MPAA Wants Government To Create New Federal Agency

Congress is busy considering a new 69-page bill that would increase civil penalties for copyright infringement, boosts criminal enforcement, and would even create a new federal agency charged with bringing about a national and international copyright crackdown. The legislation, called the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act, or PRO IP Act is openly supported by the MPAA.
Among other things, the PRO IP Act would:

• Increase fines in copyright cases dealing with compilations
• Make it easier to get maximum penalties for repeat copyright offenders
  
• Let the Justice Department seize any computer/network hardware used to "facilitate" a copyright crime and sell it, whether or not you are found guilty
• Create the White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative, or WHIPER.

You simply cannot make this up. The head of WHIPER would be the president's principal advisor and spokesman for intellectual property issues. One of WHIPER's main tasks would be to create a "Joint Strategic Plan" that involves "identifying individuals" involved in the "trafficking" of "pirated goods."
Whether or not the agency would also be tracking down people singing 'Happy Birthday' in public and forcing them to pay royalties to TimeWarner was not clear.


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