News
Feinstein proposes illegal recording as a federal offense
By Dennis Lloyd
Publisher, iLounge
Published: Friday, November 14, 2003
News Category: Digital Media
“Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California moved Thursday to protect increasingly beleaguered movie and music producers and artists by proposing a new federal crackdown on pirates, especially those who use the Internet to distribute their goods. [...]
The Feinstein-Cornyn proposal would make illegal recording a federal felony, with a maximum punishment of five years in prison, an unspecified fine, or both. The maximum prison time increases to 10 years for a second offense.”
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1
This is a very partisan summary that seems to have been deliberately taken out of context to mislead readers into believing that Feinstein intends to infringe on our rights in support of the RIAA. Read the story. The Feinstein/Cornyn proposal targets only those people who record films and music with the intention of selling or distributing it (especially those who videotape cinema performances) or those who distribute pirated products, especially those who do so for commercial gain. It has nothing to do with file sharing. From the Gate article: “The sponsors said their bill isn’t aimed at consumers of pirated materials, but at the creators and distributors.” Read the proposal and you’ll see that this is true.
Posted by tonton on November 14, 2003 at 9:29 AM (PDT)
2
But if your crime is only murder you’ll probably be out on parole in 3 years.
Reminds me of Alice’s Restaurant….They asked what I was in for and I said ‘littering’ and they all moved away from me. Then I said ‘and creating a nuisience’ and they all moved back.
Posted by Xenious on November 14, 2003 at 10:30 AM (PDT)
3
Quote “to protect increasingly beleaguered movie and music producers and artists “. Figures, a California politician protecting all those POOR producers and artists in Hollywood. God forbid they should help the people in the entertainment industry who bust their arse and get little payback. Or work on bigger problems in California like cleanup after the wildfires, or the massive debt/budget problems they have.
Posted by notxxreal on November 14, 2003 at 11:07 AM (PDT)
4
looks like someone is up for re-election. there always looking for the hot ticket to jump on when its time for an election. a couple of years ago the politicians didnt even give a crap about illegal downloading. only people like metallica did. you see how great it worked out for them. i cant help but feel that the new movie star governor has an influence in all of this. hes too smart to talk about it publicly tho so he dumps it off on his lower level hencheman or in this case women. your telling me that nobody in feinsteins family has illegally downloaded music on there computers. i very much doubt that.
Posted by Jaguares in Bay Area, Ca on November 14, 2003 at 11:21 AM (PDT)
5
Jaguares: if you think Feinstein is Schwarzenegger’s “henchwoman,” maybe you should realize that they don’t belong to the same party, that one is in the federal Senate and one is a state governor-elect, and that Feinstein just got done actively campaigning against Schwarzenegger. It’s much more likely that Feinstein is trolling for campaign funds from Hollywood bigwigs (not named Schwarzenegger) and that she is simply pandering to her largest contributors.
Posted by gordyhulten in Urbana, IL on November 14, 2003 at 11:52 AM (PDT)
6
Hey, Tonton, you said “It has nothing to do with file sharing.” Yet, you also quote the article as having said “The sponsors said their bill isn’t aimed at consumers of pirated materials, but at the creators and distributors.”
What do you think another phrase would be for the act of distributing pirated materials? Perhaps, “file sharing”?
Politicians are in the back pockets of big business. Period, the end. Sure, they can’t catch everyone who shares files that are not legitimate copies, but they can catch some people. And for trading songs? Since when is that an offense on the level of murder? Or even mail fraud?
Posted by astromannix on November 14, 2003 at 1:03 PM (PDT)
7
The bill is aimed at people who share any pre-released movies or any pirated film. If you have p2p and have shared movies, it’ll now be a felony.
Funny that people that share the movies are now in the same league as rapists and drug dealers.
Posted by tetro on November 14, 2003 at 11:38 PM (PDT)