Of course what the BPI really need is some hardline support in parliament like Senator Orrin Hatch in the US Congress ? then we could have all those pesky downloading kids put in jail, may be even put to death. Well not quite, though the US House Of Representatives has passed new legislation which will make it a criminal offence to upload a movie or song onto the internet before its official retail release. The Family Entertainment and Copyright act, led through Congress by Hatch, has already won the approval of the US Senate, meaning it now only needs President Bush's signature to become law.
The new act will firmly put the law on the side of the entertainments industry when it comes to the leaking of new films and albums onto the internet before their retail release. Nearly all of the key album releases in the last year have surfaced on P2P networks long before their official release in record shops. Now anyone found guilty of uploading that content could face a five year prison sentences and $250K fine ? considerably more than the average cost of an out of court settlement with the Recording Industry Association of America.
The new act also helps the movie industry tackle another major source of piracy ? the taping of a film on a camcorder in the cinema, which will also become a criminal offence. The movie industry reckon 90% of pirated movies originate with camcorder recordings, so they will welcome this move. However they will be less pleased with another key component of the new legislation. The act allows companies to sell special filters that will automatically skip scenes containing sex or violence when a movie is watched on DVD. A consortium of directors and studios have previously tried to stop companies selling those filters on the basis they attack their artistic vision and violates their copyright, but the new law will give legitimacy to the sale of such technology.