US federal law passed in 1997
(colloquial)NET Act | Enacted by | the 105th United States Congress |
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Effective | December 16, 1997 |
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Citations |
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Public law | Pub. L. 105-147 |
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Statutes at Large | 111 Stat. 2678 |
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Codification |
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Acts amended | Copyright Act of 1976 |
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Titles amended | 17 and 18 |
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U.S.C. sections amended | 17 USC 101, 506, 507; 18 USC 2319, 2320; 28 USC 1498 |
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Legislative history |
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The United States No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act), a federal law passed in 1997, provides for criminal prosecution of individuals who engage in copyright infringement under certain circumstances, even when there is no monetary profit or commercial benefit from the infringement. Maximum penalties can be five years in prison with fines.
History
Prior to the enactment of the NET Act in 1997, criminal copyright infringement required that the infringement was for the purpose of "commercial advantage or private financial gain." Merely uploading and downloading files on the internet did not fulfill this requirement, meaning that even large-scale online infringement could not be prosecuted criminally.[1]
This state of affairs was underscored by the unsuccessful 1994 prosecution of David LaMacchia, then a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for allegedly facilitating massive copyright infringement as a hobby, without any commercial motive. The court's dismissal of United States v. LaMacchia suggested that then-existing criminal law simply did not apply to non-commercial infringements (a state of affairs which became known as the "LaMacchia Loophole"). The court suggested that Congress could act to make some non-commercial infringements a crime, and Congress acted on that suggestion in the NET Act.
The NET Act amended the definition of "commercial advantage or private financial gain" to include the "receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works" (17 USC 101), and specifies penalties of up to five years in prison.
In addition, it added a threshold for criminal liability where the infringer neither obtained nor expected to obtain anything of value for the infringement – "by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $ 1,000" (17 USC 506(a)(1)(B)). In response to the NET Act, the US Sentencing Commission stiffened sanctions for intellectual property infringement.[2]
References
- ^ Hardy, I. Trotter (2002). "Criminal Copyright Infringement". William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal. 11: 209–342.
- ^ Mark Motivans (2004). Intellectual Property Theft, 2002 (Report). Bureau of Justice Statistics.
External links
Works related to No Electronic Theft (NET) Act at Wikisource
- Copyright Law of the United States of America (Library of Congress)
- Decision in U.S. v. LaMacchia
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Statutes | Pre-1976 | |
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1970s | |
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1980s | |
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1990s | |
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2000s | |
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2010s | |
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2020s | |
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Precedents and rulings | Supreme Court | - Wheaton v. Peters (1834)
- Baker v. Selden (1879)
- Trade-Mark Cases (1879)
- Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony (1884)
- Banks v. Manchester (1888)
- Callaghan v. Myers (1888)
- Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908)
- White-Smith Music Publishing Co. v. Apollo Co. (1908)
- Williams & Wilkins Co. v. United States (1975)
- Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. (1984)
- Feist v. Rural (1991)
- Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994)
- Quality King v. L'anza (1998)
- Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003)
- MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005)
- Costco Wholesale Corp. v. Omega, S. A. (2010)
- Golan v. Holder (2012)
- Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2013)
- American Broadcasting Cos., Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. (2014)
- Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands (2017)
- Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com (2019)
- Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. (2020)
- Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. (2021)
- Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith (2023)
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Appeals courts | - Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc. (2d Cir. 1964)
- Roth Greeting Cards v. United Card Co. (9th Cir. 1970)
- Eltra Corp. v. Ringer (4th Cir. 1978)
- Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates (9th Cir. 1978)
- Midway Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc. (7th Cir. 1983)
- Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. (3d Cir. 1983)
- Fisher v. Dees (9th Cir. 1986)
- Whelan v. Jaslow (3d Cir. 1986)
- Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd. (5th Cir. 1988)
- Rogers v. Koons (2nd Cir. 1992)
- Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc. (2d Cir. 1992)
- American Geophysical Union v. Texaco, Inc. (2nd Cir. 1995)
- Dr. Seuss Enters., L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc.(9th Cir. 1997)
- Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc. (2d Cir. 1998)
- Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. v. Connectix Corp. (9th Cir. 2000)
- Nunez v. Caribbean Int'l News Corp. (1st Cir. 2000)
- A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. (9th Cir. 2001)
- Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress Int'l (5th Cir. 2002)
- Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp. (9th Cir. 2002 / 2003)
- In re Aimster Copyright Litigation (7th Cir. 2003)
- NXIVM Corp. v. Ross Institute (2d Cir. 2004)
- BMG Music v. Gonzalez (7th Cir. 2005)
- Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley, Ltd. (2nd Cir. 2006)
- Blanch v. Koons (2nd Cir. 2006)
- Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. (9th Cir. 2006)
- Cartoon Network, LP v. CSC Holdings, Inc. (2nd Cir. 2008)
- Ahanchian v. Xenon Pictures, Inc. (9th Cir. 2010)
- Penguin Group (USA) Inc. v. American Buddha (2d Cir. 2011)
- Monge v. Maya Magazines, Inc. (9th Cir. 2012)
- Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube, Inc. (2d Cir. 2012)
- Seltzer v. Green Day, Inc (9th Cir. 2013)
- Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc. (2d Cir. 2015)
- Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. (9th Cir. 2015)
- Naruto v. Slater (9th Cir. 2018)
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Lower courts | |
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