The NET Act

On Tuesday, December 16, 1997 President Bill Clinton signed into law the "No Electronic Theft Act of 1997," after it was passed unanimously by both the United States Senate and the house of Representatives.  The law is usually referred to as the NET Act and was designed to give more attention to digital copyright and trademark laws.

Under this law software pirates can be penalized with statutory damages of up to $100,000. If you are convicted of a felony charge of software piracy, you can get up to a five-year prison sentence plus fines of up to $250,000 for each work that is infringed.

This law is not only focussed on software pirates, it is also intended as a way to protect copyrighted music from being shared over the Internet.  The Recording Industry Association of America has recently brought charges against scores of individuals who may have to pay $150,000 for each song that they downloaded through Peer-2-Peer file sharing programs. To read this article Click Here.

To read the full text of the NET Act Click Here.