joegratz.net

Fred von Lohmann of the EFF broke the story yesterday of a new copyright bill to be introduced within the next day or two by Senator Orrin Hatch. The INDUCE Act will make anyone who “intentionally aids, abets, induces, counsels, or procures” an act of copyright infringement liable for that act.

This is staggeringly broad; if this law were enacted, many of the links in this blog would have given rise to liability. I just wouldn’t be able to link to Grey Tuesday protest sites, or the Nickelback parody mash-up, or anything else that’s right on the edge of fair use.

The point of this law is pretty clearly to blast the P2P companies instantly into oblivion. Of course, this wouldn’t have any lasting effect on P2P file sharing; the networks are built to survive the destruction of their creators.

Note the sickening demagoguery of the title: this is the “Inducement Devolves into Unlawful Child Exploitation” Act. Of course, child porn has nothing to do with copyright law. My guess is that trafficking in child porn on P2P networks, while criminal three or four different ways, is not also copyright infringement, since, though this hasn’t come up to my knowledge, I would guess the Copyright Office would refuse to register a work whose possession is a crime.