The motion picture and recording industries have now turned their efforts to Congress, pushing legislation sponsored by top Senate leaders that would hold liable anyone who produces technology that induces illegal file-sharing.
The bill, known as the Induce Act, is opposed by a wide range of computer and telecommunications companies and civil liberties groups as being overly broad and a threat to innovation of new products and services.
"The Department of Justice is committed to enforcing intellectual property laws," Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said.
(Charles Dharapak -- AP)
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David M. Israelite, deputy chief of staff at the Justice Department who is spearheading its copyright enforcement efforts, said yesterday that the department is not targeting a particular technology.
"We are not in favor banning of peer-to-peer technology," which allows computer users to trade directly with one another, he said. "We don't think the technology is good or bad. We're interested in punishing bad actors."
But Mike Godwin, policy counsel for Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group, said he is concerned about the raids.
"We favor government involvement in truly criminal infringement," Godwin said. "But generally, the option of first choice is to have the copyright owner" try to get resolution. "A policy that risks roping in a bunch of end users . . . risks losing the hearts and minds" of a public that has embraced file-sharing.
According to an affidavit filed by the undercover agent on the case, the Recording Industry Association of America posted a notice on the Underground Network in May warning that copyrighted material was being illegally traded on the network. According to the affidavit, the warning was removed within 15 minutes and the RIAA poster was blocked from the network.
Documents provided by the Justice Department identified only one of the homes that was raided, belonging to Michael Chicoine of San Antonio. Calls to his residence were not returned.
Agents also went to the Dallas offices of the Planet Internet Services Inc., an Internet service provider that also hosts Web pages for businesses.
Lance Crosby, the firm's chief operating officer and general counsel, said agents confiscated the server that was used to host the Underground Network.
"We're a medium of exchange . . . not the content police," Crosby said, adding that his company often does not know what its customers are doing with their Web sites.
The raid did not put the Underground Network out of action, however. Its service was up and running last night, hosted by computers overseas.
The raids did not involve California-based NeoModus Inc., maker of the Direct Connect file-sharing software, which officials said is used by about 250,000 people. The company did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
