Opening Statement of Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA). Hearing of Courts and Intellectual Prop. Subcomm. Re: DOJ failure to enforce the NET Act, and HR 1761. Date: May 12, 1999. Source: This document was created by Tech Law Journal by transcribing an audio recording.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I do have the Y2K bill on the floor, and need to get back to that.

Thank you very very much for holding this important hearing today. As you know, the No Electronic Theft, or NET, Act, which I sponsored in the last Congress, was passed overwhelmingly to ensure that persons who illegally traffic in copyrighted works do not escape criminal prosecution solely because they fail to derive a pecuniary benefit from their actions. I believe then as now that closing the loophole that existed in the law was important for preventing an open season on copyrighted works from coming to pass on the Internet.

As you know, we had a celebrated case in Massachusetts where an individual put a lot of valuable copyrighted software on the Internet and virtually invited everyone to come and steal it -- valuable material that belonged to other people. The court held that because he was giving it away -- he was not receiving any benefit from it -- that he could not be prosecuted under the old law. Well, the problem is that the old law might have served under other technologies -- to photocopy a book, to make copies of a cassette, to make videotape -- included a substantial cost of using those tapes or cassettes or tape or whatever you might have. But when you put something up on the Internet, the cost to the individual is virtually nil. But, the effect on the copyright holder, the person who has put their creative talent to work to do something to create a contribution to society -- whatever it might be -- it might be valuable software -- it might be a musical recording -- whatever the case might be -- they still are entitled to be protected, and they weren't protected under the old law.

So, with your help, we were able to pass the NET Act. And, we thought we had taken a major step in the right direction. But since passage of the NET Act, we have heard from several software publishers, some of whom are represented here today, who are still encountering the problem of their works being offered on a widespread basis, on pirate sites on the Internet.

I will gladly say that Congress and the administration worked together last Congress to take action to strengthen laws in this area. I am dissappointed to learn that they have been unable to report on law enforcement efforts currently under way, based upon this new authority. I am not only unaware of any efforts by the Department of Justice or the FBI to apply resources to address theft of software on the Internet, or through the more, or through other channels. Letters inquiring as to the status of these efforts have gone unanswered. I think that that is totally irresponsible.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses here today, especially Deputy Attorney General DiGregory, about the kinds of problems that still exist in this area, and what steps are being taken to address them. This is a multi-billion dollar problem. If we are going to respect intellectual property, the property rights of individuals in this country, it is vitally important that this law be enforced. We need to know whether existing resources are adequate to the task. It is critically important that we work to ensure that our countries' creators of intellectual property do not find their markets and their future litterly stolen out from under them by these new breeds of pirates. We must work together to ensure that U.S. law enforcement is able to meet the challenge. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses today.

I thank the Chairman again for his indulgence.