Law to strengthen penalties for illegal file downloads

An anti-piracy bill signed into law this past month has members of the VCU community questioning the legality of music downloading and the need to regulate Internet piracy.

The PRO-IP Act, which was signed into law by President Bush Oct. 13, increases penalties for movie and music piracy at the federal level and strengthens criminal laws against piracy and counterfeiting.

The law also creates the position of an intellectual property czar who reports directly to the president with suggestions for improvement of both domestic and international copyrights.

Mike Garrett, general manager of WVCW, the student-run radio station at VCU, says the music industry should look at alternative ways to combat piracy rather than introducing stricter laws.

“(The music industry is) entrenched in doing things the old way and I have yet to see any major label try to do things differently,” Garrett said.

Garrett says the industry needs to utilize the Internet more and investigate non-traditional forms for generating revenue.

“The album has to be a promotional tool for the artist, so they need to look into finding the cheapest way to distribute the music,” Garrett said. “CDs are out; vinyl is coming back in.”

Chris Gorman, a business major, says he finds the law unnecessary and thinks file sharing and downloading pirated music shouldn’t be an illegal practice.

“I think even though the artists are technically receiving less money, they should enjoy the fact that it makes them vastly more popular and opens up their material to a greater mass,” Gorman said.

VCU Technology Services states on its Web site that the university agrees with court rulings that downloading copyrighted works without permission is illegal.

“The courts have ruled that Peer-to-Peer and other unauthorized uploading and downloading of sound recordings, pictures, software or written text inherently amount to copyright infringement and therefore constitute a crime. The punishment for this crime can be very stiff,” the Web site states.

The Web site cites examples of when use of copyrighted media is legal and when it is illegal. For example, making copies of music and distributing them to others is a violation of copyright law, while transferring a legally purchased CD to a computer hard drive for personal use is legal.

Downloading illegal files onto a university-owned computer or using university network resources to do so is a violation of VCU’s Computer and Network Resources Use Policy.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, counterfeiting
and piracy cost the United States approximately $250 billion annually.

Examples of acceptable use of copyrighted material and
copyright violations are available on the VCU Technology Services website at http://www.ts.vcu.edu/security/student.html.