Back to Part I of this Rant

He offers other arguments in defense of his bill. One of real interest is this nice piece of double talk where he says that the bill does not contain a“reasonable basis” provision, which limits copyright holders liability if they disable legitimate files.  Here is what he said,  “There simply is no ‘reasonable basis’ language in the safe harbor created by H.R. 5211.  The actual language of H.R. 5211 is clear: it only provides a safe harbor to copyright owners who actually impair the piracy of their copyrighted works through P2P networks - without regard to whether they have a reasonable basis to believe piracy is taking place.”

However, the bill as proposed to the House of Representatives contains the following language; “a copyright owner knowingly and intentionally impairs the distribution, display, performance, or reproduction of a particular computer file or data, and has no reasonable basis to believe that such distribution, display, performance, or reproduction constitutes an infringement of copyright, and an affected file trader suffers economic loss in excess of $250 as a result of the act by the copyright owner, the affected file trader may seek compensation for such economic loss.”

It’s a sidestep only a politician could accomplish, there is no provision that establishes a “reasonable basis” per se but it does state that copyright holder will only be liable if they intentionally disable, alter, delete legitimate files on a users computer if they there is “no reasonable basis”.  It depends on what the meaning of “is” is. 

Perhaps the most telling aspect of this bill and how Rep. Berman came to introduce it comes in the following quote from his Q&A page, “…H.R. 5211 then allows the songwriter to take certain, limited actions to stop the distribution of her copyrighted song between KaZaA users, but in no way allows her to enter or look into a private area of those KaZaA users’ computers...” 

You notice he uses the term “her” to describe the copyright holder/songwriter, could the “her” be in reference to Hillary Rosen the head of the RIAA? It is an interesting thought to ponder. 

During a hearing on H.R. 5211, representative Berman defended it’s provisions but gave himself an out for the criticism it has received, “When we first introduced the P2P piracy bill, I fully expected to hear concerns about its drafting, potential breadth, and unintended consequeences. In fact, the legislation was introduced at the end of the 107th Congress with the expressed intent of perfecting it before reintroduction in the 108th Congerss...” [note” the typos and spelling errors are quoted exactly from Congressman Berman’s website, another example of your tax dollars at work!] 

So now that the heat is on, Congressman Berman intends to “perfect” the language before reintroducing it to during the next Congress. With that in mind, I urge all of those who read this article to not ignore this bill. It is understandable and reasonable for copyright holders to protect their material and receive compensation for their work. However, this bill as drafted presents a Pandora’s box that could lead to disastrous consequences and the wholesale usurping of certain individual freedoms. 

Although Congressman Berman says that he will re-introduce the bill in an amended form in the next Congress, you can still contact your congressperson now and urge them to oppose this bill or to help put pressure on Berman and his cosponsors to draft a more reasonable substitute bill. 

As it stands now H.R. 5211 gives unprecedented power to large corporations to wage war against individuals, and again we know the record companies think of this as a war. So don’t take this lying down. Make sure that Congress doesn’t give the record companies a blank check to do what they will. A reasonable bill can be drafted that would help copyright holders protect their interest and at the same time include strong provisions, which clearly outlines the actions that can be taken and gives stiff penalties to copyright holders who abuse the powers granted to them under the “safe harbor” provisions. H.R. 5211 is bad legislation as it is now written. It is far too one-sided to effectively give copyrighters additional ways to combat the theft of their material while at the same time protecting the rights of individuals. It’s time for Rep. Berman to go back to the drafting table and come up with a bill that is acceptable. 

Related Links: 

Click here to locate the email address of your Representative, so you can email him/her to register your concern over the provisions in this bill. 

Here is a site with more information on the bill, as well the full text of H.R. 5211 and other useful links.