According to CNET:Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including "attempts" to commit piracy.
"To meet the global challenges of IP crime, our criminal laws must be kept updated," Gonzales said during a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday.
The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a proposal called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, which is likely to receive the enthusiastic support of the movie and music industries and would represent the most dramatic rewrite of copyright law since a 2005 measure dealing with pre-release piracy.
While the devil is always in the details, this is certainly an interesting turn of events. Further, it's worth noting that Rep. Lamar Smith, who is quoted as tentatively in support of this, previously was reported (also by CNET) "Congress readies broad new digital copyright bill" which didn't gain traction, and the roundly criticized Orphan Works bill, which also sank in the last Congress, but may yet have a pulse during this session.
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