File Sharing: A Felony?

Representatives John Conyers (D-Mich) and Howard Berman (D-Cal) think that we should repeat the mistake of the "war on drugs." Their bill that is, in essence, a zero-tolerance law against peer-to-peer file trading would impose fines of up to $250,000 and jail terms of up to five years for even uploading a single file to a P2P network.

How would this be repeating the earlier mistakes? Firstly, it will be far more expensive than current copyright enforcement. The justice department budget for these kinds of crimes alone will be raised from $10 million to $15 million per year. That doesn't even count the increase in court load costs from the litigation that will follow, nor does it count the cost of increased prison capacity needed for all the new "criminals" out there. Secondly, as just noted, it will create a new class of criminal. A person who uploads that single file will suddenly be a felon--he may spend time in prison with real criminals (you know, murderers, rapists, Martha Stewart's financial advisor...), and will spend the rest of his working days explaining to prospective employers why there is a felony on his record.

This legislation is completely out of line with the crime. Frankly, it is the job of the electorate to punish the officials that would willingly step so far out of the bounds of reasonable thought.

There is much debate left in finding the balance between fair-use and creative rights--and the industry has much to learn about delivering services and products that people actually want to buy. This incredible, continuing onslaught against consumers isn't going to get us any closer to a resolution any more than the war on drugs has stopped the flow (and demand) for drugs in this country.

Read the story in Wired.
Update: Jay is talking about this, too.