This article talks about how Congress is organizing committees to come down on file sharing. What these Congresspeople don't seem to understand is that by controlling intellectual property, they are controlling ideas. All ideas. Not just songs, but any conveyance of thought. Article excerpt:
...Three members of the U.S. House of Representatives are creating a new congressional caucus devoted to combating piracy and promoting stronger intellectual property laws.
A letter sent to some members of Congress last Friday by Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., warned of the threat of "ever-changing technologies" and asked colleagues if they would like to join the caucus. "The concerns of the thousands of Americans whose livelihoods depend on intellectual property protection are not being fully debated or addressed," said the letter, which was obtained by CNET News.com.
A representative for Wexler said on Monday that planning for the caucus--formally titled the Congressional Caucus on Intellectual Property Promotion and Piracy Prevention--is still in its early stages. "We literally just submitted the papers at the end of the last week, so it's just in formation," the representative said, adding that many possible Republican members have not yet been contacted.
Wexler co-sponsored a bill last year, backed by the major record labels, that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file-trading. He also serves on the House Judiciary subcommittee that writes copyright laws.
It's unclear what immediate effect the caucus will have on new laws aimed at peer-to-peer (P2P) pirates, although one likely outcome is a new focus on what has emerged as a hot topic in the 108th Congress. The founding of the caucus comes as Congress is spending more time scrutinizing peer-to-peer piracy. One recent House committee hearing blamed P2P networks for spreading illegal forms of pornography, while another fingered universities as hotbeds of widespread--and felonious--copyright infringement.
Joining Wexler as co-founder of the caucus is Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who helped author a note last fall to 74 fellow Democrats assailing the Linux open-source operating system's GNU General Public License as a threat to America's "innovation and security." Smith's Ninth District includes the Seattle surburbs near Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters. The third founder is Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., a first-term congressman and former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives who was once Gov. Jeb Bush's running mate.
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gleeful comments by RIAA and MPAA removed
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By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 19, 2003, 3:51 PM PT