posted by pinemikey
link at : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/06/inducement_bill_under_fire/

Hatch's Induce Act comes under fire
By Faultline
Published Tuesday 6th July 2004 14:25 GMT

US Congressman Rick Boucher took up arms against the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act bill, being brought before Congress right now, in a website interview at Inside Digital Media this week.

In answer to questions put by IDM's Phil Leigh, Boucher made it clear that he would fight tooth and claw to prevent the new bill from making it into law in its current form. Boucher himself is supporting and presenting a bill that calls for changes to be made to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which he feels is misguided in by making the bypassing of copy protection illegal in its own right.
Click Here

Some quotes here taken from the interview give some comfort. "I will work against this act. It is very poorly defined and it could target just about anyone. Even a university giving its students broadband access, could, under the current wording, be construed as inducing a copyright breach.

"Anyone making ANY kind of recording device, even an innocent recorder that has many other fair uses, could be in breach of this law just for making that technology available. Frankly there is no need for the statute at all."

The bill has been introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch,
and has the backing of the leaders of both sides of the house according to Boucher, including Bill Frist, the US senator for Tennessee, the majority leader.

"Neither of the leaders are on a judiciary committee or the commerce committee and although I'm not suggesting that their support is inappropriate, this bill will have to go through the Judiciary committee and I sit on that. I will certainly be collecting examples of potential cases that can be brought under this bill and weeding out potential misuses," promised Boucher.

Boucher is not the only voice to suggest that the Apple iPod might be a target for this bill, instead of the file sharing peer to peer networks that it was supposed to see off. The original advertising campaign of the iPod was "Rip, burn, listen" and it could be attacked as copyright inducing.

MP3 players and DVD recorders could come in for the same treatment say some, including legal brains that support the Personal Freedom Coalition.

Boucher points out that the bill is designed to overturn a decision in the Californian court that said that Grokster was not responsible for contributory infringement because its technology has substantial other, non-infringing uses other than just breaching copyright. If the bill becomes law it would threaten the Supreme Court decision from 20 years ago that Sony, when it introduced the betamax video player, was in the same way, non-infringing, as the court saw that time shifting was not an infringement of copyright.

"The Sony decision has stood the test of time," said Boucher and called on US citizens to write their condemnation of the bill to their member of congress.

that's nice, but that speech is very watered down.

Where is that fire in the belly for stopping these luddites.

so Boucher is getting off the fence. good going.

Forget iPod. Sony is guilty under the Induce Act. The RIAA is guilty for inducing people to download good songs from the past, since their present product is so manufactured and fake.

RIAA says: Congressman Boucher is a dirty pirate!

Thank you Mr. Boucher. Don't forget to not back down (seriously.. don't forget).

"The Sony decision has stood the test of time," said Boucher and called on US citizens to write their condemnation of the bill to their member of congress."

If you read any of the article, read the last paragraph. Adding to that, I think the reward for handwriting letters is much much greater than the reward for everybody spamming out 40 emails. Go get an envelope and a stamp. I just did.

if it were passed, would opposing a law to repeal it be a violation of the act? Talk about murdering freedom. Thanks Hatch.

supporting, not opposing. 4th time's a charm.

Yes it needs to be narrowed somewhat, once that happens, I see this thing passing through with flying colors. By the end of the year, possibly the beginning of next.

Hatch's home state of Utah should put this horse out to pasture. Let him become part of that which he so loves, the RIAA. At least there he would be in sight but not so much in influance as he is now. How can the state stand him?

At least someone with some sense is looking at this. I am beginning to think our lawmakers have lost any good sense they might have had before becoming elected.

Yes it needs to be narrowed somewhat, once that happens, I see this thing passing through with flying colors. By the end of the year, possibly the beginning of next.


how precisely do you narrow a law like that.

it would overturn the betamax case in any form.

If it only applied to the internet it would stifle all creativity.

If it were applying only to p2p it could easily be challenged as both an attempt to override the judiciary, an infringement on fair use rights as per the 9th districts ruling.


Further, it would once again be unenforcable, as the makers of most p2p programs are outside the united states.

in the most narrow form i can comprehend.. it would outlaw all computer video and audio codecs.

It would make all media player programs illegal.

It would make all computer accessories illegal.

It would make broadband illegal.

err.. talk about removing vitality from america's finest industries.

if it were passed, would opposing a law to repeal it be a violation of the act?

great question

in the most narrow form i can comprehend.. it would outlaw all computer video and audio codecs.

It would make all media player programs illegal.

It would make all computer accessories illegal.

It would make broadband illegal.

This would be the death of the company I work for unless it packs up and moves out of country just like many other businesses have......

We use all this stuff mentioned for producing hardware and software product as well as special computers that are specifically for schools and universties.

They have not thought out what the impact would really be on this countries economy. Seems the only economy they are worried about is that of the entertainment industry. Well...got news for em all....they pass this act, there won't be any economy left nor will there be anyone with any money to buy their overpriced garbage.

Yes.... I am Pissed off!

Not that I like the music industry, I dont, but to answer your question, it has to be narrowed to serve its purpose that is to target p2p. I am against the bill as is, but I see this law as a quick fix for things, politicians will be happy, RIAA and MPAA will be happy and most of America believe it or not will probably be happy as well because the law suit ordeal will be over.

The inducement act places blame on programs or products that induce or compel people to break the law, mainly young kids, as it stands currently it is way too broad and could be used on a number of house hold items, I dont think that is the intention, so I am sure it will go back and be narrowed. Though I am all for p2p I think it is a great tool for indie musicians to get their music out, the fact is that a nice amount of more known p2p systems would not exist if it wasnt for the RIAA product sharing that goes on. Most proprietors of those systems are aware of this and in many cases have even admitted that if it wasnt for the RIAA and MPAA sharing that goes on, on their programs, their programs would not have much purpose. Such individuals do not help the independent musician as they are only looking out to make a quick buck for themselves, and at the expense of kids. Let's face it, most kids lack common sense. There are a few p2p programs out that focus on non copyrighted and non riaa work, these benefit the independents, the others that have admitted that their main popularity was RIAA related stuff never cared for most indie musicians to begin with.

My opinon anyway.

even in the most narrow sense.. it would outlaw AIM, IRC, or any other chat that offers a transfer protocol

It would mean the end of any program that allows people to transfer files between themselves

FTP server programs would be illegal
AS would clients.

Hatch lives in a dark world.....a VERY dark world.

Outlawing FTP server programs would piss off a whole lot of people, including the many companies who utilize them. Enough to bring all the attention we need to the issue of this bogus piece of legislation. It's a huge threat, but at the same time it could concievably screw such a wide variety of people that it's almost no threat due to it's lunacy.

Why haven't the P2P sites started to link to all the anti Riaa sites on the net. The artists won't fight the Riaa the P2p sites won't why is it only the customers (or should I say former) are the only ones who will fight ?????? P2P sites need to grow some Balls and start giving the Anti Riaa sites on the net some Press from their sites. Image how many people would start to join the fight and learn the truth about Big Music if only the P2p sites would have simple links to the anti Riaa sites under the heading of LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MUSIC BIZ

This is what I call an Action Idea!!!!!

question: how easy would it be to 'shut down' P2P applications if it were made illegal?

Bufo: pretty hard. Most p2p systems are decentralized. No central server, nothing to shutdown. The only way for such a thing to be shutdown would be for all of it's users to leave. Either via port blocks at the ISP level, or voluntarily leaving the network.

Another p2p style network which is much safer; would be WASTE. it uses public/private key encryption at both ends. Very nice piece of software.
you can learn more about it from waste.sourceforge.net

RaidHHI,

OK, thanks.

if all of the house backs tis bill
it WILL pass
thats the sad reality
we dont have enough
you know why ost support it???
VOTER CONTROL and uncensored news
if these two wer to be legitimate
senators and politicians would have a four year shelf life
now that they will pass this
they are drooling at the prospect of having their jobs like kings and queens
if the felonize the usa
they cant be voted out
why o you think they are for it
this is vot er fraud at its ugliest
turning scools and vcrand dvdr recorder owners in to felons because they record
this is voter fraud and treason

and noone can do anything about it
i ll make a bet

ill shut up for a whole month if this does not pass
but if it does
ill get to rant i was right all along on every post

but i have a 99% chance ill win this bet


you know why
lets run through the scope shall we
1. senators(greedy, selfish,works for who eevr gives the most money)
2. power( senators,especially ones who are power mongers like orrin hatch refuse to let it go)
3. jealousy, we a re smarter than they are in it tech than the are in politics,, and of course that makes these bible thumpers jealous,
4.voting rights( if the senators pass this, they will have curbed voting rights in their favor, making voter froaud more easier to achieve,
5.politics(theyre really isnt anything political about this, its about power and control over information)
6. religion(the abuse catholisism amking it just as bad as sinead o connor was describing using it as a template against otyerh religions and technology,
they want to burn all tech just like how nazis burned books its no different)
7.fear(they use terrorism adn abuse homeland security fo their own gains, we cant stop a drive by shooting and robberies, HOW THE HELL WIL WE STOP TERRORISTS
8lies.(in the new millenium politics has taken on a new discription BULLSHIT
take a look around at your so called congress this is waht we have to so called support us
we have liars chiild molesters and theives and losers and murderers and our leaders in congress
there is no way that this bill will not pass

i give it a 90% possibility of passing
and in this day and age while all attention is focused on iraq and on alqueda we wont have the tattention span to fight it

Hatch-et Man-son sees the freedoms of cyberspace as a toxin, and he's trying to induce vomitting in America.