The Constable on September 27th, 2008
The Senate approved new Intellectual Property enforcement legislation Friday (the EIPRA bill), with the House of Representatives expected to approve it themselves on Saturday. Missing form the final bill, however, was a controversial provision that would have turned the Justice Department into a free legal service in civil suits for copyright holders.
We’ll post an update when final word comes in from the House (supposedly later today).
The Constable on September 25th, 2008
Ars Technica has an article about a recent letter to Congress from the Department of Justice regarding to Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008 (EIPRA). Basically, the wording of the Act made it so the DoJ was responsible for all civil and criminal cases of copyright abuse, thereby putting the burden on the taxpayer to fund such cases (but money won from the cases would go the rights holders).
In our opinion, cases of copyright abuse are clearly legal arguments that can and should go to the courts, and theft is theft (and those cases are mostly criminal), but when it comes to civil suits those really should be on the burden of the individual bringing the suit. After all, if something is worthy of going to court over in an actual lawsuit, it had better be something you are likely to win - which means groups like the RIAA could easily fund such lawsuits.
The article at ArsTechnica has more information on the letter, but it also has quite a bit of opinion inserted in the article as well - so take what you read with a grain of salt, since this is Ars after all.
