IDSA Praises Copyright Enforcement Bill

This article comes from Highwaygames.com

The Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) yesterday strongly endorsed legislation introduced by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Howard Berman (D-CA) that would strengthen criminal copyright laws and provide additional enforcement funds to target intellectual property pirates. The IDSA is the trade association representing computer and video game software publishers.

"This bill demonstrates the continuing leadership of Reps. Conyers and Berman in working to protect IP rights in a way which balances the interests of the creative community with consumers' privacy rights," said IDSA President Douglas Lowenstein.

The "Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003," introduced yesterday, would strengthen the ability of both U.S. and foreign governments to prosecute copyright infringers and would make it a crime for infringers to hide their identities by providing false information when registering for domain names. It also makes clear that illegally uploading even a single copyrighted work to a publicly accessible website gives rise to criminal copyright liability.

Mindful of consumers' privacy rights, the bill would also require online distributors of file-swapping software to provide notice to, and receive consent from, consumers that downloading file-sharing software onto their computers may create security and privacy risks that endanger confidential personal information.

Overall the Conyers/Berman bill complements the provisions of a bill introduced by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), the "Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003," that gives more power to the Justice Department to prosecute copyright crimes. The IDSA strongly supports the Smith bill as well.