The US House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a copyright Act that targets the unauthorised recording of films in movie theatres, and the distribution of pre-release copyrighted material.
The Senate passed an identical Act in February, meaning that the legislation now needs only the approval of the President before it becomes law.The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act 2005 is a consolidation of several draft copyright bills that were put forward over the course of the 2004 congressional session.These included the Induce Act (otherwise known as the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act), which proposed to make anyone who "intentionally induces any violation" of US copyright law liable for that violation, and the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, which aimed: to criminalise file-sharing; to demand funding for the Justice Department to initiate an internet use education programme; and to give the FBI powers to create an anti-piracy program.But legislators were forced to tone down the proposals in the light of vigorous objections from consumer groups and civil liberties organisations, who saw the proposals as being so broad as to attack any service or device that had the potential to be used for copyright infringement, and as forcing the taxpayer to fund the legal battles of the entertainment industry.Instead, the Act makes a number of small amendments to existing copyright law and targets those involved in the "camcording" of motion pictures for unauthorised redistribution.Such individuals face a fine or three years in prison for a first offence or a fine or up to six years in prison for a second or subsequent offence.People who distribute pre-release versions of copyrighted material, such as films or music, are also targeted, and could face up to ten years in prison.The Act will also allow devices such as ClearPlay's DVD player – which permits parents to edit inappropriate material out of films – to operate without breaching the law.Congress appears to have put the more controversial aspects of last year's draft copyright bills on hold, pending the Supreme Court's decision in an appeal by the entertainment industry against a ruling that companies providing P2P file-sharing software are not liable for copyright infringement by users of the software. The decision is expected in June.
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