Pirate Act
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The Protecting Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act of 2004 (), better known as the Pirate Act, was a bill in the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
that would have let federal prosecutors file civil
lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
s against suspected
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
infringers. Prior to the introduction of this act, only criminal lawsuits could be filed against suspected infringers.


Background

By the mid-1990s, p2p
file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include r ...
over the Internet had risen to prominence. Until 1997, copyright infringement was only considered a criminal offense if it was for the purpose of "commercial advantage or private financial gain." During this year, the
NET Act The United States No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act), a federal law passed in 1997, provides for criminal prosecution of individuals who engage in copyright infringement under certain circumstances, even when there is no monetary profit or commer ...
was passed, which allowed for federal prosecutors to file criminal lawsuits against suspected infringers, without requiring evidence of commercial benefit or financial gain. However, it proved difficult to find legitimate criminal charges, and by 2004, this privilege had yet to be invoked by federal prosecutors. As file sharing became more popular, the
music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
experienced a steady three-year decline in revenue. From 2001 to 2004, the industry lost $5 billion, partially attributed to the increase in online music piracy on websites such as Kazaa,
Morpheus Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the grc, μορφή meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name b ...
and
Grokster Grokster Ltd. was a privately owned software company based in Nevis, West Indies that created the Grokster peer-to-peer file-sharing client in 2001 that used the FastTrack protocol. Grokster Ltd. was rendered extinct in late 2005 by the United St ...
. The
Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) had filed thousands of civil lawsuits without the aid of federal prosecutors, hoping to deter music piracy at large. One of the first and most famous online copyright infringement lawsuits -
Capitol v. Thomas ''Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas-Rasset'' was the first file-sharing copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States brought by major record labels to be tried before a jury. The defendant, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, was found liable to the plai ...
- resulted in a mother of four owing $1.5 million to various music labels for violating copyrights on 24 songs.


Contents

The Pirate Act was introduced in the
United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...
as by
Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator ...
(R-UT) and
Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph Leahy (; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who is the senior United States senator from Vermont and serves as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, ...
(D-VT) on March 25, 2004. It would allow the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
to bring civil copyright infringement cases against individuals suspected of illegal file-sharing on the Internet. In filing a civil lawsuit, knowledge of infringement and willful intent are not required criteria, as they are in criminal cases. Thus, there is a lower burden of proof, making it easier for the DOJ to pursue infringers. Penalties for violating the terms of the bill included fines and prison time of up to 10 years if someone shared 2,500 pieces or more of content, such as songs or movies. Sharing a file that is determined (by a judge) to be worth more than $10,000 can also result in prison time. Additionally, anyone who released content that had not yet been released in wide distribution could also face penalties. In his argument in favor of the bill, Senator Leahy stated, "Prosecutors can rarely justify bringing criminal charges, and copyright owners have been left to fend for themselves, defending their rights only where they can afford to do so. In a world in which a computer and an Internet connection are all the tools you need to engage in massive piracy, this is an intolerable predicament." In addition to granting the DOJ this privilege, the bill also stipulated that the
Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
would have six months to "develop a program to ensure effective implementation and use of the authority for civil enforcement of the copyright laws", and report back to Congress on the details of said lawsuits, including the total number of lawsuits and the financial statistics. The DOJ would receive $2 million in order to fund the program at its conception.


Reaction

Pro *Groups within the entertainment industry, including the RIAA and the
Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...
(MPAA) were very supportive of the Pirate Act. Jack Valenti, the MPAA's chief executive at the time, commended Senators Hatch and Leahy for "their vision and leadership in combating the theft of America's creative works." Additionally, Mitch Bainwol, then-chairman and CEO of the RIAA, agreed with Valenti's sentiments, stating that "this legislation provide federal prosecutors with the flexibility and discretion to bring copyright-infringement cases that best correspond to the nature of the crime." Con *Some organizations feel that the passage of bills such as the Pirate Act would give private industry groups (such as the RIAA) unnecessary aid from the government. By using the financial advantages provided by the DOJ, the Act would put the responsibility of funding the war on intellectual property piracy on taxpayers, rather than the content owners. Those who oppose this legislation feel that it expands the role of government far beyond what is necessary in order to combat the issue. Stacie Rumenap, deputy director of the
American Conservative Union The American Conservative Union (ACU) is an American political organization that advocates for conservative policies, ranks politicians based on their level of conservatism, and organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference. Founded on ...
, was strongly against the bill: "The Pirate Act is another masquerade by Hollywood to make taxpayers foot the bill for its misguided war on promising new technology. Right now, Hollywood is trying to ram this flawed bill - a handout for Tinsel Town fat cats - through Congress without hearings or debate." *Organizations such as P2P United, a group that represents software companies that run file-sharing networks, are opposed to the new laws that would punish file sharers. Instead, they propose that politicians should explore ways in which copyright holders can be paid through the movement of their works through P2P networks. *During the first quarter of 2004, Senator Leahy received $178,000 in campaign contributions from groups within the entertainment industries, which constituted his second-largest source of donations. Senator Hatch received $152,360 from similar groups.


Legislative history

The Pirate Act was grouped into an
omnibus bill An omnibus bill is a proposed law that covers a number of diverse or unrelated topics. ''Omnibus'' is derived from Latin and means "to, for, by, with or from everything". An omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a ...
- The Intellectual Property Protection Act (2004) - with seven other related pieces of legislation, including the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2004 (ART Act). It passed the Senate by a unanimous vote on June 25, 2004, and was referred to the
U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...
on August 4, 2004, where it eventually failed to pass. Various reincarnations of the Pirate Act were proposed and passed through the Senate in both 2005 and 2006, but both times it again failed to pass through the House. Another variation - The Intellectual Property Enforcement Act of 2007 - was proposed in the Senate on November 6, 2007, but no progress was made.


See also

* Intellectual property legislation pending in the United States Congress *
Trade group efforts against file sharing Arts and media industry trade groups, such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), strongly oppose and attempt to prevent copyright infringement through file sharing. Th ...


References

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External links


Text of the "Pirate Act"
United States proposed federal intellectual property legislation Copyright legislation Proposed legislation of the 108th United States Congress 2004 in American law