FC: U.S. politicians want P2P pirates placed in federal prison

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Duncan Frissell (a lawyer and Politech irregular) and I wrote last summer 
about how Napster users were violating federal criminal laws. This should 
not be surprising. See:

"Duncan Frissell on why Napster users are federal felons"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02305.html

-Declan

---

From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Forget the war on terrorism, let's go after kids on Kazaa
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 18:32:47 -0400

Ashcroft Asked to Target Online Song Swappers
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=581&e=2&cid=581&u=/nm/20020809/tc_nm/tech_copyright_dc_4

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John
Ashcroft to go after Internet users who download unauthorized songs and
other copyrighted material, raising the possibility of jail time for
digital-music fans.

In a July 25 letter released late Thursday, some 19 lawmakers from both
sides of the aisle asked Ashcroft to prosecute "peer-to-peer" networks
like Kazaa and Morpheus and the users who swap digital songs, video
clips and other files without permission from artists or their record
labels.

The Justice Department should also devote more resources to policing
online copyrights, the lawmakers said in their letter.

...




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