Lawmakers Call for Tougher (Copyright) Infringement Penalties

[Newsjock]

Source: eWeek

The same bipartisan group that pushed patent reform through the U.S. House calling for reduced infringement awards introduced legislation Dec. 5 to increase criminal and civil penalties for copyright and trademark infringement.

The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007, or PRO IP, would also create an Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative at the White House and a separate IP-enforcement division at the Department of Justice.

The new penalties include a provision that would allow the DOJ to seize any computer or network hardware used in infringement activities. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., a co-sponsor of the bill and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, promised to begin hearings on the bill next week.

... Public Knowledge, though, found problems with the increased penalties and the asset seizure provisions of the bill.

"The bill rightly targets enforcement of copyright law against commercial infringers, but some of these same enforcement provisions are likely to hurt ordinary consumers," Public Knowledge President Gigi B. Sohn said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.channelinsider.com/article/Lawmakers+Call+for+Tougher+Infringement+Penalties/221125_1.aspx

[boricua79]

1. not good Conyers

first you gave up on impeachment, and now you're going after regular people.

You're losing your mojo...

[ck4829]

2. How about going after the people who forged some important looking Nigerian documents instead?

[conspirator]

3. fucking fascists. I am for people pirating digital goods as long as

it is for personal use. Most artists and software developers (like me) don't care about personal use pirating.
Only the big filthy editing companies and producers and parasites that want to benefit from someone else's work.

[bitchkitty]

4. WHOA!!!

<snip>
Public Knowledge, though, found problems with the increased penalties and the asset seizure provisions of the bill.

"The bill rightly targets enforcement of copyright law against commercial infringers, but some of these same enforcement provisions are likely to hurt ordinary consumers," Public Knowledge President Gigi B. Sohn said in a statement.

"Seizing expensive manufacturing equipment used for large-scale infringement from a commercial pirate may be appropriate. Seizing a family's general-purpose computer in a download case, as this bill would allow, is not appropriate."
</snip>

A very good reason to use an anonymous proxy...ever downloaded a video or a song? Even someone perfectly innocent, who doesn't know that that download was illegal, could have their computer seized. My computer is my livelihood, and at times my only link to the outside world.

[Yavapai]

6. They can have my computer,

when they pry it out of my cold, dead, hand!

[bitchkitty]

9. That is so funny - I thought of

posting exactly that, but thought, nah....

It is the way I feel though. The Net changed my life, and millions of lives for that matter, for the better. They ain't gettin' my Mini!

[Danger Mouse]

5. Wow. Freedom is on the march, right?

Glad to know the Dems in Congress are hard at work taking away our remaining freedoms.

[frylock]

7. congress represents corporations, not people

[ret5hd]

8. So, they could sieze the entire internet...

routers cables and all because some college kids download Metalica's latest album.

<snip>
a provision that would allow the DOJ to seize any computer or network hardware used in infringement activities.
</snip>