Justice Department Says It Doesn't Want To Be Hollywood's Police Force; Senate Removes That Provision

from the good-for-them dept

Thu, Sep 25th 2008 4:01am — Mike Masnick

This doesn't come as a total surprise, because the Bush Administration had said something similar last year about the House's ProIP bill, but the Justice Department has come out very strongly against Senator Leahy's proposed bill that would let the Justice Department take on civil copyright lawsuits, effectively becoming Hollywood's private enforcement agency. What's impressive is how much of the argument seems to mimic the EFF's concerns:

We strongly oppose Title I of the bill, which not only authorizes the Attorney General to pursue civil remedies for copyright infringement, but to secure "restitution" damages and remit them to the private owners of infringed copyrights. First, civil copyright enforcement has always been the responsibility and prerogative of private copyright holders, and U.S. law already provides them with effective legal tools to protect their rights....

Second, Title 1's departure from the settled framework above could result in Department of Justice prosecutors serving as pro bono lawyers for private copyright holders regardless of their resources. In effect, taxpayer-supported Department lawyers would pursue lawsuits for copyright holders, with monetary recovery going to industry.

Third, the Department of Justice has limited resources to dedicate to particular issues, and civil enforcement actions would occur at the expense of criminal actions, which only the Department of Justice may bring. In an era of fiscal responsibility, the resources of the Department of Justice should be used for the public benefit, not on behalf of particular industries that can avail themselves of the existing civil enforcement provisions.

The "good" news is that this statement has apparently convinced the Senate to remove that part of the bill. Senator Ron Wyden introduced an amendment that took out the part where the White House gets to handle civil cases, but the rest of the bill still moves forward (and don't be surprised to see future efforts push to get the Justice Department back in on private enforcement).

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Filed Under: copyright cops, justice department, patrick leahy, ron wyden, white house

10 Comments

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greg roth, 25 Sep 2008 @ 4:26am

amen.
that's all i can say.
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Shohat, 25 Sep 2008 @ 4:33am

Sudden Outbreak of Common Sense
NT
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Erik Zeek, 25 Sep 2008 @ 5:22am

GPL enforcement
Dang! I was looking forward to the BusyBox guys using the Justice Department to enforce the GPL.
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MAtt, 25 Sep 2008 @ 5:44am

[from the article]
The bill, nearly identical to the version the House passed last year, encourages government anti-piracy task forces, the training of other countries about IP enforcement and, among other things, institutes an FBI piracy unit.
Let me fix that:
The bill, nearly identical to the version the House passed last year, encourages government anti-communism task forces, the training of other countries militias and, among other things, institutes an CIA covert operations unit.
Or, more to the current day:
The bill, nearly identical to the version the House passed last year, encourages government anti-terrorism task forces, the training of other countries governments and, among other things, created the Transportation Safety Administration.
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bored now, 25 Sep 2008 @ 6:35am

Ron Wyden
Wasn't he the guy that got cigarette lighters banned from planes, for a while?
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- jonnyq, 25 Sep 2008 @ 7:45am
  
  Re: Ron Wyden
  They allow cigarette lighters on planes NOW? I guess if you disguise your toothpaste as a cigarette lighter...
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Sep 2008 @ 7:55am

Good...now the DOJ can continue focusing its resources on pirates and "large scale" file sharers.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Sep 2008 @ 8:38am

Any ammendments about the IP Czar?
The DOJ was also unhappy about the white house IP evangelist. Has congress shown any willingness to bend on this? A salaried position is a wasteful way to ensure that the president pays attention to an issue.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Sep 2008 @ 8:51am

Re. Ron Wyden
fyi - the white house ip evangelist was already removed, and the forfeiture provisions Wyden criticized have been watered down. The only remaining onerous bit was allowing the Justice Dept to do the RI/MPAAs dirty work with your tax dollars and Wyden got that removed. Now the bill mostly focuses on folks who counterfeit Nikes or Handbags (or Pharmaceuticals, etc if you want to be scary) which is probably sensible.
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NeoConBushSupporter, 25 Sep 2008 @ 10:46am

Thank the Lord
Praise him . . . for blessing us with our fine brothers in the Justice Department. Good ole fashioned Republican reason saves the day again.

VOTE McCain 2008 - CLOSED UNTIL CRISIS SOLVED AND WORLD SAVED
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