Skipping Commercials Soon To Be a Crime?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: EEkid () aol com
Date: November 16, 2004 9:56:08 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Skipping Commercials Soon To Be a Crime?

Senate May Ram Copyright Bill

02:00 AM Nov. 16, 2004 PT

WASHINGTON -- Several lobbying camps from different industries and 
ideologies are joining forces to fight an overhaul of copyright law, 
which they say would radically shift in favor of Hollywood and the 
record companies and which Congress might try to push through during a 
lame-duck session that begins this week.

The Senate might vote on HR2391, the Intellectual Property Protection 
Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge could make many users 
of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players and other products 
criminally liable for copyright infringement. The bill would also undo 
centuries of "fair use" -- the principle that gives Americans the right 
to use small samples of the works of others without having to ask 
permission or pay.

 Today's the Day. The bill lumps together several pending copyright 
bills including HR4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, which 
would criminally punish a person who "infringes a copyright by ... 
offering for distribution to the public by electronic means, with 
reckless disregard of the risk of further infringement." Critics charge 
the vague language could apply to a person who uses the popular Apple 
iTunes music-sharing application.

The bill would also permit people to use technology to skip 
objectionable content -- like a gory or sexually explicit scene -- in 
films, a right that consumers already have. However, under the proposed 
law, skipping any commercials or promotional announcements would be 
prohibited. The proposed law also includes language from the Pirate Act 
(S2237), which would permit the Justice Department to file civil 
lawsuits against alleged copyright infringers.

Also under the proposed law, people who bring a video camera into a 
movie theater to make a copy of the film for distribution would be 
imprisoned for three years, fined or both.

The groups that lined up against the bill include the Consumer 
Electronics Association, the Computer and Communications Industry 
Association, the American Conservative Union and public-interest 
advocacy group Public Knowledge, which hosted a press briefing on 
Friday as the opening salvo of its campaign to stop passage.

The groups are calling for the Senate to postpone consideration of the 
bill until at least next year, when there would be more time for 
hearings and debate.

In addition, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairmanship of Sen. Orrin 
Hatch (R-Utah) will expire next year, with Sen. Arlen Specter 
(R-Pennsylvania) in line to take over the committee. Bill opponents 
hope Specter would take a different approach to copyright law than 
Hatch, who has been an advocate of several bills that have rankled 
public-interest, technology and consumer-electronics camps.

The entertainment industry has been lobbying hard for quick Senate 
passage during the lame-duck session, with opponents gearing up for a 
tough fight.

Hollywood's involvement has even irked the American Conservative Union, 
which holds considerable sway with conservative Republicans in 
Congress. The ACU plans a major print ad campaign this week to oppose 
the bill, mainly because some provisions would require the Justice 
Department to file civil copyright lawsuits on behalf of the 
entertainment industry.

"It's just plain wrong to make the Department of Justice Hollywood's 
law firm," said Stacie Rumenap, ACU's deputy director.

The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry 
Association of America weren't immediately available for comment.

Katie Dean contributed to this story.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65704,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

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