[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 49 (Monday, December 13, 1999)]
[Page 2559]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages 
Improvement Act of 1999

December 9, 1999

    Today I have signed into law H.R. 3456, the ``Digital Theft 
Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999.'' This 
legislation will increase for the first time since January 1988 the 
statutory damages that a copyright holder may recover for certain 
copyright infringements. This increase in penalties would be an 
effective deterrent to would-be pirates of copyrighted works. This Act 
also directs the United States Sentencing Commission to issue sentencing 
guidelines to ensure that sentences for criminal offenses against 
intellectual property are sufficiently severe to deter such offenses. I 
fully support efforts to make sentences in criminal cases involving 
intellectual property offenses true deterrents against the commission of 
those offenses and am pleased that H.R. 3456 will require the Sentencing 
Commission to address this matter on an expedited basis.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
December 9, 1999.

Note: H.R. 3456, approved December 9, was assigned Public Law No. 106-
160.