Slashdot today brought me news that the PRO-IP act passed the Judiciary Committee, unanimously. This is the bill that would increase penalties for copying a CD up to $1.5 million, the bill that would create an international police force under a new US department strictly for chasing down copyright infringers... etc. So, out of interest, I looked up the text of this bill. I now understand why no one read it. If you're interested in how the US goes about creating and enacting laws, take a read.

The first thing that raised my eyebrow was the one-line summary of the bill (Probably the only thing most voters read). "To enhance remedies for violations of intellectual property laws, and for other purposes." These "other purposes" interest me. Let's read on, shall we, and see what knowledge we can glean?

TITLE I--ENHANCEMENTS TO CIVIL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS

SEC. 101. REGISTRATION OF CLAIM.

      Section 410 of title 17, United States Code, is amended--

            (1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as subsections (d) and (e), respectively; and

            (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following:

      `(c)(1) A certificate of registration satisfies the requirements of section 411 and section 412 regardless of any inaccurate information contained in the certificate, unless--

            `(A) the inaccurate information was included on the application for copyright registration with knowledge that it was inaccurate; and

            `(B) the inaccuracy of the information, if known, would have caused the Register of Copyrights to refuse registration.

Ok, I've read through that a few times. Without taking a lot of time to look up these other bills and read through them, (and read the bills they reference, and so forth) I have know clue what this means. Let's skim the table of contents, to see what else there is.

Ooh, Section 201: Criminal Infringement of a Copyright. I bet this has some information in it that would lead us to better understand the changes this bill introduces...

SEC. 201. CRIMINAL INFRINGEMENT OF A COPYRIGHT.

      Section 2319 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

            (1) in subsection (b)(2), by inserting `is a felony and' after `offense' and by striking `paragraph (1)' and inserting `subsection (a)';

            (2) in subsection (c)(2), by inserting `is a felony and' after `offense', and by striking `paragraph (1)' and inserting `subsection (a)';

            (3) in subsection (d)(3), by inserting `is a felony and' after `offense', and by inserting `under subsection (a)' before the semicolon; and

            (4) in subsection (d)(4), by inserting `is a felony and' after `offense'.

So... um... a bunch of offenses are now felonies? I guess? No idea what that offense is, I hope I don't commit it, cause being a felon would suck.

Let us look further.

TITLE III--COORDINATION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING OF FEDERAL EFFORT AGAINST COUNTERFEITING AND PIRACY

Subtitle A--Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative

SEC. 301. OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ENFORCEMENT REPRESENTATIVE.

      (a) Establishment Within Executive Office of the President- There is established within the Executive Office of the President the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (in this title referred to as `the Office').

      (b) United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative- The head of the Office shall be the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (in this title referred to as the `IP Enforcement Representative') who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. As an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate, any nomination of the IP Enforcement Representative submitted to the Senate for confirmation, and referred to a committee, shall be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The IP Enforcement Representative shall hold office at the pleasure of the President, shall be entitled to receive the same allowances as a chief of mission, and shall have the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

So, what we have here is an appointed, not elected, official who has the responsibility of ruling over domestic and international copyright affairs - something that can only be remotely legal by some small print in the registration for the World Trade Organization - enforcing our very young digital copyright laws on behalf of a few very rich companies. How can this not look like bribery somewhere?

Anyone who says that our government is as efficient as a representative democracy can be, and that their dealings are fair and transparent, ought to have a damn good argument on their side for it to convince me.

~Karantza

(PS: This blog is my personal blog, even though I plan on writing about NSR projects in it. My personal opinions that I write about here will never officially reflect those of NSR unless explicitly stated.)