Rich Fiscus
15 Dec 2007 18:45
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is apparently not very happy with proposed legislation in the House of Representatives intended to stiffen penalties for copyright violations and put an increased emphasis on enforcement of both criminal and civil intellectual property (IP) laws. While they're not complaining about the new punishments for copyright violation, according to Sigal Mandelker, deputy assistant attorney general, there's no need to add a separate IP enforcement office, as the bill currently before the House Judiciary Committee would do.
"We have a current structure … that works quite effectively," said Mandelker, adding that removing IP enforcement operations from the DOJ's criminal division "will disrupt important relationships within the criminal division and will make intradepartmental IP coordination more difficult." She also pointed out that the DOJ has already implemented more than 30 recommendations from a report they submitted, but "there was never any recommendation to create an entirely new division for IP."
Ironically, the DOJ's biggest concern about the legislation may be the biggest selling point for the entertainment industry. Mandelker expressed concern about the creation of a new IP related position that would be located in the White House. "We are always going to be concerned when you have somebody at the White House who may be in the position of directing our enforcement or what cases we do or don't do," she said. "That would be contrary to the long-standing tradition of the department making independent decisions regarding law enforcement."
Source: PC Magazine