FBI Joins Digital Piracy Fight
The FBI is giving Hollywood film studios, music companies and software makers permission to use its name and logo on their DVDs, CDs and other digital media in hopes the labels will deter consumers from making illegal copies.
FBI officials said Thursday that the idea was conceived jointly by the agency's cyber crime division and representatives of the entertainment and software industries, who claim they've lost billions of dollars due to digital piracy.
"This anti-piracy seal should serve as a warning to those who contemplate the theft of intellectual property, that the FBI will actively investigate cyber crimes and will bring the perpetrators of these criminal acts to justice," said Jana Monroe, assistant director of the FBI's cyber division.
Like the warning messages that have appeared on VHS tapes and DVDs for years, the new labels spell out that unauthorized copying and distribution of digital content is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
It will be up to the individual entertainment companies and software manufacturers to decide whether to display the new FBI warnings. Representatives of the various trade groups for the film, software and music industries said Thursday their members were studying whether to affix the warnings on packaging or directly on the CDs and DVDs, so it's unknown how soon they may begin to appear in the marketplace.
U.S. software companies lose up to $12 billion a year to piracy, according to the Software and Information Industry Association. Music companies lost more than $4.6 billion worldwide last year, according to the RIAA, and movie industry officials pegged their annual losses from bootlegged films at more than $3.5 billion.
The entertainment and computer industry has tried to stem piracy by making CDs and DVDs harder to duplicate. But the rise of free file-sharing networks on the Internet the past five years has made it easy for millions of individuals to distribute songs, movies and software worldwide.
The companies have tried civil litigation against firms who enable online file-sharing and last year, the recording industry launched an ongoing wave of lawsuits against individual file-sharers.
"We hope that this is an attention-grabbing reminder to music fans," said Brad Buckles, executive vice president of the Recording Industry Association of America. "Piracy is no victimless crime."
Monroe, whose FBI cyber division was created 18 months ago, said cyber crime is now the agency's third priority behind terrorism and counterintelligence.
Fred von Lohmann, a senior intellectual property attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he doubts the new warning program will work.
"I'm under no illusions that this kind of label is going to change public perceptions," he said, adding the labels will likely get the same reaction that many people have had to the warnings that appear at the start of movie rentals.
"They found that much more annoying than edifying, and I think that's probably how this will be viewed."
Von Lohmann added the warnings are misleading because they don't explain to consumers that there are exceptions under copyright law, such as one that allows people to make backup copies of their software and other media.