This article was picked up on the U-wire service and posted in the College Section of the New York Times Digital edition on Aug. 5, 2004.
Congress has been working on a bill that could dramatically aid the Recording Industry Association of America in its quest to stop illegal file-sharing.
The bill aims to involve the Justice Department in suing file-sharers while giving the department $2 million to fund the effort. This is a deviation from the Justice Department's normal criminal pursuits.
The legislation passed the Senate and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee June 25. Another bill waiting in a House subcommittee also calls on the Justice Department, along with the FBI, to go after those who share files.
The Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation (P.I.R.A.T.E.) Act of 2004, which was introduced in late April could subject file-sharers to federal criminal prosecution for copyright piracy, according to a press release from the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who co-sponsored the bill.
"The P.I.R.A.T.E. Act will ensure that the Department will have the option to impose civil penalties against users of file-sharing software who are breaking federal laws, but may not warrant criminal prosecution," said Hatch, who is working on the bill with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
However, in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Adam Eisgrau, executive director of the group P2P United, called the legislation "a special relief bill that will turn the Department of Justice into the entertainment industry's lawyers and prosecutors."
Some say Person-to-Person (P2P) networks, which allow users to share their files over a remote computer, have grown because some people consider the prices of recorded music too high. AU senior Daniel Reeder agrees with this assessment.
"The music industry takes a profit that is unfair to the consumer," Reeder said. "[That makes] prices unfair to the consumer along with the price of copyrights being excessive."
However, some people in the music industry say that file-sharing causes serious financial losses. To combat it, the RIAA has brought lawsuits against those who share large numbers of files. Many college students across the country have been included in these suits.
Senior Paul Johnson said file-sharers should pay attention to anti-piracy laws that are already on the books.
"I think [the bill] makes sense. As long as they are prosecuting people, they might as well have a law for it," Johnson said. "Although there are already laws and people just need to learn those"
