[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 28 (Monday, March 8, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2295-S2296]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CIVIL COPYRIGHT ENFORCEMENT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, with the advent of the digital age, we had 
great hopes that the possibility of distributing music, films, books, 
and software on the Internet would bring us an unprecedented variety of 
content online with ever-increasing ease. Unfortunately, those hopes 
have not yet been realized. The very ease of duplication and 
distribution that is the hallmark of digital content has meant that 
piracy of that content is just as easy. The very real--and often 
realized--threat that creative works will simply be duplicated and 
distributed freely online has restricted, rather than enhanced, the 
amount and variety of creative works one can receive over the Internet. 
Part of combating piracy includes offering a legal alternative to it. 
Another important part is enforcing the rights of copyright owners. 
Senator

[[Page S2296]]

Hatch and I have been working with artists, authors, and software 
developers to create an environment in which copyright is protected, so 
that we can all enjoy American creativity, and so that copyright owners 
can be paid for their work.
  In the coming months we will be discussing numerous responses to this 
problem. One critically important part of the attack on this problem 
will be to bring the resources and expertise of the United States 
Attorneys' Offices to bear on wholesale copyright infringers. For too 
long these attorneys have been hindered in their pursuit of pirates, by 
the fact that they were limited to bringing criminal charges with high 
burdens of proof. In the world of copyright, a criminal charge is 
unusually difficult to prove because the defendant must have known that 
his conduct was illegal and he must have willfully engaged in the 
conduct anyway. For this reason prosecutors can rarely justify bringing 
criminal charges, and copyright owners have been left alone to fend for 
themselves, defending their rights only where they can afford to do so. 
In a world in which a computer and an Internet connection are all the 
tools you need to engage in massive piracy, this was an intolerable 
predicament.
  Some steps have already been taken. The Allen-Leahy amendment to the 
Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, on Combating Piracy of U.S. 
Intellectual Property in Foreign Countries, provided $2.5 million for 
the Department of State to assist foreign countries in combating piracy 
of U.S. copyrighted works. By providing equipment and training to law 
enforcement officers, it will help those countries that are not members 
of OECD, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, to 
enforce intellectual property protections.
  Senator Hatch and I are investigating another needed response to this 
problem that would give the Attorney General the authority to bring a 
civil action against copyright infringers. This authority would not 
supplant either the criminal provisions of the Copyright Act, or the 
remedies available to the copyright owner in a private suit. Rather, it 
would allow the Government to bring its resources to bear on this 
immense problem, and to ensure that more creative works are made 
available online, that those works are more affordable, and that the 
people who work to bring them to us are paid for their efforts.
  We hope to introduce a bill on this matter soon, and we look forward 
to continuing our efforts to bring our country's law enforcement tools 
into the 21st century, just as our technologies have advanced.

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