COPYCENSE

"A bill introduced in California’s Legislature last week has raised the possibility of jail time for developers of file-swapping software who don’t stop trades of copyrighted movies and songs online.

"The proposal, introduced by Los Angeles Sen. Kevin Murray, takes direct aim at companies that distribute software such as Kazaa, eDonkey or Morpheus. If passed and signed into law, it could expose file-swapping software developers to fines of up to $2,500 per charge, or a year in jail, if they don’t take ‘reasonable care’ in preventing the use of their software to swap copyrighted music or movies–or child pornography.

"Peer-to-peer software companies and their allies immediately criticized the bill as a danger to technological innovation, and as potentially unconstitutional."

John Borland. State Bill Could Cripple P2P. News.com. Jan. 18, 2005.

See also:
No author. California Senator Goes After P2P. Red Herring. Jan. 18, 2005.

Jason Schultz. Induce — California Style. EFF Deep Links. Jan. 18, 2005.

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