The Bush administration is supporting a new intellectual property (IP) law that should be opposed by any sane individual. Of course, that excludes most politicians who are lining their pockets with money from the entertainment industry.

What is going on? The White House is supporting the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007…a horrendous bill that includes the following:

1. Making it a crime to attempt copyright infringement. In other words, you do not have to actually infringe on a copyright. Simply attempting to do so is a crime. And who decides what is an attempt? Does thinking about copying a CD constitute a crime? Bet it does to RIAA.

2. You could be sentenced to up to life in prison for using pirated software. Call this the “Bill Gates” provision.

And it gets worse…

3. Instead of tracking terrorists, Homeland Security gets to track bootleg CDs and report to RIAA when it finds them being imported. Who cares about that dirty bomb being smuggled? Apparently it is more important to track black market Britney Spears and Beyonce.

Call your Congressional representatives and let them know that you oppose this monstrosity and will vote against any politician who supports it.

Hat tip to Declan McCullagh at CNetNews.com.

About the Author

With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of "Internet Marketing Legal Secrets Revealed," "How to Create Your Own Internet Business Without a Lawyer for Under $175," and the creator of Website Legal Forms Generator^TM. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.