Blog for One

From: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.167:

I’ve extracted the relevant portion of this pending US legislation.

This pending legislation in the United States will actually make it possible to jail a person who shares a single file. It used to be a minimum of 10.

I always knew to suspect laws with “family” in the title…

S.167
Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by Senate)

SEC. 103. CRIMINAL INFRINGEMENT OF A WORK BEING PREPARED FOR COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION.

(a) Prohibited Acts- Section 506(a) of title 17, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

`(a) Criminal Infringement-

`(1) IN GENERAL- Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed–

`(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;

`(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or

`(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.

`(2) EVIDENCE- For purposes of this subsection, evidence of reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work, by itself, shall not be sufficient to establish willful infringement of a copyright.

`(3) DEFINITION- In this subsection, the term `work being prepared for commercial distribution’ means–

`(A) a computer program, a musical work, a motion picture or other audiovisual work, or a sound recording, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution–

`(i) the copyright owner has a reasonable expectation of commercial distribution; and

`(ii) the copies or phonorecords of the work have not been commercially distributed; or

`(B) a motion picture, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution, the motion picture–

`(i) has been made available for viewing in a motion picture exhibition facility; and

`(ii) has not been made available in copies for sale to the general public in the United States in a format intended to permit viewing outside a motion picture exhibition facility.’.

(b) Criminal Penalties- Section 2319 of title 18, United States Code, is amended–

(1) in subsection (a)–

(A) by striking `Whoever’ and inserting `Any person who’; and

(B) by striking `and (c) of this section’ and inserting `, (c), and (d)’;

(2) in subsection (b), by striking `section 506(a)(1)’ and inserting `section 506(a)(1)(A)’;

(3) in subsection (c), by striking `section 506(a)(2) of title 17, United States Code’ and inserting `section 506(a)(1)(B) of title 17′;

(4) by redesignating subsections (d) and (e) as subsections (e) and (f), respectively;

(5) by adding after subsection (c) the following:

`(d) Any person who commits an offense under section 506(a)(1)(C) of title 17–

`(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 3 years, fined under this title, or both;

`(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense was committed for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;

`(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 6 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense; and

`(4) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense under paragraph (2).’; and

(6) in subsection (f), as redesignated–

(A) in paragraph (1), by striking `and’ at the end;

(B) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at the end and inserting a semicolon; and

(C) by adding at the end the following:

`(3) the term `financial gain’ has the meaning given the term in section 101 of title 17; and

`(4) the term `work being prepared for commercial distribution’ has the meaning given the term in section 506(a) of title 17.’.