PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Jul 25, 2002
Amends Federal copyright law to protect a copyright owner from liability in any criminal or civil action for impairing, with appropriate technology, the unauthorized distribution, display, performance, or reproduction of his or her copyrighted work on a publicly accessible peer-to-peer file trading network, if such impairment does not, without authorization, alter, delete, or otherwise impair the integrity of any computer file or data residing on the computer of a file trader.Denies such liability protection to a copyright owner who does not comply with certain notification requirements or who: (1) impairs the availability within a publicly accessible peer-to-peer file trading network of a computer file or data that does not contain a work in which the owner has an exclusive copyright; (2) causes economic loss to any person other than affected file traders; or (3) causes other economic loss of more than $50.00 per impairment to the property of the affected file trader.Conditions a copyright owner's protection from liability upon seven-days' notice to the Department of Justice of the specific technologies intended for use to impair unauthorized distribution, display, performance, or reproduction of a copyrighted work. Requires notice as well, upon request, to an affected file trader or the assignee of an Internet Protocol address used by an affected file trader.Provides for a cause of action against a copyright owner for wrongful impairment, including an action by the Attorney General for injunctive relief in certain circumstances.
People & committees
Rep. Berman, Howard L. [D-CA-26] · D–CA
Legislative record
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Referred to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E1395-1396)
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Apr 7, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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