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Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act
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The Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, often abbreviated to just INDUCE Act, is a bill introduced in the United States Senate which targets "whoever intentionally induces any violation" of copyright. The name came from an earlier version named the "Inducement Devolves into Unlawful Child Exploitation Act." On June 17, 2004, CNET's Declan McCullagh was the first major journalist to cover the controversial bill.
The proposed legislation was introduced as S. 2560 by Senator Orrin Hatch on June 22, 2004, and was then referred to the U.S. Senate Committe on the Judiciary.
The Act would amend title 17 of the United States Code which is related to copyrights, by adding a subsection to the end of section 501. The subsection would state the following:
| “ | Whoever intentionally induces any violation identified in subsection (a) of this section shall be liable as an infringer.
In subsection (g), "intentionally induces" means intentionally aids, abets, induces, counsels, or procures, and intent may be shown by acts from which a reasonable person would find intent to induce infringement based upon all relevant information about such acts then reasonably available to the actor, including whether the activity relies on infringement for its commercial viability. Nothing in this section shall enlarge or diminish the doctrines of vicarious or contributory liability for copyright infringement or require any court to unjustly withhold or impose any secondary liability for copyright infringement. |
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The bill is broad and could lead to prosecution of peer to peer software makers, web sites or the overturning of home recording and fair use rights pioneered by the famous Betamax case. Many critics fear that certain tools used today (such as CD ripping and burning software) could be considered to "intentionally induce" copyright violations, despite their utility for fair use purposes.
The bill is sponsored by former Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Republican senator from Utah, though it also has support from other Democrats and Republicans, including
- Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont
- Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, Senate Majority Leader
- Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
- Barbara Boxer, D-California
- Benefit Authors without Limiting Advancement or Net Consumer Expectations (BALANCE) Act of 2003
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act
- The "No Electronic Theft" (NET) Act
- Pirate Act
- Intellectual property legislation pending in the United States Congress
- Current text of the INDUCE Act
- Coverage by CNET's Declan McCullagh
- Yale's Law Meme on INDUCE
- Slashdot article, Copyright Bill could Stifle Innovation
- ... and another Slashdot article, Hatch Pushes INDUCE Act
- Corante's "Obsessively Annotated Introduction to the INDUCE Act"
- EFF's mock Induce complaint against Apple Computer et al.