aborchers's Journal: Letter to Robert Wexler (Sent 2003, June 23)

I am writing today regarding last Thursday's introduction of H.R. 2517, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act. While I find it refreshing that Congress would assign responsibility for monitoring of criminal copyright infringement to law enforcement where it belongs, rather than delegate it to corporate vigilantes (as with DMCA, P2PPPA), I am disturbed by some of the bill's text.

The conflation of copyright infringement with theft (H.R. 2517 repeatedly uses terms like "steal" and "theft") is disingenuous and dangerous. As you know, these are different crimes covered by different statutes, and it would be negligent to let this bill proceed as written. I request that you do whatever is within your power to ensure that the terms of the bill are clarified, and that any possibility of confusion of copyright infringement with more serious property crimes is removed.