Induce vomiting: banning peer-to-peer networks.

• Author: Metchis, Hanah
• Position: Citings - Brief Article

LAST YEAR A U.S. district court in Los Angeles held that Grokster, a peer-to-peer file sharing network, could not be held responsible for copyright infringements by its users. Since then, the Recording Industry Association of America has been suing individual downloaders rather than companies, but the entertainment industry is still itching to shut down file trading networks at the source. Their latest attempt is the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), which would make it illegal to "intentionally induce" copyright violation.

With such vague, broad language, the bill endangers not just file sharing networks but many other technologies as well. To illustrate the legislation's reach, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has produced a sample legal complaint targeting Apple (for creating and marketing the iPod), the webzine CNET (for explaining how to...