One out of four business software applications is pirated.
So testified Tim Starback, director of marketing for digital font maker Emigre, at a Wednesday hearing of the House Judiciary Committee that addressed digital copyright violations.
The company joined other software publishers, as well as the FBI and the Department of Justice, in supporting proposed legislation that would toughen the penalties for makers and distributors of illegal copies of software.
"It's time for Congress to make the pirates pay," said Ken Wasch, president of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIAA).
Wednesday's testimony to the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property sought to advance two agenda items.
Industry reps praised proposed amendments to the current Copyright Act, introduced yesterday by Representative James Rogan (R-California) and Representative Howard Coble (R-North Carolina).
They also sought to hurry along implementation of the Clinton administration's 1997 No Electronic Theft Act (NET). The latter legislation is managed by a sentencing commission, but no commissioners have been appointed to staff it.
The proposed amendments, known as the Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999, seek to increase fines in the cases of copyright violations. The current range of statutory damages, which date to 1988, vary from US$500 to $20,000, according to Dan Duncan, vice president of government affairs for the SIIA.
Tuesday's legislative amendments propose increasing that penalty to between $750 and $30,000 -- a figure the industry group said is based on actual damages and lost profits. In cases of willful infringement, the new ceiling of damages would be raised from its current level of $100,000 to $150,000.
Witnesses sought to persuade Congress to clarify sentencing guidelines for criminal copyright infringements under the NET Act.
Should the legislation pass a subcommittee vote, it will then move on to a vote in the House Judiciary Committee, and then to a House vote. Duncan said that House members had expressed a desire to vote on the amendments before the upcoming congressional recess, which starts after Memorial Day.
Not everyone is raving about the proposed stiffer penalties.
An MIT computer-science student who goes by the name Phat Boy said that the fines would punish those who simply share unlicensed software over the Net as much as those who seek to sell it.
Phat Boy cited the case of "LaMacchia," a fellow MIT student who in 1994 was fingered by authorities for posting licensed programs on the Net. Under the new rules, he would be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Phat Boy.
"Why should that kind of act -- maybe ill-advised, but certainly perpetrated in the generous, shareware spirit -- be punished with the same ferocity as a corporate pirateer [would be]?" said Phat Boy.
