H.R. 1319 (111th): Informed P2P User Act

Introduced:
Mar 05, 2009 (111th Congress, 2009–2010)
Sponsor:
Rep. Mary Bono Mack [R-CA45]
Status:
Died (Passed House)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

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Status

This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on December 8, 2009 but was never passed by the Senate.

Progress
Introduced Mar 05, 2009
Referred to Committee Mar 05, 2009
Reported by Committee Sep 30, 2009
Passed House Dec 08, 2009
Cosponsors
36 cosponsors (29D, 7R) (show)
Committees

House Energy and Commerce

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To prevent the inadvertent disclosure of information on a computer through the use of certain "peer-to-peer" file sharing programs without first providing notice and obtaining consent from an owner or authorized user of the computer.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

Read Bill Text »

Last updated Dec 09, 2009.
9 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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Citation

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

12/8/2009.
Section 2 -
Makes it unlawful for any commercial entity that developed a file sharing program or distributed such a program (if the distributor is owned by the developing entity) to install, make available for installation, or download a file sharing program without:
(1) immediately before program installation or downloading, providing conspicuous notice that the program allows files to be searched and copied by one or more other computers and obtaining informed consent to the installation from an owner; and
(2) immediately before initial activation of a file sharing function of the program, providing conspicuous notice of which files will be made available and obtaining the owner's informed consent.
Exempts:
(1) modifications or upgrades of a program that was originally installed in compliance with this Act, provided certain requirements are met; and
(2) pre-installed software.
Makes it unlawful for such an entity to prevent the reasonable efforts of an owner or authorized user to block the installation of such a program or to prevent such a user from having a reasonable way to disable or remove the program.
Section 3 -
Treats a violation of this Act as a violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice prescribed under the Federal Trade Commission Act. Prohibits construing this Act to limit or supersede any other federal or state law.
Section 4 -
Defines "protected computer" to include a computer used by a financial institution or the federal government or which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication, including a computer located outside the United States that is used in a way that affects U.S. interstate or foreign commerce.
Section 6 -
Makes this Act inapplicable to the federal or any state government or subdivision.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hr1319.

Background

Peer-to-peer programs, sometimes referred to as P2P software, allow computer users to share files on the Internet and obtain files on other computers. The software offers opportunities to share information and files for personal and business purposes, but the software can allow unwanted and unauthorized access to files on a computer, including confidential information.

According to the bill's sponsor, Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), "inadvertent file-sharing has gone on for too long and has already compromised millions of personal files, in addition to our national security."

 

Summary

H.R. 1319 would place new notification requirements on companies that develop or distribute software that allows files to be shared between computers. Specifically, the bill requires these companies to provide clear notice that file-sharing capability is being installed on a computer.

Additionally, prior to activation of the file-sharing function, H.R. 1319 would require companies to specify which files would be made available for sharing and obtain the user's consent before the files would be made available to be shared. The bill also would make it unlawful to prevent a user of the software from disabling or removing the file-sharing capability.

Under the bill, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would develop regulations to impose those requirements and to enforce the new restrictions.

 

Cost

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing H.R. 1319 would cost about $1 million annually over five years, assuming availability of the necessary amounts.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)