Congress May Outlaw 'Attempted Piracy'

cnet-declan writes "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is asking Congress to make 'attempted' copyright infringement a federal crime. The text of the legislation as well as the official press-release is available online. Rep. Lamar Smith, a key House Republican, said he 'applauds' the idea, and his Democratic counterpart is probably on board too. In addition, the so-called Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 would create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software in some circumstances, expand the DMCA with civil asset forfeiture, and authorize wiretaps in investigations of Americans who are 'attempting' to infringe copyrights. Does this go too far?"

Comments

This is what happens when you go to republican

[unity100]

"anything good for business is good" - this is the logic. see where this leads. People are going to be slaves to "intellectual property holder" elite, a new class of elite. LIFETIME imprisonment. DMCA takedowns - get a load of that - what a way to suppress free speech if need be.

act now. blow your congressman's/senator's ear off.

68% of RIAA/MPAA donations go to Democrats

[ccmay]

And, let us not forget; even though the Democrats control the Houses of Congress, we still have a Republican President.

Do you seriously think the Republicans have their lips more firmly planted on Hollywood's anus than the Democrats? Both parties are throughly sold out to the copyright lobby. The DMCA of 1998 was passed by a unanimous vote in the Senate and signed by a Democratic President. The TV, movie, and music industries give 68% of their campaign contributions to Democrats.

If anything, divided government makes it less likely that something like this will pass. If a Democrat wins the Presidency next year, I sure hope he has a Republican Congress.

-ccm