perfidy

That funny, funny man Senator Howard Berman (D-CA) has introduced a bill (H. R. 2517) into committee that would give the FBI jurisdiction over peer-to-peer networks and instruct them to vigorously pursue evil file sharers. You can see the bill here (via Slashdot).

Dubbed the "Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003," the law is pretty much what you would expect from Hollywood Howie Berman, giving the FBI pretty much all the latitude it wants to bust the hell out of teens who are really, really into Justin Timberlake. Idiots. Here's the money section:

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall--
(1) develop a program to deter members of the public from committing acts of copyright infringement by--
(A) offering on the Internet copies of copyrighted works, or
(B) making copies of copyrighted works from the Internet,
without the authorization of the copyright owners; and
(2) facilitate the sharing among law enforcement agencies, Internet service providers, and copyright owners of information concerning activities described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (1).
The program under paragraph (1) shall include issuing appropriate warnings to individuals engaged in an activity described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) that they may be subject to criminal prosecution.

Jeez. And, further proving that they just don't get it, Section 4 of the bill, "DESIGNATION AND TRAINING OF AGENTS IN COMPUTER HACKING AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY UNITS," calls for the creation of special detachments of law enforcement and FBI, to be dubbed.... wait for it.....
......wait for it....

.......CHIPS Units, dedicated to the bill's enforcement.

Priceless.