US Copyright Office Joins Induce Act Debate

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

06 September 2004

The US Copyright Office last week unveiled its own contribution to the debate over peer-to-peer file sharing in the wake of an August appeals court ruling which argued that file sharing services such as Grokster, Kazaa and Morpheus are not illegal operations.

The Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act, commonly known as the Induce Act, is designed to hold technology firms liable for encouraging their customers to infringe copyright. Following strong criticism of the proposed legislation by the industry, the Act's sponsors, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) threw it open for comment.

Although according to the CNET News service, the Copyright Office's discussion draft waters down the original Act by making it more difficult for firms to be found liable for copyright violations undertaken by their customers, it also calls for firms which "actively interfere" with a copyright holder's efforts to identify infringers to be held liable, a provision which has caused alarm amongst ISPs.

"Let's say the recording industry wants the names of our subscribers. Is (objecting to the request) interfering with their efforts to detect infringing uses? It seems to be," vice president of Verizon Communications, Sarah Deutsch observed, according to CNET.

Another section of the discussion draft which has created controversy, Ms Deutsch revealed, is the suggestion that technology companies must take all "reasonably available corrective measures" to prevent piracy.

"Would your failure to take a digital rights management package from a large copyright holder mean you failed to take corrective measures? Or your failure to take the action they want in a cease and desist letter?" she asked.

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