File Sharing Terrorists

    

On the face of it, the "Family Movie Act" (which the new measure incorporates) is all motherhood and apple pie.

Specifically, the act opens the way for companies like ClearPlay legally to sell their product. The firm operates out of Utah (the most straitlaced state in the union). You get a DVD, from Blockbusters or wherever, and ClearPlay's little black box, sitting like a benign leech on your DVD player, sucks out "objectionable" material of a violent or sexual nature.
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Hatch noted in passing that there were, attached to his family bill, some piddling "intellectual property" provisions relating to "rampant piracy" from the internet. In fact, tagged-on clauses now make illicit downloading and file-sharing tantamount to domestic terrorism.

It is now a federal crime to use a video camera to record films in cinemas, punishable by up to three years in prison for the first offence. It is 10 years for sharing a movie or a song prior to its commercial release. These draconian penalties were clearly the result of lobbying by the Motion Picture Association and the Recording Industry Association of America. Without the smokescreen of family protection, such excessive penalties would never have passed into law - at least not without opposition.

» Guardian | Illicit downloading is now tantamount to domestic terrorism