AT&T Tech Support 360
November 18, 2004 1:35 PM PST
Anti-P2P bill may slip past legislative rush
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Marybeth Peters, the U.S. register of copyrights, told a conference here that the so-called Induce Act would not be part of the slew of legislation--including key spending measures--that Congress is expected to vote on before leaving for next week's Thanksgiving holiday.
"I don't think you'll ever see database protection," said Peters, who has been involved in closed-door negotiations this fall over copyright legislation. "Something else you won't see this year is something known as the Induce Act."
The database bill would create a new intellectual property right for collections of information, while the Induce Act would prohibit inducing anyone to violate copyright law.
That proposal, which goes by the full name of Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, represents the latest legislative attempt by large copyright holders to address what they see as the growing threat of peer-to-peer networks rife with pirated music, movies and software. Violations would be punished with civil fines and, in some circumstances, lengthy prison terms. But tech companies, librarians and consumer electronics groups are worried that legitimate hardware and software could be imperiled as well.
