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Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Streamline Digital Music Licensing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 8, 2006 - 7:06am.
Washington - Lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill that would create a streamlined blanket licensing system for digital music services. The Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA), introduced by Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Howard Berman (D-CA), has the support of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and Digital Music Association (DiMA) -- which represents big webcasters like AOL, RealNetworks, Live365 and Yahoo. "Our member companies -- digital music providers, music publishers and recording companies -- stand much to gain from legislation that will bring music licensing into the digital era," the trade groups said in a joint statement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties group, strongly criticized the bill as potentially eliminating consumers' traditional "fair use" rights of music, in part because it treats as license-able "incidental reproductions…including cached, network, and RAM buffer reproductions." The EFF also warned that the bill would change classifications of digital transmissions to potentially outlaw some devices that can make copies of songs, such as the XM Radio receivers under fire from the RIAA.
tags: Music | Bill | Digital Music | Lawmakers |

French Lawmakers Approve Bill Forcing Apple to Open iTunes to Rivals

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 21, 2006 - 6:29am.
Paris - French lawmakers on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a controversial bill that would require interoperability between online copyright-protection technologies, essentially forcing companies like Apple and Sony to make their iPods, iTunes Stores and Walkman devices in France work with one another. The bill now moves to the French Senate, which is expected to take up the matter in May. "These clauses, which we hope will be taken up by other countries, notably at the European level, should prevent the emergence of a monopoly in the supply of online culture," said Richard Cazenave and Bernard Carayon, National Assembly deputies from the ruling UMP party. If the proposal becomes law, it's unclear whether Apple, Sony and others will choose to release their closely-guarded copyright-protection technologies to their competitors, or simply shut down iTunes and similar operations in France. "It is important to consumers to have the ability to move songs between their various listening devices," John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, told the Associated Press. Other segments of the French copyright bill would lower the penalties for downloading music and movies from unauthorized file-sharing networks to between $50 and $180. Those who circumvent copy-protection systems would be fined $4,600, while those who distribute illicit file-sharing software would still face jail time and up to $365,000 in fines.
tags: Apple | iTunes | Bill | French Lawmakers | Rivals |

Kansas Latest State to Introduce Violent Video Games Bill

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 22, 2006 - 5:28am.
Topeka, Kan. - Kansas has become the latest state to introduce legislation that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors. The Kansas House Democrats introduced the Child Protection from Violent Video Games Act, which has the support of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Judges have routinely overturned similar laws passed in California, Michigan, Washington, Illinois, St. Louis County and the city of Indianapolis, ruling the bans to be unconstitutional restrictions on First Amendment free speech protections.
tags: Games | Bill | Kansas | Introduce | Latest | Violent |

House Passes Bill That Stiffens Anti-Piracy Laws, Legalizes DVD Sanitizers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 19, 2005 - 8:52am.
Washington -- The U.S. House on Tuesday passed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which will stiffen penalties for both movie theater and Internet pirates, and legalize some services that edit offensive content from DVDs. Having already passed in the Senate, the bill is now expected to be signed into law by President Bush. The bill will make it a federal crime -- punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for first offenses -- to record a movie within a theater, or post a film or song on Internet file-sharing networks before their official releases. The bill will also likely have the effect of terminating a lawsuit brought by the film studios against ClearPlay, a developer of software that enables viewers to skip over offensive language, sex and violence with their DVD players.
tags: Bill | House | Anti-Piracy Laws | Legalizes DVD Sanitizers |

Bill Would Prevent Use of Terrestrial Repeaters for Localized Satellite Radio

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 2, 2005 - 7:48am.
Washington -- A bill has been introduced in the U.S. House that would codify an agreement between radio stations and satellite radio providers, under which satellite radio firms XM and Sirius are prohibited from using their ground-based repeater transmitters to broadcast localized radio content. Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS), a vice chairman on the House Commerce Committee, introduced the Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act of 2005. The bill would prevent XM and Sirius, which already offer local traffic and weather data to subscribers, from using their ground-based transmitters to offer 'local' channels that change depending on where one is in the country. It would also instruct the FCC to study the impact on local broadcasters of local weather and traffic offered on satellite radio. "I believe in a diverse media with local, community voice," said Pickering. "I also subscribe to satellite radio for national media and programming. This legislation would ensure consumers continue to have access to both radio types, and our communities continue to receive the emergency services of local broadcasters."
tags: Bill | Terrestrial Repeaters | Localized Satellite Radio |

Senate Passes Stripped-Down Copyright Bill

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 22, 2004 - 4:43am.
Washington -- The U.S. Senate on Saturday approved a copyright bill that had been stripped of highly contentious provisions that would have provided jail time for file-swappers, but maintained others that will criminalize theater camcording and pre-release distribution of works on file-sharing networks. In an earlier form, the bill would have for first time enabled the Justice Dept. to seek civil damages against file-swappers, as well as five-year prison terms for those offering 1,000 or more unauthorized songs for download. While these provisions were scrapped after protest from the Consumer Electronics Association, Verizon, the American Conservative Union and advocacy group Public Knowledge, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act as passed will provide three-year jail terms for those who bring camcorders into movie theaters to pirate films, and potential jail time for anyone posting movies, music or other copyrighted works online prior to their commercial release. It will also provide protection for technologies that edit copyrighted movies into family-friendly versions. Although already approved there, the bill will once again be sent to the House in December in order to account for minor changes made to the legislation.
tags: Copyright | Bill | Senate | Stripped-Down |

House Judiciary Approves Bill Giving Jail Time to File-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 9, 2004 - 5:03am.
Washington -- The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004, which would make it a crime to share 1,000 or more copyrighted works on file-sharing networks, in addition to banning camcorders in movie theaters used to record first-run movies. After a federal appeals court ruled last month upheld a ruling that said file-sharing networks themselves aren't liable for copyright infringement, copyright owners have increasingly turned to legislators to aid in their campaign against piracy. "Piracy of intellectual property over the Internet, especially on peer-to-peer networks, has reached alarming levels," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), an author of the bill. "This legislation increases cooperation among federal agencies and intellectual property owners, and assists federal law enforcement authorities in their efforts to investigate and prosecute intellectual property crimes." Under the proposed legislation, which will now come before the full House, file-swappers would face up to three years in prison for a first offense, or five years if there is financial gain involved. The Senate approved similar bills on mass file-swapping and movie theater camcorders in June.
tags: Bill | File-Swappers | House Judiciary | Jail Time |

House Judiciary Passes Bill Protecting Movie Filtering Technologies

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 27, 2004 - 4:29am.
Washington -- The House Judiciary Committee last week voted in favor of a bill to legalize technology that edits foul language, sexual and violent content from DVD movies. The "Family Movie Act" is intended to protect companies like ClearPlay and Nissim, which have developed technology that can be embedded into DVD players to mute or skip past potentially offensive material on DVD discs. The Directors Guild of America sued a number of companies distributing movie filtering technologies, saying that they alter a director's vision and amount to trademark infringement. The bill, which now moves on to a vote in the full House, would trump such lawsuits. "This pro-family legislation ensures that unnecessary litigation will not prevent parents from having available a valuable tool to protect young kids from objectionable content such as obscenity, sex, and violence," said House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). "This targeted legislation allows neither a copy of the movie to be made nor sold, but rather provides parents with a little more control over what is viewed in their homes."
tags: Movies | Bill | House Judiciary | Filtering Technologies |

Senate Approves Bill Enabling Federal Civil Lawsuits Against File-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 28, 2004 - 7:25am.
Washington -- The U.S. Senate on Friday approved the "Pirate Act," which would expand the authority of the Attorney General and Justice Department to pursue civil lawsuits against copyright infringers. Previously, the Justice Dept. has only been able to prosecute criminal copyright cases, while the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has launched its own campaign of civil suits against music file-swappers, with a total of 3,429 sued thus far. "These acts will provide federal prosecutors with the flexibility and discretion to bring copyright infringement cases that best correspond to the nature of the crime and will assure that valuable works that are pirated before their public release date are protected," said RIAA chairman Mitch Bainwol. The bill will now be sent to the House for approval. "This turns the Department of Justice into a civil law firm for the industry's benefit," Adam Eisgrau, executive director of file-sharing trade group P2P United, told CNET News.com.
tags: Bill | Senate | File-Swappers | Federal Civil Lawsuits |

Bill Would Allow Justice Dept. to File Civil Copyright Infringement Claims

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 26, 2004 - 4:13am.
Washington -- A new bill has been introduced in Congress that would grant the U.S. Justice Dept., which currently only has the authority to file criminal copyright infringement claims, the additional power to bring civil copyright infringement claims against U.S. citizens and companies. The proposed legislation from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and ranking member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) would allow the government to target copyright infringers with charges that would bring only monetary fines, rather than potential jail time and a criminal record necessary under criminal cases. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which has targeted hundreds of Americans with civil copyright infringement actions for offering music for download on the Internet, applauded the Leahy-Hatch legislation. "As the recent announcement of the FBI's new anti-piracy warning attests, copyright infringement is a serious crime damaging the thousands of hardworking artists, songwriters and everyone else who help bring music to the public," said RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol. "This legislation provides federal prosecutors with the flexibility and discretion to bring copyright infringement cases that best correspond to the nature of the crime."
tags: Bill | Infringement | Justice Dept | Civil Copyright |

House Passes Bill to Secure Govt. PCs from Peer-to-Peer Networks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 8, 2003 - 4:55am.
Washington -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation regulating the use of peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa on government computer networks, in an effort to protect sensitive data from accidentally being exposed to millions of P2P users. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis (R.-Va.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca.), who noted that peer-to-peer networks been found in use on computers in such sensitive locations as the government's nuclear laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The law mandates that executive branch departments and agencies come up with security measures and employee training to prevent the leakage of sensitive information; both the House and Senate have already secured their own respective offices' networks. "File sharing technology is not inherently bad, and it may turn out to have a variety of beneficial applications," said Davis. "H.R. 3159 recognizes this by protecting the ability of federal agencies to pursue innovations in peer-to-peer technology on government networks, as long as they do not put government information or computers at risk."
tags: Law | Bill | Secure | Peer-to-Peer |

Copyright Royalty Payment Process Reform Bill Passes House Judiciary

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 29, 2003 - 10:01am.
Washington -- A bill designed to reform the controversial royalty arbitration process for deciding how much webcasters and others should pay to artists and copyright holders to distribute music online has passed a vote in the House Judiciary Committee. The Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2003 (H.R. 1417) would replace the current CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) system, an occasional three-member panel of random copyright expert,s with a full-time, independent Copyright Royalty Judge, to be appointed by the Librarian of Congress. The bill would also make sure that, unlike with the current system, royalty rates are firmly set before they actually go into effect.
tags: Bill | House | Royalty | Judiciary | Payment |

Bill Would Mandate "John Doe" Lawsuits for Identities of File-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 17, 2003 - 6:45am.
Washington -- Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would force content owners to file a "John Doe" lawsuit in order to obtain the identities of believed copyright infringers, instead of using the current streamlined subpoena process that has drawn criticism over privacy concerns. The "Consumers, Schools, and Libraries Digital Rights Management Awareness Act of 2003" is partly a response to the recording industry's recent filing of hundreds of lawsuits against alleged music file-swappers whose identities it gained through the current subpoena process, authorized in a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). "There are no checks, no balances, and the alleged pirate has no opportunity to defend themselves," said Brownback, at a Senate hearing Tuesday. "My colleagues, this issue is about privacy, not piracy." The Recording Industry Association of America responded to the bill's introduction in a statement. "The DMCA was a carefully crafted compromise. Multibillion-dollar ISPs like Verizon fought for and won liability immunity for the rampant piracy on their networks. In exchange, they were obligated to help copyright holders identify individual pirates."
tags: Bill | File-Swappers | John Doe | Identities | Mandate |

Bill Would Fund New Studies On Video Games' Effects On Children

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 10, 2003 - 2:47am.
Washington -- Two Senators announced on Thursday they plan to introduce legislation that would provide additional funding for scientific studies into the effects of media on child development. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said the legislation would set up a new program within the National Institutes of Health to fund studies on a wide range of questions about the health effects of media on children. In particular, the lawmakers said they are interested in seeing more data on the effects of interactive media on children. Sen. Lieberman pointed to the popular game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," which awards players for "degrading and killing women." "Beyond being offensive to our values, we should know whether this is helping to nurture misogynistic views and behaviors among young boys," said Lieberman. "Although our research base on the power of interactive media to influence children's learning and development is growing, it is still small," Brownback said. "If this nation wants to realize the best for its youth, then additional research funding is essential to provide the information parents need to make informed decisions about their children's health." http://www.senate.gov/~lieberman/press/03/04/2003409859.html
tags: Children | Studies | Bill | Video Games |

Bill Would Create "Copyright Judge" to Arbitrate Web Music Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 27, 2003 - 4:00am.
Washington -- A bill has been introduced into Congress that aims to streamline the convoluted process of determining the royalties webcasters should pay artists and record labels for the rights to stream their music over the Internet. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) says the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act "will streamline the process and help reduce its unpredictability and inconsistency." The bill would effectively eliminate the oft-criticized CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) proceedings that previously served as the arbitration entity between webcasters and the music industry, as well as take the U.S. Copyright Office out of its role as the final decision maker in the process. Instead, responsibilities for hearing arguments on royalties would be handed over to a new "Copyright Judge," who would have a minimum 10 years of experience as a copyright lawyer. The Copyright Judge would be granted the power to decide both the law and royalty rates. A hearing on the bill scheduled for Thursday was postponed indefinitely.
tags: Music | Bill | Royalties | Copyright Judge |

Calif. Rep. Lofgren Introduces Bill to Ensure "Fair Use" of Copyrights

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 10, 2003 - 6:18am.
Washington, D.C. -- Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) has reintroduced legislation that would make changes to the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) designed to protect consumers' ability to enjoy purchased digital copies of books, music and movies. Lofgren's bill, the Benefit Authors without Limiting Advancement or Net Consumer Expectations, or BALANCE Act, would give consumers the ability to make personal uses of digital entertainment such as music, movies and books. "There is wide agreement to fight piracy, and it is something that needs to be stopped. But individual consumers are being denied their legitimate rights in the digital age," said Lofgren. "We can solve this problem, but lawsuits and locking down content are not the solutions." Lofgren's bill has found support from Stanford professor and copyright expert Lawrence Lessig and the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Paula Samuelson. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) originally co-sponsored the BALANCE Act, and is himself currently advancing similar legislation that would ensure consumers' traditional "fair use" rights with regard to copyrighted materials.
tags: Fair Use | Bill | Copyrights | Lofgren |