CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY SPEAKS OUT ON PIRACY

California Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn (D-Saratoga), who represents the greater Silicon Valley, yesterday announced that her House Resolution 5, which condemns online music, movie and software piracy, passed unanimously and adopted by the Assembly. The resolution is said to be the first of its kind in the country.

"The Internet is a powerful tool. In the next 24 hours, millions of Internet users will illegally download copyrighted music, games, software, films and other images,” Cohn said in a statement. “Commonly referred to as 'file-sharing,' this is nothing more than a euphemism for stealing, [and] this international ring of theft has now become larger than the industries it
violates. This Resolution is the first step in a long term solution needed to govern Internet piracy."

In addition to condemning piracy online, the resolution states that parents should educate their children that “using technology to steal music, movies and software is no different from walking into a store and shoplifting a CD or DVD.” It also recommends that corporate, government and educational institutions develop policies and technical measures to make sure their networks are not being used to infringe on copyrighted works.

Assemblywoman Cohn, who chairs the California Assembly’s Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media Committee, cited current annual loss estimates of $4.3 for the recording industry and $3 billion for the movie industry as a result of online piracy.

Click here for the full text of the resolution.