musicNEWS: It appears that the RIAA and MPAA have found yet another friend in the federal government of the United States. Wired.com reports that during a recent hearing of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, congressman John Carter (Rep Tx) said that jailing college students who download copyrighted material would help stop piracy.

This news comes on the heals of a story that we reported on February
“Download An MP3, Go To Jail For 3 Years. ” (see story)http://www.antimusic.com/news/03/feb/item6.shtml
where we reported that lawmakers and the Justice Department were apparently planning to utilize a little known law called the “No Electronic Theft (NET) Act,” to begin procecuting file traders. That law was passed by Congress and signed by Bill Clinton in 1997 with very little notice from the media. But last July, 19 members of Congress wrote a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft urging him to "to prosecute individuals who intentionally allow mass copying from their computer over peer-to-peer networks."

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif were among the 19 politicians urging the Attorney General to start taking action against online file swappers due to their concern over the "staggering increase in the amount of intellectual property pirated over the Internet through peer-to-peer systems."

Now according to the Wired.com story congressman John Carter is ready to move forward with plans to jail student file swappers using the law. "What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code," Carter said in an interview. "If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent."