Congress May Outlaw 'Attempted Piracy'

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 15, 2007 @02:03AM from the i-see-what-you-were-trying-to-do-there dept.

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?"

1 of 768 comments (clear)

Re:Lifetime Crime by CthulhuDreamer · 2007-05-15 03:35 · Score: 0, Troll

In the liquor store shooting, society loses the $50 in the till and an easily-replaced minimum wage clerk ($15K per year, tops). The copyright infringer costs society $150K with every copy. With an internet connection, the pirate could be causing millions or even billions of dollars in damages every day. Imprison the infringers, and the world's money supply doubles.