Andre Yoskowitz
16 May 2007 16:36
The US Department of Justice recently proposed more severe penalties for software copyright violators, including the criminalization of "attempted" piracy and the foregoing of patent registration before prosecution.
The Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, submitted the "Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007" to the US Chamber of Commerce this week. The chamber represent more than 3 million business groups and is the biggest business lobby group in the US.
"These crimes, as we all know, also have a direct impact on our economy, costing victims millions of dollars and, if left unchecked, diminishing entrepreneurship," Gonzales said.
The proposal wants to, among other things, make it a Federal crime to "attempt to commit" criminal copyright infringment.
"It is a general tenet of the criminal law that those who attempt to commit a crime but do not complete it are as morally culpable as those who succeed in doing so," the proposal states.
An example would be finding a warehouse full of DVDs but the inability to prove that any had been distributed or that there was an intent to sell. With the new proposal, you will be federally charged with "attempted" piracy, even if you had no intent to distribute those discs.
You can read the rest of the proposal here
A couple other interesting parts of note include the government would like to be able to wiretap if they believe you are involved in software piracy as well as upgrade the DMCA to allow the seizing of "property used in copyright violations". Could that mean if you copied a disc at home, the government can take your house?
Source:
TheRegister