Recently enacted laws

H.R. 2265 · 105th Congress · enacted

No Electronic Theft (NET) Act

Became Public Law No: 105-147.

Latest official action 1997-12-16 · Enacted

The bill, briefly

No Electronic Theft (NET) Act - Amends Federal copyright law to define "financial gain" to include the receipt of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works. Sets penalties for willfully infringing a copyright by reproducing or distributing, including by electronic means, one or more copies of one or more copyrighted works. Extends the statute of limitations for criminal copyright infringement from three to five years. Revises Federal criminal code provisions regarding criminal copyright infringement to provide for a fine and up to five years' imprisonment for infringing a copyright for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, by reproducing or distributing, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, at least ten copies or phonorecords of one or more copyrighted works which have a total retail value of more than $5,000. Provides for: (1) up to three years' imprisonment and fines in infringement cases described above (exclusive of commercial gain intent considerations); (2) up to six years' imprisonment and a fine for a second or subsequent felony offense under (1); and (3) up to one year's imprisonment and a fine in any other case. Requires, during preparation of the presentence report in cases of criminal copyright infringement, unauthorized fixation and trafficking of live musical performances, and trafficking in coun…

Congressional Research Service · 1997-07-25

Who reported lobbying on this bill?

Amount spent specifically on this bill: not disclosed

The reports below name this bill and disclose an organization’s overall lobbying expenses or a firm’s client income for the period. They can cover many bills and issues. These amounts are not payments to the bill or its politicians.

No matching lobbying report is imported yet. This is not evidence that no lobbying occurred.

2,409 latest lobbying reports imported. Some source imports are still in progress.

Politicians behind the bill

Sponsors and cosponsors from the official source, limited to members currently in office. Campaign amounts are cycle-wide and are not payments for this bill.

No current-officeholder sponsorship match is available. Historical sponsors may have left office.

6 of 6 source cosponsor records retrieved; only current officials and unwithdrawn sponsorships appear.

PAC donors to the listed sponsors

These are all-cycle contributions to the listed sponsors’ and cosponsors’ campaigns. FEC does not attribute them to this bill. A donation plus sponsorship does not establish why a politician acted.

The largest 40 donor totals appear here. Open each politician for their complete, paginated PAC donor list.

What happened after enactment?

Dated agency-reported implementation and uptake measures are shown with their scope. They do not by themselves establish causal success. If no evidence is listed, the outcome is not established.

Measured outcome: not established

Enactment alone does not show whether a law improved its intended outcome. We need a dated evaluation, observed result or verified implementation record before claiming success or failure.