Thanks Dawson for sending this in. Record labels have requested legal support for a variety of techniques intended to thwart file-trading networks that they say infringe on copyrights. During arguments over a congressional bill supporting such techniques, industry representatives said such measures are necessary in an online environment that resists existing legal tactics.
The proposed bill is the first congressional attempt to provide copyright holders with methods other than litigation to combat what they see as piracy.
Called the P2P Piracy Prevention Act, the legislation is sponsored by Representative Howard Berman (D-California), who said he is a "big fan" of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and noted that they have "terrific potential for all kinds of legitimate applications."
However, he said, "I never expected that anyone would challenge the basic premise of the bill: that copyright owners should be able to use reasonable, limited self-help measures to thwart rampant, notorious P2P piracy."