COPYCENSE

"A top Justice Department official on Monday took a swipe at one of the recording industry’s favorite ideas: a law encouraging federal prosecutors to sue copyright infringers.

"Hewitt Pate, assistant attorney general for antitrust, expressed skepticism toward a bill called the Pirate Act that the Senate overwhelmingly approved in June. It’s designed to curb peer-to-peer piracy by threatening individual infringers with civil lawsuits brought by the government.

"That idea is ‘something that people should take with a grain of salt,’ Pate said at a conference held by the Progress & Freedom Foundation. While ‘the Justice Department is there to enforce the law, there’s something to be said for those who help themselves.’"

Declan McCullagh. Justice Dept. Takes P2P with ‘Grain of Salt’. News.com. Aug. 23, 2004.