PIRATE Act Rejoins the Fray
By Shawn on Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 12:09 PM PST In Game Related Laws, Gamer Life, Games Industry
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) reintroduced the Intellectual Property Enforcement Act (PDF) known more commonly as the PIRATE Act to Congress.
This version of the PIRATE Act would give the Department of Justice authority to bring civil (not just criminal) cases against individual file-swappers.
(Dept. of Justice lawsuits) could save the recording industry plenty of money and could also displace some of the “bad guy” stigma that the labels have acquired after suing people like Jammie Thomas.
The bill does limit penalties to those that could be imposed in criminal proceedings and the Attorney General can also bring such civil suits only when the violation constitutes a crime (such civil suits can be easier to win). It also includes additional funding for prosecuting IP crimes involving both computers and Internet as well more FBI agents to investigate such crimes.
Leahy stated,”The PIRATE Act has passed the Senate on three separate occasions; this should be the Congress in which it becomes law.”
“Copyright infringement silently drains America’s economy and undermines the talent, creativity and initiative that are a great source of strength to our nation,” said Leahy. “When we protect intellectual property from copyright infringement, we protect our economy and our ideas.”
Most gamers would IP theft is wrong, but this legislation is akin to hunting mice with an elephant gun. Has Congress run out of drug lords, money laundering schemes and embezzlers to prosecute? When did all the terrorists surrender? Prosecuting the little guy has been disastrous for the record industry. The backlash from the mod chip raids hasn’t done the industry any favors. Why they would believe going through the DoJ would be any better for their reputation defies logic.
via ars technica
well games are overpriced to begin with..
I personally wait until the game is 10 dollars before I buy it. I don’t see any reason to buy a new game at full price.
“Prosecuting the little guy has been disastrous for the record industry.”
Quite the contrary is true. The record industry has made hundreds of thousands of dollars from settlement fees from the over twenty-thousand people it has sued for copyright infringement thuhs far. In addition, these lawsuits have raised awareness of the perils of unauthorized file sharing and brought them into the mainstream consciousness. Sure regular P2P users despise the record industry for this, but they despised them before the lawsuits as well. If the RIAA lawsuit against Jammie Thomas in Duluth, Minnesota taught anything, it is that the average citizen is far too ignorant and naive to see the RIAA as anything but a righteous victim of theft that deserves restitution and protection with laws such as the PIRATE Act.
“Why they would believe going through the DoJ would be any better for their reputation defies logic.”
It doesn’t defy logic because this is not about reputation. It’s about cost, efficiency, and deterrence. If the entertainment industry groups like the RIAA and MPAA can get law enforcement to do their bidding at taxpayers’ expense, the entertainment industry groups will be free of the hassle and expense of having to fund and prosecute these lawsuits themselves. In addition, having law enforcement prosecute these cases adds significantly to the deterrence factor of unlawful file sharing since law enforcement has a lot more power and tools at its disposal in both conducting these cases and in enforcing judgements won.
I certainly don’t agree with this proposed law, but I fully understand why the entertainment industry has lobbied so hard for it.