filed lawsuits against alleged infringers. "We're certainly relieved that (the bill) doesn't have new criminal penalties for file sharers," said Wendy Seltzer, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Senators dropped that section -- HR4077 -- which would have lowered the standard for copyright infringement. "It took 'willfulness' out of the definition of a criminal violation, so you could be judged a criminal without willfully infringing copyright," Seltzer said. A person who had 1,000 songs on their computer in a music folder and who didn't intend to make the files public could be nabbed. The bill preserves the rights of consumers to use devices like ClearPlay, which employs technology that attempts to make movies "family friendly" by automatically skipping over violence and sexual situations on-screen. Language that could have prevented the use of this technology to skip commercials was taken out. The bill also reauthorizes the National Film Preservation Board, which focuses on preserving motion pictures and making them available for research and educational purposes. The board also supports the work of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, a remodeled war bunker designed to preserve old films that is scheduled to open next year. Also tacked on to the bill is a section about standards in professional boxing, which is unrelated to copyright. "I'm still hoping that enough people are disturbed by the 50 pages of boxing to kill the bill," Seltzer said. "We'd still rather see nothing than this." You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
