The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act has been signed and approved.  This act is to reduce/eliminate the amount of piracy of pre-release movies, music, games, etc.  The act itself is very concrete in stating that even if you have one pre-release file in your shared folder, whether you downloaded it or not, you are subject to fines and prison time for up to 3 years. It does specify that it pertains to files being prepared for sale in the US.  As of right now, it’s not clear on how this act will pertain to people who re-distribute TV shows and movies from other countries.

“The protection of intellectual property rights is vital to the movie industry,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who joined Bush for the signing ceremony. “This bill is necessary to ensure that all those involved in the production of a film, from the director to the set carpenter, are not cheated.”

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