Rich Fiscus
10 Nov 2007 16:09
U.S. lawmakers are once again trying to get the Department of Justice to take up the case of corporate copyright holders. It seems that Senators Patrick Leahy and John Cornyn apparently are concerned that big corporations don't get enough copyright protection from the law, and feel it's in the country's best interest to assign FBI agents and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors to handle civil litigation for them.
The new bill sponsored by the two Senators is similar to one that's been approved by the Senate 3 times since 2004, and which has been a target for a great deal of criticism from conumer rights groups. The bill would create a special team of FBI agents to investigate copyright infringement cases, as well as allowing for forfeiture of "any property used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part to commit or facilitate the commission" of certain intellectual property offenses.
In the past, Leahy has said that supports the so-called Pirate Act because "Federal prosecutors have been hindered in their pursuit of pirates by the fact that they were Limited to bringing criminal charges with high burdens of proof." In other words, he doesn't want Federal prosecuters hindered by that pesky "reasonable doubt" provision in U.S. criminal law, and would like them to start operating under the much loser "preponderance of evidence," which only requires that juries in civil cases be reasonably sure of their conclusions.
Source: Cnet News