Family Entertainment and Copyright Act Passes House

The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, passed last year by the Senate, has passed the House and is now in President Bush's hands.

The Washington Post reports:

The bill would protect technology that lets people automatically skip or mute sections of commercial movies that contain foul language, violence or nudity. The bill would assure manufacturers of DVD players and other devices that use the technology that they would not be violating Hollywood copyrights. The bill also would make it a federal crime to use video cameras to record films in movie theaters, and it would set penalties of up to 10 years in prison for anyone caught distributing a movie or song before its commercial release.