New US bill against file-sharing introduced
By Online Staff
July 18 2003
Two Democrats in the US congress, John Conyers Jr and Howard Berman, have introduced a bill that would impose a fine of a quarter of a million US dollars and a five-year stay in jail for uploading a single file to a peer-to-peer network.
The Author, Consumer, and Computer Owner Protection and Security (ACCOPS) Act of 2003 targets the 60 million Americans engaged in sharing music and movies over the internet for criminal prosecution.
The bill aims to "encourage the development and distribution of creative works by enhancing domestic and international enforcement of the copyright laws, and for other purposes."
It seeks an additional $15 million for the Department of Justice to undertake increased domestic enforcement efforts.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticised the measure as an overbroad and misguided attack on P2P file sharing technology.
"More Americans are using file sharing software than voted for President (George W.) Bush in 2000," said EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz. "Throwing the book at music swappers makes great political theater, but jailing 60 million music fans is not good business, nor does it put a single penny into the pockets of artists."
"Jailing people for file sharing is not the answer," said EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann. "Proponents of this bill are casting aside privacy, innovation, and even our personal liberty as collateral damage in their war against file sharing."
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