[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Democratic Party group says Napster users must not b

["Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Sun, 21 May 2000 10:03:49 -0400
To:             	politech@vorlon.mit.edu
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Democratic Party group says Napster users must not be anonymous
Copies to:      	I.Clarke@dynamicblue.com, webmaster@dlcppi.org
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

[Congress should require Napster to collect addresses and credit card
information of users before they can use it? So much for protecting
privacy. And what about minors or the less affluent who don't have
credit cards? The Justice Department argued for this when defending an
anti-porn law that required credit cards, and a federal judge said
imposing that rule on web sites "would cause serious and debilitating
effects on their businesses." Sheesh. Just wait 'til the Progressive
Policy Institute finds out about Freenet. --Declan]

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See also:
http://www.dlcppi.org/press/release/napster.htm
http://freenet.sourceforge.net/
http://www.epic.org/free_speech/copa/tro.html
********

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2573171,00.html

Online piracy: What's the answer?
May 19, 2000

By Reuters
May 19, 2000 4:25 PM PT

LOS ANGELES -- A centrist Democratic think tank said on Friday it will
suggest measures to Congress next week to reduce piracy associated
with controversial song-swap company Napster Inc. and similar online
services.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), a Washington, D.C.-based
research organization for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council,
will propose the measures in a paper on Tuesday at a House Small
Business Committee hearing.

[...]

[Robert Atkinson, Director of the New Economy Project for the
institute] said Napster only reacted quickly because of media
attention. "The law as written has no set timetable," he said,
referring to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. "We're proposing a
specific timeframe, perhaps a week, for ISPs to remove infringing
users once they're identified," he said.

The PPI also proposed that Napster should collect identifiable and
verifiable information from its users, such as addresses and credit
card information. The paper also proposed giving judges greater
flexibility in granting injunctions against services being used for
copyright infringement.

"Right now, judges have to wait for a trial as copyright losses pile
up by the minute," he said.

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