New legislation recently introduced by a group of powerful U.S. senators would allow artists and entertainment companies to sue creators of products, such as peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software, that "induce" copyright violations.
Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairman Orrin Hatch, clearly targeting P-to-P vendors, claimed his bill focuses on companies that profit by encouraging children and teenagers to infringe copyrights. "It is illegal and immoral to induce or encourage children to commit crimes," Hatch, a Utah Republican, said in a statement. "Tragically, some corporations now seem to think that they can legally profit by inducing children to steal. Some think they can legally lure children into breaking the law with false promises of 'free music.'"
The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) (RIAA (news - web sites)) welcomed the legislation, while P2P United, a P-to-P trade group, called the bill "horrible public policy." The bill could stifle the development of future technologies that could be used for copyright infringement but have substantial legitimate uses, said P2P United and other critics.
The bill "will chill the development, if enacted, of not only peer-to-peer technology, but wonderful new information tools yet to be devised," P2P United executive director Adam Eisgrau said in an e-mail. "Don't buy the hype. Any member of Congress who supports this bill is voting, without so much as a hearing, to undo more than a century of solid copyright case law that has protected innovators and technology from the terrible power of entrenched industries and, in the process, created the American economy."
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Yahoo News
