US Newswire reports that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has announced a new proposed piece of legislation. The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2005 will implement stronger forfeiture proceedings, criminalize intellectual property infringement motivated by any type of commercial advantage or private financial gain and increase the possibility of restitution for the “victims” of infringement.
The IPKat thinks that this may be a bit of an overreaction. While IP infringement isn’t a “victimless crime”, as some would suggest, there are existing provisions which criminalise certain forms of infringement. If these aren’t working, growing increasingly more shrill bya increasing the severity of criminal measures isn’t likely to make the situation any better.