BILL ANALYSIS
SB 830
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Date of Hearing: August 4, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 830 (Wright) - As Amended: August 2, 2010
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote:7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill expands the definition of a "recording" for the
purposes of prosecuting persons trafficking in pirated
recordings for financial gain, to include memory cards, flash
drives, hard-drives, or data storage devices.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Unknown annual GF costs, potentially in excess of $150,000,
for additional state prison commitments. In 2009, 33 persons
were committed to state prison under the section this bill
would expand. If the proposed expansion or clarification in
this bill results in three additional three-year mid-term
commitments at current per capita costs, the annual cost would
be about $175,000.
2)Unknown nonreimbursable local incarceration costs, offset to a
degree by increased fine revenue.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author contends this bill updates existing law
to account for newer modes of media piracy.
According to the author, "California has a serious problem
with intellectual property piracy. Nearly one-half billion
dollars in revenue were lost by the state and local
governments due to counterfeited goods, including music and
movies. The state's existing statute to protect against music
piracy has not kept pace with latest downloading technologies
such as memory cards, flash drives, and data storage devices."
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2)Support . According to the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA), this bill clarifies current law with respect
to technological advances. According to RIAA, "Physical music
piracy has historically involved the unauthorized manufacture
and sale of single records on traditional media such as vinyl
records, tapes, and compact discs (CDs). However, clever music
pirates have started to take advantage of more powerful
storage media, such as memory sticks and computer hard-drives,
to create a new breed of fraudulent music product containing
hundreds, if not thousands, of unauthorized sound recordings
made available for one low price. For example, a recent
Craigslist posting in Los Angles is offering the sale of new
Western Digital External Hard-drives, pre-loaded with over
80,000 songs from the 1960s to the present, for just $300. The
unauthorized sale of such items displaces multiple legitimate
retail sales, thereby damaging the businesses of the many
labels, artists, retailers, and legal music distributors that
call California home.
"Though California has a state statute designed to protect the
entertainment industry and general public against the crime of
music piracy, the applicable provision should be amended to
clarify that music pirates dealing in hard-drives, flash
drives, memory cards, and other digital storage devices filled
with unauthorized sound recordings, may not avoid criminal
prosecution under state law."
3)Current law provides that a person is guilty of failure to
disclose the origin of a recording if, for financial gain, a
person knowingly advertises, offers for sale or rent, or sells
or rents, any recording, the cover or label of which does not
clearly disclose the true name and address of the manufacturer
and the actual artist.
Recording is defined as "any tangible medium upon which
information or sounds are recorded or otherwise stored,
including, any phonograph record, disc, tape, audio cassette,
wire, film, or other medium on which information or sounds are
recorded or otherwise stored."
Recording piracy is punishable as follows:
a) If the offense involves at least 100 articles, by up to
one year in county jail and/or a fine of up to $25,000, or
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by two, three, or five years in state prison and/or a fine
of up to $250,000.
b) Any other violation is punishable by up to one year in
county jail and/or a fine of up to $25,000 for a first
offense. A subsequent conviction is punishable by up to one
year in county jail, or 16 months, two, or three years in
state prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000.
4)Is this bill necessary ? The current definition of recording -
"any tangible medium" - appears to cover flash drives, hard
drives and other data storage devices.
5)This bill is a gut and amend; it has not been heard in this
form in the Senate . This bill passed the Senate as a minor
horse-racing bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081