The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004, approved
unanimously by the Senate, replaces the proposed Intellectual
Property Protection Act, which was itself a consolidation of other
draft copyright bills that have been put forward over the course of
the last congressional session.
These include the Induce Act (otherwise known as the Inducing
Infringement of Copyrights Act), which proposed to make anyone who
"intentionally induces any violation" of US copyright law liable
for that violation, and the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act,
which aimed to criminalise file-sharing; to demand funding for the
Justice Department to initiate an internet use education program;
and to give the FBI powers to create an anti-piracy program.
Consumer groups and civil liberties organisations objected
loudly to the proposals, which they saw as being so broad as to
attack any service or device that had the potential to be used for
copyright infringement, and as forcing the taxpayer to fund the
legal battles of the entertainment industry
The Act now approved by the Senate – in the lame duck session
that precedes the demise of the current Congress – steers clear of
such controversial measures.
Instead, among a host of small amendments to existing copyright
law and, strangely, a large section relating to boxing standards,
the Act targets the piracy of pre-release works and prohibits the
"camcording" of motion pictures for unauthorised
redistribution.
The Act will also allow devices such as ClearPlay's DVD player –
which permits parents to edit inappropriate material out of films –
to operate without breaching the law.
