Family Entertainment and Copyright Act

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The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act was introduced into the United States Senate (of the 109th United States Congress) on January 25, 2005 by Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on April 27, 2005. The act is generally aimed at increasing penalties for copyright infringement, and also includes a clause that permits the development of technology to "sanitize" offending DVD content. The two subparts of the Act are described below.

[edit] Artist's Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005

This act, also known as the "ART Act", is targeted at preventing piracy of movies and software. It specifically targets two activities: filming movies in a movie theater, and early release of movies and software before they become publicly available.

Anyone who "knowingly uses or attempts to use an audiovisual recording device to transmit or make a copy of a ... protected work... from a performance of such work in a motion picture exhibition facility..." may be imprisioned up to three years for a first time offender, and up to six years for a repeat offender, in addition to any fines that may be levied under the U.S. Criminal Code for copyright infringement.

With regards to unreleased works intended for public distribution (i.e. beta software or workprints) , anyone who makes a work that the copyright owner expects to distribute commercially, but is not yet distributed, shall be punished if the work is "made available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution." First time offenders can get up to three years in jail, or five if they committed the offense for financial gain. Repeat offenders can get up to six years in jail, or ten years if the offense was committed for financial gain. These penalties are in addition to any penalties for violating non-disclosure agreements or trade secret law.

Although these provisions are clearly targeted at large-scale commercial piracy, there is theoretically nothing that would limit them so. A private individual who films a movie at a movie theater would be subject to these provisions, though a fair use defense would still be available.

[edit] Family Home Movie Act of 2005

This section is an exemption of liability allowing the creation of technology that can edit a DVD movie on the fly and create a "sanitized" version of that movie. This provision arose out of a lawsuit between Clearplay, a Salt Lake City-based company that markets DVD-sanitizing technology, and a number of Hollywood studios and directors. The Clearplay technology allows a home consumer to screen out up to 14 different categories of objectionable content, such as drug use, sexual situations, or foul language.

The Act does not permit one to create a new hardcopy of a sanitized movie, nor does it permit the technology to replace or insert new video or audio to replace the offending content. Thus, a company cannot create and market a clean DVD copy of Goodfellas, but it can develop a DVD player which can be programmed to skip past the offending parts and/or blank out the offending video or audio contained in a scene.