Political Quotes

“I am proud to support H.R. 2265, the No Electronic Theft [NET] Act which is the companion bill to S. 1044, the Criminal Copyright Improvement Act of 1997, introduced by Senator Leahy and myself. H.R. 2265 passed the House of Representatives earlier this week and now has the opportunity to obtain Senate approval and be sent to the President before we adjourn for the session. The bill is supported by the Department of Justice, the U.S. Copyright Office, and the Software Publishers Association, which is the leading trade association of the computer software industry, representing over 1,200 companies that develop and market software for entertainment, business, education, and the Internet. H.R. 2265 will help combat software piracy by closing a major loophole in federal law, which was highlighted by the case of United States v. LaMacchia, 871 F.Supp. 535 (D. Mass. 1994). Under current law, a showing of financial gain is required to prove criminal copyright infringement. In LaMacchia, the defendant maliciously pirated software which resulted in an estimated loss to the copyright holders of over $1 million in just over 6 weeks. Because LaMacchia did not profit from the software piracy, he could not be prosecuted under criminal copyright law.”