Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of law, culture, technology, and politics. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.

Text of legislation:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.00167:

A lively Slashdot thread:
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/04/20/1733215.shtml?tid=95&tid=17

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http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5677232.html

Prison terms on tap for 'prerelease' pirates
April 19, 2005, 4:33 PM PDT

File-swappers who distribute a single copy of a prerelease movie on the 
Internet can be imprisoned for up to three years, under a bill that's 
slated to become the most dramatic expansion of online piracy penalties 
in years.

The bill, approved by Congress on Tuesday, is written so broadly it 
could make a federal felon of anyone who has even one copy of a film, 
software program or music file in a shared folder and should have known 
the copyrighted work had not been commercially released. Stiff fines of 
up to $250,000 can also be levied. Penalties would apply regardless of 
whether any downloading took place.

[...remainder snipped...]

Posted by Declan McCullagh on Apr 20, 2005 in category intellectual-property

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