Rich Fiscus
28 Jul 2008 16:01
Last week leading members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans to introduced yet another copyright bill. The latest is called the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008.
The new bill borrows heavily from other recent proposed legislation, most notably the PIRATE Act which was passed in the Senate in 2004, and the US House of Representatives earlier this year. It includes controversial provisions which would increase the maximum damages available for copyright infringement and make the Department of Justice responsible for taking civil action on behalf of copyright holders.
A statement from Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of the bill's sponsors, said "Many times, a criminal sanction is simply too severe for the harm done." It fails, however, to mention why the solution isn't to simply increase criminal penalties rather than giving copyright holders free legal representation.
Ironically Leahy also used the recently released blockbuster 'The Dark Knight' as an example of the products which are at risk of losing money from piracy. Perhaps someone should explain to Mr. Leahy that 'The Dark Knight' is already one of the most profitable movies of all time, and Warner Brothers seems to be doing well enough to hire their own lawyers.
Instead Senator Leahy, along with Senators Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), Evan Bayh (Indiana), George Voinovich (Ohio), Dianne Feinsten (California), and John Cornyn (Texas) would prefer to spend taxpayers money to pursue civil penalties, in addition to any criminal prosecution that might occur.