House Considers a Steep Increase in Law Enforcement and Penalties for Copyright Infringement

The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007, or “PRO-IP,” is currently pending in the House of Representatives.

PRO-IP would, among other things, increase statutory damages in copyright cases by letting copyright holders recover individually for each work in a copyrighted compilation. For example, each song on a CD could be counted as a separate infringement for the purpose of calculating statutory damages.

PRO-IP was introduced to the House on December 5, 2007 and presented to the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property on December 13, 2007. At that hearing, consumer rights group Public Knowledge argued that statutory damages already impose disproportionate penalties for infringement and pointed out that copyright owners can already get actual damages in those cases where statutory damages are not enough.
On the other hand, the bipartisan committee sponsoring PRO-IP said it will stem what one representative called the “tsunami” of counterfeiting and piracy. The bill is supported by some labor unions and industry groups.

For additional information the text of the bill is at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.4279: