[e-privacy] [NEWS, PRIVACY, P2P] Governor signs Internet piracy bill (E-mail address required to share movies, music online)

[Andrea Glorioso]

Ciao a tutti.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/22/BAGQO8SOCF1.DTL


SACRAMENTO
Governor signs Internet piracy bill
E-mail address required to share movies, music online

Mark Martin, Lynda Gledhill, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau 

Aiding the  industry that helped  him gain worldwide fame, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger signed legislation Tuesday aimed at discouraging online
piracy  by  requiring  anyone  disseminating  movies or  music  on the
Internet to disclose their e-mail address.

California file sharers who trade songs  or films without providing an
e-  mail address  will   be   guilty of    a misdemeanor,  under   the
first-in-the-nation   measure that  could  make    it easier for   law
enforcement to track down   people who illegally download  copyrighted
material.

The bill is the latest attempt by film and music trade associations to
combat the hard-to-police use of file-sharing software.

The  signing was hailed   by  the bill's  sponsor, the  Motion Picture
Association  of America,  whose  president, Dan  Glickman,  noted in a
statement that  Schwarzenegger   had "a  unique  understanding  of the
powerful impact of piracy.''

The  governor  remains  a member of  the   Screen Actors Guild,  which
supported the bill.

Opponents, including  the   San  Francisco-based  Electronic  Frontier
Foundation and  the  American Civil Liberties  Union, say  the measure
infringes on  privacy rights of  computer users  and would turn casual
file-sharers into criminals.

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Ciao,

--
Andrea Glorioso             sama at miu-ft.org         +39 333 820 5723
        .:: Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia ::.
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