Editing Pirate Act (section)

==Background==

By the mid-1990s, p2p [[file sharing]] over the Internet had risen to prominence. Until 1997, copyright infringement was only considered a criminal offense if it was for the purpose of "commercial advantage or private financial gain." During this year, the [[NET Act]] was passed, which allowed for federal prosecutors to file criminal lawsuits against suspected infringers, without requiring evidence of commercial benefit or financial gain. However, it proved difficult to find legitimate criminal charges, and by 2004, this privilege had yet to be invoked by federal prosecutors.

As file sharing became more popular, the [[music industry]] experienced a steady three-year decline in revenue. From 2001 to 2004, the industry lost $5 billion,<ref>{{cite news|last=McGuire|first=David|title='Pirate Bill' Aims Law at Song Swappers|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27801-2004Mar26.html|work=WashingtonPost.com|date=March 26, 2004}}</ref> partially attributed to the increase in online music piracy on websites such as [[Kazaa]], [[Morpheus (file-sharing software)|Morpheus]] and [[Grokster]]. The [[Recording Industry Association of America]] (RIAA) had filed thousands of civil lawsuits without the aid of federal prosecutors, hoping to deter music piracy at large. One of the first and most famous online copyright infringement lawsuits - [[Capitol v. Thomas]] - resulted in a mother of four owing $1.5 million to various music labels for violating copyrights on 24 songs.