COPYCENSE

"A hotly contested wrangle in Congress over how to outlaw file-swapping networks just took a new twist.

"The U.S. Copyright Office has drafted a new version of the Induce Act that it believes will ban networks like Kazaa and Morpheus while not putting hardware such as portable hard drives and MP3 players on the wrong side of the law.

"The Copyright Office’s four-page ‘discussion draft,’ appears to back away from the broad sweep of the original Induce Act by making it more difficult for companies to be found liable for copyright violations. It says anyone who ‘intentionally induces’ copyright violations can be found liable, with ‘induce’ defined as one or more ‘affirmative, overt acts that are reasonably expected to cause or persuade another person or persons’ to violate copyright law."

Declan McCullagh. Copyright Office Pitches Anti-P2P Bill. News.com. Sept. 2, 2004.

See also:
Mike Godwin. Sept. 3 Letter to Copyright Office Regarding S2560. Public Knowledge. Sept. 3, 2004.