Apple Thoughts: Proposed Law Could Require File Sharing Warning

"A US House of Representatives hearing scheduled for later today will be devoted to deciding if a law should be made that requires peer-to-peer (P2P) programs to issue a specific notice to users that warns them that their files may be shared, CNET has reported. The Informed P2P User Act bill introduced in March by California Republican Mary Bono Back will be the focus of the hearing. The wording in the Act, which would require P2P software to allow file sharing only if two rules are met, could also apply to web browsers, FTP applications, IM programs and any other applications that send and receive files."

This is what your tax dollars pay for, my fellow Americans. The thing that struck me about this bill was how it would make the RIAA lawsuits so much easier to get done. How is that, you ask? For years people have gone into court and played dumb. "You mean that file-sharing app I got shares my files? I had no idea!" Some judges have even bought into it and so have juries. This would effectively cut that defense right out from under potential defendants.

It's not like this is going to pass anyway, but it's always interesting to see what goes through the empty cavern between the ears and behind the eyes of the people we call our "leaders." I guess they got tired of talking about who to bail out, who to stimulate, and where to hide from the raging swine flu pandemic.