The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act would create
stricter IP laws, give the Justice Department the power to
prosecute civil cases of copyright infringement and expand the US
government’s power to seize assets in copyright cases – as well as
creating a cabinet-level position to supervise the fight against
intellectual property theft.
In the proposed law, which will now go before the full Senate,
any restitution imposed by the lawsuits would be given to the
intellectual property owners as compensation. After complaints from
some consumer groups and privacy advocates, the committee revised
other sections in the bill to limit the use of information seized
during an infringement investigation.
The bill’s language was altered to ensure that “confidential,
private, proprietary or privileged information contained in such
records is not improperly disclosed or used.”
The bill was approved by a 14-4 majority of the bi-partisan
committee. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who introduced the
bill, said: “We all know that intellectual property makes up some
of the most valuable, and most vulnerable, property we have."
“We need to do more to protect it from theft and abuse if we
hope to continue being a world leader in innovation,” he said.
The legislation was supported by the Recording Industry
Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of
America which are among the industry groups pushing hardest for a
crackdown on digital piracy. It was also backed by the US Chamber
of Commerce, the Property Rights Alliance and the International
Trademark Association.
Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland said that IP theft had cost the
US at least $200 billion and an estimated 750,000 jobs.
He added: “I believe the Enforcement of Intellectual Property
Rights Act of 2008 will provide the teeth our law enforcement
agencies need to clamp down on those that engage in this illegal
conduct.”
The bill, though, was not universally welcomed. In a
letter to senators, a coalition of groups including the American
Library Association, the Consumers Union, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and Public Knowledge, said that the bill “would be an
enormous gift of federal resources to large copyright owners with
no demonstration that the copyright owners are having difficulties
enforcing their own rights."
“Movie and television producers, software publishers, music
publishers, and print publishers all have their own enforcement
programs. There is absolutely no reason for the federal government
to assume this private enforcement role,” said the letter.
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