House passes antipiracy act

New bill lacks key industry provision

By WILLIAM TRIPLETT

A House subcommittee passed Thursday a tough new bill protecting intellectual property that would create a White House coordinator of federal antipiracy efforts. But in order to move the bill forward, it had to be stripped of a provision strongly desired by the recording industry.

In addition to the new White House position, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007, or PRO IP Act, would establish more resources and tools for combating piracy and counterfeiting of all kinds -- from DVDs and CDs to auto parts and pharmaceuticals -- and would toughen penalties.

For instance, the bill offers state and local authorities $25 million in grants to help antipiracy efforts, and it ups the maximum possible fine for a willful offense from $1 million to $2 million.

Bill passed on a voice vote.

However, a controversial provision that would have dramatically increased fines for illegally copying a compilation of works was removed by House IP subcommittee chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.). The Recording Industry Assn. of America pushed for the provision, which would have replaced the existing single, collective fine -- as much as $150,000 -- for bootlegging a CD with a fine calculated by multiplying the single amount by the total number of cuts on the CD.

In a statement, Berman said he removed the provision "for the sake of expediency" -- some groups strongly opposed it, claiming it would impede technological innovation -- "so that the PRO IP Act could move forward quickly."

But he promised "ongoing discussions" about the so-called disaggregation issue, signaling that it could return in some form as the bill now moves to the House Judiciary Committee.

"We are grateful for the widespread support within the subcommittee for this important legislation," said Mitch Glazier, RIAA exec veep for government and industry relations, in a statement that accentuated the positive. "With this vote, Congress has taken the first legislative step toward enacting a common sense bill that closes needless loopholes in the copyright laws and provides more resources to the federal government and law enforcement to fully address intellectual property theft. This is great news for the music community and all businesses that rely upon intellectual property laws," Glazier added.

"Today's action represents important progress for everyone concerned about better enforcement of America's intellectual property rights," said National Music Publishers' Assn. prexy David Israelite in a statement. Public Knowledge, a group that opposed the disaggregation provision, hailed Berman's decision to remove it.

Bill is expected to pass the House Judiciary Committee: Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the committee, is co-author of the bill with Berman.