Copyright: US Copyright Infringement Bill

According to an article by Anne Broach "Justice Dept. pushes stiffer anti-piracy laws" published in today's ZD Net News, the US government is pressing for substantial amendments to US copyright law which would increase criminal penalties for piracy, expand criminal prosecutors' powers and introduce a new offence of attempting to infringe a copyright. I have looked at the bill and it seems to me that it does nothing more than carry into effect the US government's obligations under art 61 TRIPs. It certainly does not go anything like as far as the EC Commission has proposed for us (see "Porridge for Patent Infringement" 22 Aug 2005).

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