Movie pirates beware! If you get caught videotaping a movie, you could be sent up the river for a six year stint in federal prison. According to legislation that won approval by the House on Tuesday, $15 million in federal funds will be diverted from the war on terror to 'protecting Hollywood's and Big Music's parochial interests.'
Thank goodness that someone is protecting Hollywood! Lord knows that those fat cats need every stinkin' penny they can whittle out of the fans, the actors, and the writers.
The proposed Piracy Deterrence and Education Act seeks to make it easier for the Justice Department to prosecute Internet users who illegally distribute large amounts of music, movies, software programs and other copyrighted works.
According to the existing No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, P2P (peer to peer) users that distribute over $1,000 of pirated material can face penalties from prison terms of up to three years to fines up to $250,000. If the new bill became law, prosecutors would not have to prove that $1,000 in copyrighted materials was ever actually downloaded, but would only need to show that those files had been publicly accessible in a shared folder.
In other words, if you have copyrighted material in a public folder, you're going to prison with hardened criminal rapists and murderers.
In comparison, if you get caught with drugs, it has to be proven that you had the intent to sell it before hitting you with a felony charge to distribute. But if you're just some moocher holding a camcorder in the local bijou showing the latest Hollywood blockbuster, or have a grainy, horribly sounding, 3 inch wide copy of The Hulk on your computer, well... buck up, son. You're joining Bruto the arson in cell block 6. Yeah, that's deserved!
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)had this bit of wisdom for all you cinema and music pirates out there: 'There seems to be a belief among America's youth ... that copyright piracy is either an acceptable activity or one that carries a low risk of penalties.'
While U.S. Soldiers have to buy themselves armored jackets that family members purchased off the Internet with their own money, Sensenbrenner wants to make sure that $15 million will be used to insure that your life gets ruined because you wanted to see the latest Star Wars before anyone else does. Sounds mighty fair to me.
'Digital film piracy is a menace that poses a dire threat to every American filmmaker...' MPAA president and CEO Dan Glickman said. 'Without such legislative remedies, film piracy could have a disastrous impact on the American film industry and put to peril the livelihoods of men and women who are employed in our industry.'
His wish is the Government's command, as $15 million dollars will be diverted from federal funds -- funds which could've been used to protect our soldiers in Iraq by supplying armor for their bullet-ridden vehicles -- to help the U.S. protect the precious filmmaker from the ruthlessly horrible music downloader and the feared movie pirates.
Thanks to Mr. Glickman and Rep. Sensenbrenner, the world will become a much safer place once Hollywood is protected.
With Tuesday's vote, the legislation now moves to the Senate, which has not yet held hearings on it.
