The ever-astute Ernest Miller of Lawmeme and Copyfight responds to "Congress Moves to Criminalize P2P," a story I filed for Wired News on Friday. Snip from his post "PIRATE Act Reveals Sen. Hatch as Strange Ally of Pornography Industry":
"Public health and safety are also directly threatened by business models that tempt children toward piracy and pornography and then use them as "human shields" against law enforcement."
My first thought was, "I'm surprised Hatch didn't pull a Gen. Jack D. Ripper imitation and start calling for protecting the precious purity of our children's bodily fluids." My second thought was, "does Hatch know what he is saying?"
Perhaps Hatch doesn't realize this, but most pornography is copyrighted and, as Hatch notes, is frequently distributed via filesharing networks. Since Hatch wants to stop copyright infringement and also discourage the redistribution of pornography, there is only one logical conclusion. This new law is meant to encourage the DOJ to go after those infringing pornography copyrights through P2P filesharing. By suing those engaged in pornography piracy, the DOJ could accomplish two of Hatch's goals at once: reducing infringement and pornography redistribution.
Read "PIRATE Act Reveals Sen. Hatch as Strange Ally of Pornography Industry": Link. Read the original Wired report: Link
UPDATE: Ernest writes, "I've just written another piece on the PIRATE Act … the feds can use wiretaps to enforce it, something the RIAA can't do." Link
