Bill Targeting P2P Slated For Markup

The House Commerce Committee will mark up the Informed P2P User Act (HR 1319), a bill that seeks to protect computer users from unauthorized peer-to-peer file-sharing. The bill would establish the unauthorized use of a computer by a P2P program to be an unfair and deceptive act. Unauthorized use would include failing to inform computer users that their computers were being used as part of the file-uploading network. Computer owners would also have to give "informed consent" before their computers could be used for P2P file sharing. The bill's sponsors include Reps Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Joe Barton (R-TX) and John Barrow (D-GA). Rep Bono Mack's constituents include Hollywood studios concerned about the sharing of pirated films and TV shows via the P2P protocol, which translates the power of multiple computers into faster downloads of big files like video.