Does the P2P Piracy Prevention Act authorize copyright owners to do illegal things that no one else can do?
No. H.R. 5211 just ensures that copyright owners are treated like other property owners. Current law allows property owners in many contexts to use self-help to protect their property. Satellite companies face no liability when they use electronic countermeasures to stop the pirating of their signals and programming. Banks face no liability when they repossess automobiles for delinquent loan payments. A bicycle owner faces no liability for grabbing his bike from a thiefs yard. A victim of a pickpocket faces no liability for tackling and taking back his wallet from the pickpocket. However, due to the overbreadth of many anti-hacking laws, copyright owners do not have a corresponding ability to prevent the theft of their property through P2P systems. H.R. 5211 would correct this unintentional inequity.
