A Congressional hunt for IP criminals
A key legislator in the U.S. House of Representatives said Tuesday that he would release the first "Intellectual Property Crime Index" next week. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees copyright law, said the index would accomplish what he said the U.S. Department of Justice statistics currently don't do well: track intellectual property crimes and analyze trends over time.
"Our analysis will break down the numbers so we know precisely what type of IP (intellectual property) crimes are occurring, from copyright law to trademark violations to the theft of trade secrets," Smith told the Media Institute, a First Amendment non-profit group. "While some of these statistics will be familiar to us, they will also be a useful tool for lawmakers as we move forward to increase the enforcement and identification of intellectual property crimes." A year ago, Smith signed a letter to the Justice Department that urges prosecutors to seek indictments against peer-to-peer pirates.
