Stiffer Penalties for Copyright Violations

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Sunday November 13, 2005 @05:21AM from the duck-and-cover dept.

smallfries writes "US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has proposed much harsher punishments for copyright violations, including jail time. The Intellectual Property Protection Act [PDF Warning] doesn't appear to change the fundamentals of US copyright law but does allow more leeway for the police when investigating suspected crimes, and harsher punishments for those convicted. A response with a link to one site's look at the bill is up on Linux Electrons. Now that attempting the crime has such severe consequences, who will be the first to go to jail for running a p2p client?"

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Does this include Sony? by canuck57 · 2005-11-13 06:02 · Score: 1, Troll

... law but does allow more leeway for the police when investigating suspected crimes...
So does this include going into Sony/BMG offices and confiscate their mail servers and backup tapes to find out who authorized the alteration of the Windows operating system in obvious violation of the copyright that does not give anyone but Microsoft the authority to do so? Or perhaps to enforce the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act section 1030?
Or is just to extend the "To Serve and Collect" mentality?