The Artists Rights and Theft Prevention Act, introduced in the Senate by John Cornyn (R-TX) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) would create criminal penalties for anyone who makes available over the internet a pre-release movie or album.
News.com: Share ‘True Crime,’ do the time
The threat of a three-year prison term kicks in when anyone makes an illicit copy of a movie “available on a computer network accessible to members of the public,” when the film “was intended for commercial distribution but had not been so distributed at the time.” Once the film is commercially distributed, the felony penalties appear to no longer apply.
Washington Post: Senate Bill Targets Internet Pirates
“We’re trying to go after the pre-release stuff that is absolutely killing any potential revenue for one of the segments of our economy that’s doing well,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Cornyn. The movie studios and record labels are “just absolutely getting clobbered.”
