We’re Going to Need Lots More Prisons

Better
hurry up with that digital downloading. The government wants to impose
penalties of up to ten years in prision for downloading a single file….

A
draft bill recently circulated among members of the House judiciary committee
would make it much easier for the Justice Department to pursue criminal
prosecutions against file sharers by lowering the burden of proof. The
bill, obtained Thursday by Wired News, also would seek penalties of fines
and prison time of up to ten years for file sharing.

In addition, on Thursday, Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy
(D-Vermont) introduced a bill that would allow the Justice Department
to pursue civil cases
against file sharers, again making it easier for law enforcement to punish people
trading copyright music over peer-to-peer networks. They dubbed the bill "Protecting
Intellectual Rights Against Theft and Expropriation Act of 2004," or the
Pirate Act.

from Wired News