Senator Threatens Crackdown on File-Sharing Industry
By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 30, 2005; D01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072901794_pf.html
The head of the Senate Commerce Committee warned online file-sharing
companies this week that if they do not crack down on piracy and
pornography available via their networks, Congress will force them to act.
In an outburst at the close of a hearing Thursday, Sen. Ted Stevens
(R-Alaska) said many senators are urging him to move against file-sharing
firms, despite a recent Supreme Court decision that parties on all sides of
the issue said eliminated the need for congressional action anytime soon.
"I hope you're listening," he said loudly to Adam M. Eisgrau, executive
director of P2P United, a file-sharing trade group. "We can hardly accuse
people abroad of stealing our property if we can't protect it at home."
Stevens was joined by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who told Eisgrau, "If
you don't move to protect copyright, if you don't move to protect our
children, it's not going to sit well."
That prompted Stevens to quip that since he and Boxer disagree on nearly
everything, people should "watch out" when they find common ground.
File-sharing vendors such as Grokster, Kazaa and Morpheus enable hundreds
of millions of consumers around the world to trade songs, videos, software
programs and other digital files with each other directly. Many people use
the systems to bypass retail outlets, which the entertainment industry says
is costing it billions of dollars.
The software does not discriminate between legal and illegal works,
including pornography that can be labeled with innocent titles and
inadvertently downloaded. File-sharing firms argue that they can neither
police nor be held responsible for the actions of their users.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in a case involving Grokster Ltd. that
file-sharing firms could be held liable for the actions of their customers
if the vendors actively encourage their users to steal.
The court sent the case back to a lower court to determine if Grokster and
Streamcast Networks Inc. had done so. But the court left intact a doctrine
it established in 1984 that makers of products or services generally cannot
be held responsible if there are substantial legal uses for their products.
The entertainment industry, which earlier this year failed to get Congress
to pass a liability law for inducement, hailed the decision and said it saw
no need to return to Congress.
At the hearing, Eisgrau said the court ruling was not likely to reduce
file-sharing. Instead, he said, Congress should convene a summit between
the file-sharing community and the music industry to discuss a licensing
system, similar to one that compensates artists every time a song is played
on the radio.
Mitch Bainwol, head of the Recording Industry Association of America,
called the idea "a dodge" and rejected it.
"These companies have the ability to stop this illegal taking right now,"
he said, arguing that they should otherwise shut down until they can.
Mark G. Heesen, head of the National Venture Capital Association, said his
group worries that the entertainment industry will continue to sue or
otherwise attack makers of new technologies even if they do not actively
promote infringement.
That, he said, could dry up investment in new, "disruptive" technologies.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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