Fri Aug 9, 8:27 PM ET By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft ( news - web sites) to go after Internet users who download unauthorized songs and other copyrighted material, raising the possibility of jail time for digital-music fans. In a July 25 letter released late Thursday, some 19 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle asked Ashcroft to prosecute "peer-to-peer" networks like Kazaa and Morpheus and the users who swap digital songs, video clips and other files without permission from artists or their record labels. The Justice Department ( news - web sites) should also devote more resources to policing online copyrights, the lawmakers said in their letter. "Such an effort is increasingly important as online theft of our nation's creative works is a growing threat to our culture and economy," the letter said. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. The recording industry says peer-to-peer services cut into CD sales, and has been battling them in court since 1999, when the five major labels sued pioneer service Napster ( news - web sites) Inc. A U.S. federal judge ordered Napster to shut down its service in July 2001, but upstarts like Kazaa and Morpheus soon took its place. Kazaa, which in addition to music allows users to swap movies and other media files, said this week that its free software had been downloaded 100 million times. Music labels have not ruled out suing individual users, and have pushed for the right to flood peer-to-peer networks with bogus files, or disrupt them by other means. While a debate has raged on Capitol Hill over the proper balance between copyright and technological innovation, U.S. law-enforcement authorities have taken a minimal role. The Justice Department filed a supporting motion siding with the record labels in the Napster case, but has brought no cases of its own. The move was welcomed by the Recording Industry Association of America ( news - web sites), which represents the five major labels --Bertelsmann AG ( news - web sites), Vivendi Universal, Sony Corp ( news - web sites) ., AOL Time Warner Inc . and EMI Group Plc ( news - web sites) . "There is no doubt, mass copying off the Internet is illegal and deserves to be a high priority for the Department of Justice ( news - web sites)," said RIAA Chairman Hilary Rosen in a statement. An analyst for a digital civil-liberties group said the Justice Department probably had better things to do with its time. The letter "implies that Justice should be going after relatively innocent behaviors that I suspect most Americans don't think warrant the time," said Alan Davidson, an associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology. On the other hand, "we would much rather see current authorities be used before Congress goes and creates brand new laws," Davidson said. A staffer for Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, who signed the letter, said that lawmakers did not want FBI ( news - web sites) agents to arrest casual users but instead go after operators of network "nodes" that handle much of the traffic. Among those signing the letter were: Delaware Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden; Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner; Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott; Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers; North Carolina Republican Rep. Howard Coble; and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
This so pisses me off, it is starting to become a fascist world we live in. For over 20 years I've been ripped off by the music industry (prices of CD's being as high as 25 $ in Europe) , since the start of the internet the Music Industry never came with a digital donwloadable alternative (a cheaper alternative), others like Kazaa, Morpheus, Napster came and filled the gap. Instead of working with them ,they are fighting them, creating this fucked up situation, I'm afraid that as dangerous politcians as Ashcroft will bend for the big money issues involved here. Hey? will they send in a swatt team and kill Sharman Networks (the people behind KAzaa), will this become another war on drugs, but now a war on music pirates? Never in my live I will again buy a CD from a Multi Billion dollar rippoff company with CEO's filling their pockets, I'm not saying I'm not willing to pay for music, People need an income for their creative work, but I want to give it directly. We realy should make a stand here! Otherwise they will win again....... SJ
I agree, SJ. I can see why the music industry is pissed off, but they could be working WITH these file share companies to get some money out of things. You're right, the music industry's execs are just too damned rich... and they probably want too much money. But the internet snuk right up on them and smacked 'em on the ass. If they go after peer to peer file sharing, I'm sure somebody out there will find a way to circumvent that law too. Just like gnutella and kazaa did with napster. The way I see it, the "industry" better modernize some. And get off the high horse to cooperate with an inevitability: file sharing. Even if they find a way to stop peer to peer, then what happens to ICQ? You can send files to friends using that too! They'll never stop it! Now if I was a stingy record executive, I'd already be doing this. Good idea for them, and not so good for us.
You can get some weird shit on the gnutella network. (Probably can on others too, but that's the only one I've used) I suppose that even if they ban actual song swapping that the network will still be able to stay up and running. I'm sllllooooowwwlllyyyy growing my collection of cartoon network banned cartoons. (Damned dial up connection anyway) Oh, and porn! (Oh yeah!) Why pay more?