Congress Puts Hooks in Spyware, Copyright Crooks

Congressional lawmakers are taking a cue from Hollywood with an aim to beef up penalties against people who illegally swap copyrighted movies and songs over the Internet. Meanwhile, lawmakers also are targeting spyware and hackers with the threat of jail time for evil cyberspace deeds.

"The House Judiciary Committee voted to enlist the government to a greater degree in the entertainment industry's fight against those who copy its products over the Internet. The committee also voted to establish criminal penalties for those who install spyware on others' computers to commit identity theft or other crimes," Reuters reported, citing new bills that are weaving their way through Congress. For college students and other file-swappers, here's what some lawmakers are hoping to crack down on: "Under the wide-ranging copyright bill, Internet users who distribute more than 1,000 songs through 'peer to peer' networks like Kazaa and Morpheus could face up to three years in prison," Reuters reported.

Why is Uncle Sam putting its fingerprint on cyberspace law? Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, as quoted by Reuters and washingtonpost.com, gave some insight. "We must not let Internet technologies become a haven for criminals," Smith said.
• Reuters: House Panel OKs Copyright, Spy ware Bills

Washingtonpost.com provided more details on lawmakers' moves to fight digital piracy. "People who illegally share copyrighted music and movies over the Internet could be jailed for up to five years under a bill approved by a powerful congressional panel today," wp.com reported. "The Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004 is one of a handful of measures gathering steam in Congress that target the practice of Internet file sharing, which record companies blame for playing a part in a $2 billion dollar decline in yearly CD sales since 2000. The [committee] approved the measure by voice vote, clearing it for debate in the full House."

More from the article: "Although music and movie piracy is already a crime, existing law makes it difficult for the Justice Department to prosecute Internet file-swappers, since they don't charge money for the pirated works they distribute online. ... Music industry officials have maintained that criminal prosecutions will carry more weight with would-be downloaders than the civil lawsuits the recording industry began filing against song swappers in September 2003." Clearly, the lobbying forces of the Recording Industry Association of America have been busy.
• washingtonpost.com: House Panel Moves to Criminalize Spyware, Net Piracy (Registration required)

As the FBI and other homeland security agencies focus resources on the fight against terrorism, some lawmakers want the government to also become an intellectual property cop. "The bill would train agents to investigate intellectual-property crimes and set up a Justice Department program to educate the public about copyright rules. Justice Department investigators would be able to send warnings to users they suspect of copying songs illegally, sending the messages to their Internet providers to pass along. The recording industry issued similar warnings before it began suing individuals last fall," Reuters said. InternetNews.com reported that the anti-piracy bill would provide $15 million for the Justice education program, sending "over the next 18 months ... warning letters to Internet service providers (ISPs) whose customers are suspected of widespread copyright infringement. On a voluntary basis, ISPs may pass on the warning notices to the suspected copyright violators but are not required to disclose to the DOJ any identifying information about the subscriber." The digital rights group Public Knowledge doesn't like the idea. "We are still concerned that taxpayer dollars could be better spent on priorities other than notifications of possible copyright infringement," the group's president, Gigi B. Sohn, said in a statement.
• InternetNews.com: House Panel Gets Tough on Spyware, P2P Piracy

Peer-to-peer sites are also balking at the new attempts to regulate and criminalize file-swapping. "Adam Eisgrau, the executive director of P2Punited, a lobbying group that represents file-sharing companies, said the bill wouldn't solve the file-sharing problem any more than would the recording industry's lawsuit campaign," washingtonpost.com reported. "Ever-increasing penalties on individual users for copyright infringement are popular beyond logic. They are certainly within Congress's right to adopt, but that doesn't make them the right strategy for dealing with current tensions between new technologies and important intellectual property rights."

The spyware bill will also go up for a full vote in the House. InternetNews.com provided more details on proposed spyware penalties: "The Internet Spyware Prevention Act of 2004 makes it a crime to intentionally access a computer without authorization or to intentionally exceed authorized access. If the unauthorized intrusion is to further another federal crime such as secretly accessing personal data, the penalty is up to five years in prison. Deliberately injuring or defrauding a person or damaging a computer through the unauthorized installation of spyware carry prison terms of up to two years. The legislation also authorizes $10 million for the DOJ to combat spyware and phishing scams, although the bill does not specifically make phishing a crime." Phishing involves cleverly crafted e-mail messages and Web sites designed to trick computer users into disclosing sensitive personal information.

An Innovation Killer?

San Jose Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor takes congressional lawmakers to task for some of their other technology-themed legislation. "There's surprising, but unfortunate, movement in the entertainment industry's most-desired legislation, also known as the 'Induce Act.' In the name of halting copyright infringement, it would threaten all kinds of innovation." Gillmor said in a column today. "As I noted several weeks ago, the tech industry, after snoozing at first, did finally start complaining about S 2560. The bill was drawing bipartisan support, mostly from lawmakers who are taking mega-bucks in campaign contributions from Hollywood and its friends. The aim of the bill is mainly to kill off peer-to-peer technology the copyright industry doesn't control. That's bad enough, given that there are entirely legitimate reasons for using such services -- which might well be outlawed in the process. But the legislation could be used to threaten or kill some useful technologies."
• The San Jose Mercury News: Bad Legislation Threatening Privacy, Innovation, Accounting (Registration required)

Caught, Can I Get a Witness

Rappers might have to pay the piper for sampling bits of tunes and lyrics from other artists. "A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that rap artists should pay for every musical sample included in their work — even minor, unrecognizable snippets of music. Lower courts had already ruled that artists must pay when they sample another artists' work. But it has been legal to use musical snippets — a note here, a chord there — as long as it wasn't identifiable," the Associated Press reported. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati "said federal laws aimed at stopping piracy of recordings" also apply to digital sampling, the article said.
• The Associated Press via USA Today: Court Says Any Sampling May Violate Copyright Law