House Committee Takes Up P2P Protection Bill

[p2p rules]

Informed P2P User Act (HR 1319) would make it illegal to cause a person to make make files available on their PC without first obtaining their permission and clearly notifying them which files will be made available.

This week the Energy & Commerce Committee this week will take up a bill that aims to protect PC users from inadvertent P2P sharing of sensitive information.

First introduced by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) back in early March, the Informed P2P User Act (HR 1319) would “prevent the inadvertent disclosure of information on a computer through the use of certain `peer-to-peer’ file sharing software without first providing notice and obtaining consent from the owner or authorized user of the computer.”

“Far too many people have no idea that they could be sharing all of their personal files and documents when popular peer-to-peer software is on their computer,” said Rep Mack said after the bills introduction at the time. “Computer users deserve to know – in fair and simple terms – about this potential security risk. This bill will empower individuals by making them aware and keeping them from inadvertently sharing their private information with complete strangers.”

The legislation would require file-sharing programs to show users a “clear and conspicuous notice that such [a] program allows files on the protected computer to be available for searching and copying by another computer,” and to obtain the “informed consent to the installation of such program from an owner or authorized user of the protected computer.”

The bill requires file-sharing programs to provide “clear and conspicuous notice of which files are to be made available to another computer.”

It would also make it illegal to prevent the authorized user of a computer to block the installation of a P2P file-sharing program, disable or remove the program.

Violations of the legislation would fall under the purview of the Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices and be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission

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H.R. 1319:Informed P2P User Act