Entertainment - Reuters/Variety Music

Ashcroft Asked to Target Online Song Swappers
Fri Aug 9, 8:27 PM ET
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft ( news - web sites) 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 ( news - web sites) should also devote more resources to policing online copyrights, the lawmakers said in their letter.

"Such an effort is increasingly important as online theft of our nation's creative works is a growing threat to our culture and economy," the letter said.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

The recording industry says peer-to-peer services cut into CD sales, and has been battling them in court since 1999, when the five major labels sued pioneer service Napster ( news - web sites) Inc.

A U.S. federal judge ordered Napster to shut down its service in July 2001, but upstarts like Kazaa and Morpheus soon took its place. Kazaa, which in addition to music allows users to swap movies and other media files, said this week that its free software had been downloaded 100 million times.

Music labels have not ruled out suing individual users, and have pushed for the right to flood peer-to-peer networks with bogus files, or disrupt them by other means.

While a debate has raged on Capitol Hill over the proper balance between copyright and technological innovation, U.S. law-enforcement authorities have taken a minimal role.

The Justice Department filed a supporting motion siding with the record labels in the Napster case, but has brought no cases of its own.

The move was welcomed by the Recording Industry Association of America ( news - web sites), which represents the five major labels --Bertelsmann AG ( news - web sites), Vivendi Universal, Sony Corp ( news - web sites) ., AOL Time Warner Inc . and EMI Group Plc ( news - web sites) .

"There is no doubt, mass copying off the Internet is illegal and deserves to be a high priority for the Department of Justice ( news - web sites)," said RIAA Chairman Hilary Rosen in a statement.

An analyst for a digital civil-liberties group said the Justice Department probably had better things to do with its time.

The letter "implies that Justice should be going after relatively innocent behaviors that I suspect most Americans don't think warrant the time," said Alan Davidson, an associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

On the other hand, "we would much rather see current authorities be used before Congress goes and creates brand new laws," Davidson said.

A staffer for Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, who signed the letter, said that lawmakers did not want FBI ( news - web sites) agents to arrest casual users but instead go after operators of network "nodes" that handle much of the traffic.

Among those signing the letter were: Delaware Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden; Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner; Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott; Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers; North Carolina Republican Rep. Howard Coble; and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

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What is the world coming to? We have all these problems, the war against terrorism, homeleness, white collar corruption (Enron etc) AIDs, pedophile priests, Cancer etc and these morons want to go after song swappers?
[This message was edited Sun Aug 11 6:19:09 PDT 2002 by fonkywonder]

It's appalling isn't it?

The RIAA is taking advantage of an administration determined to take away the rights of citizens and people are going to fight sooner or later. Just you wait!

We are in the Middle of a War&they bringing this Up? you gonna try to stop people from going to other people's Crib's to Tape or Burn stuff for each other?? why not target the Music Business that Forces Bad Contracts,doesn't Pay Artist's for there Music Being Sold through Columbia&BMG??? how about the Many Artists that Had to wait in the Mid 80's to Early 90's while Acts were Sampling&Looping there Material without getting Paid? How about the Fact in Used Record Stores Artists don't get Paid a Dime for that Either? not to Mention that Philips which is Own by AOL always is Promoting there CD Burner.I Mean who do they think they are Kidding??

My letter to Rep. Conyers:

Your Honor,

I have just read that you are in support of the RIAA drafted and supported letter to our Attorney General John Ashcroft. This saddens me in many ways.

Today (August 12, 2002) on your website, you are critical of your peers who "have chosen to side with the interests of the corporate lobbyists and ‘fat cats’." By signing onto the letter from the recording industry, you are also siding with the interests of corporate lobbyists and 'fat cats.'

The RIAA is the 'bad guy' on many levels. They would have you believe that music is not art, but commodity. They may try to convince you that Motown has no future in the music industry unless the artists are properly compensated for their "commodity" that they provide for the record labels.

The truth is that Music is only a commodity due to the fact that there is a *opoly of 4 major labels that reap the VAST majority of the monies made from the selling of music.
The truth is that music artists see VERY LITTLE from CD and Album sales. Artists see thier money from the Labels who LOAN money as an advance and then recoup and hold hostage the artist later in the contract.

I understand that you have people in your district that will support you well and have ties to the record industry. I also know of your career and how you are always there for those in the minority. And also I know that you do not just throw your support behind something unless you have analyzed the issue thoroughly. In this case, however, I feel you are making a very critical error in judgement. The RIAA is well known for thier attempts to aid the record labels they support by advocating the deconstruction of privacy laws, promoting ever-tightening the control of how music is distributed and broadcast, and eliminating the rights of artists to maintain control of thier own work.

Your Honor, please reconsider your stand on this issue. If you wish, I am available for further comment in email. I understand your need to commit to your constituants, however, so I know that my being out of district may seem a bit out of place. Be assured that I intend on forwarding this letter to my district Representatives. But on that note, isn't my asking you to take your time to listen to me similar to asking Att. Gen. Ashcroft to take time away from issues like the War on Terror, Corporate Fraud, the War on Drugs, etc. to figure out a way to prosecute the large number of people who are "destroying music" by downloading a few songs off the internet?

Thank you for your time,

My letter to Rep. Sensenbrenner:

Your Honor,

John Ashcroft can KISS MY WHITE !!

Sincerely,

2the9s
Concerened Citizen
Premium Member, NPGMC

Ashcroft is a Nazi!

Dauphin said:

Um...?...could this be part of Corporate Fraud? And this "War on Terror", isn't that essentially part of the "War on Drugs"...kind of sound like the same thing from the same machine, huh?

Also, did you know Karkai...the new leader of Afganistan was an Big Oil Executive ( I think for Exxon)?...also, Iraq could it be a threat to oil pipeline land much like the Taliban where but ousted...it's just all wierd...but if you BUY into the "War on Terror" and all the "Glory" then you've been possibly smoked?

I don't know, it's late, maybe my ramblings should be in another forum...thread.

But check this article for some strange facts that MAYBE might make ya'lls who bought into corporate media's brand titles and trends rethink or THINK DEEPER into our leadership:
http://www.michaelmoore.c...part01.php

IMO its the record labels who are corrupt...they rip off their own artists and even before Napster etcthey were increasing the price of cds and cassettes. Now they are using song swappers as scapegoats and as a smoke screen to cover up their own mess and dishonesty. Please! to go after users whose ages range from 12 to 60 years old is pointless...cause millions of people from all over the world use it in some form. Sure they might succeed in closing Kazza etc like they did to Napster and Audiogalaxy...but other will spring up. They would be wasting time and money just like they have with their "War on Drugs campaign"...What's next? are they gonna stop people from taping things off the tv, radio etc (isn't that stealing too)? and if they don't want people doing these things why (which SONY have done) invent burners, recorders etc? They are hypercrits!

fonkywonder said:

You got it. Don't let 'em pull one over on you. And a ton of cd's are on average almost $20 with tax if you don't get them on sale. But they never bring up their inflated cd prices, because it doesn't benefit them to do so.


Well, ya see, whenever audio recorders and blank cassette tapes are sold there is a tax on them included in the price. That money goes to the record labels and musicians. So knowing that's the case, I'm sure it's also the case for VCR's and VHS tapes for movie studios and actors.

Well supernova I think the whole situation is funny...cause when you think about the number of college campuses in america who use Kazza etc, if this law comes to pass america is going to lose the bulk of its future leaders etv...they will end up spending time in prison with the pedophiles, murderers etc. This whole thing is a joke, I think the government should focus on other issues that are of great importance not this trivial nonsense!
[This message was edited Mon Aug 12 1:47:10 PDT 2002 by fonkywonder]

fonkywonder said:

But they're not going to go after all the people who download copywritten songs. Do you realize how many people all over the US and outside of it has downloaded songs? Prisons are busting at the seams as it is. It would seem more likely that they're going to go after the people who make the software for file sharing.

But you're right, it is a joke. But so are many politicians. Did I hear correctly that Dubya is taking a one month vacation? In the midst of what's going on with this, "war on terror" if it's true, it's just another damn dubious action on a list of things in his political career.

Supernova said:

definitely not after all...which is practically impossible and much too expensive to do. But if the Justice department vowes to participate in the quest against filesharing, then most probably the people with very fast internet connections and computers, often serving as 'super-nodes', will get targeted.


yeah, but it is already unlikely that any judge would put someone who shared a file in jail for it. That's legally not a really proportional, nor reasonable sanction. Fines, warnings, public labour penalties, or other 'alternative' forms of punishment are still options. Tho' I wouldn't be surprised if someone would face jailtime for the sake of 'sending a message' to the filesharers...


while that is also an option... it will encounter a lot of resistance from within the technology community, since the prohibiting of this kind of software will stiffle technological innovation.
And, very important is further that software like Kazaa does not only enable people to share copyrighted works without, but also with permission, or when permission is not needed, like with works which reside already in the public domain.
Also, when it is possible to share text files, music, movies, pictures etc, etc... there is an oppurtunity for everybody to publish their own works on the network, which also happens a lot on Kazaa.
Prohibiting something like Kazaa would then deprive all the people with a legitimate interest in using this software, because the RIAA and MPAAA don't like it.

Applying the same legal reasoning as in the Universal/Sony Betamax case (VCr's), it is not reasonable for congress nor any court to prohibit technological applacations which enable people to subtsantially engage in non-infringing activities, even though copyright infringement is still possible. This is why Kazaa got off the hook before the Amsterdam Court of Appeals, last april.

Abrazo said:

Unfortunately the law isn't always reasonable.