President Bush recently signed a bill that would impose substantial penalties on those found illegally distributing content prior to official release. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 was passed earlier this month by the US House of Representatives, with the Bush signature largely expected.Will this make anyone think twice about hosting and distributing songs from leaked albums? While I must defer to those with legal backgrounds to fully parse and understand this act, a cursory review of the actual text turned this up:
The initiative has drawn praise from both the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), with the bill heavily focused on those that carry camcorders into theaters. But the scope of the bill also includes music, outlining "criminal penalties for willful copyright infringement" and subsequent online distribution of an unreleased song.
IN GENERAL- Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed...by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.OK, so we were all aware that distributing pre-release copyrighted material over the Internet is a no-no. But here are those "substantial penalties" this act will impose:
Any person who commits an offense under section 506(a):I will be very curious to see if this law will be enforced. Most independent labels and self-distributed artists don't seem to care about the distribution of leaked music. The major labels, however, do not hesitate to protect their copyrights. I'd hate to see someone jailed over leaking a Coldplay or White Stripes track.
(1) of title 17 --shall be imprisoned not more than 3 years, fined under this title, or both;
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense was committed for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;
(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 6 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense; and
(4) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense under paragraph
