Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 - Overview

Overview

The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 is a legislation that, when proposed to congress, was supported by the Justice Department. Its main goal is to bolster, and increase the government's ability to fight against IP violations as well as to help reduce terror-related and criminal enterprises that are proposed as being supposedly funded by piracy. However, the government has not been able to show a verifiable connection between IP crimes and injustices and the accused terror groups. The legislation was introduced to Congress and supported by Republican Lamar Smith, who serves as the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. All aspects of his subcommittee have jurisdiction over copyright law and information technology. When the legislation was first signed into law, there was controversy over its original purpose. Thinking that the conservative government was simply supporting friends in CEO positions in major companies, many small businesses thought that the Bush Administration enabled the law to specifically aid the attempts of big business that were trying to rid any unauthorized use of their copyrighted products. However, the act proved to be useful for practically all copyrighted media and material. Overall, the purpose of the instated legislation is to protect any form of intellectual property and original innovation in order to sustain a sense of copyright for original works and creation.

The legislation should not be confused with HR 2391, or the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2004, which was an earlier collection of intellectual property related legislation. Although the 2006 legislation does involve a very similar representation of the 2004 legislation, it is more of an expansion and addition rather than a refurbished copy.

Other information on this legislation provided and operated by government officials can be found on the Public Knowledge Organization Site, which is a "Washington, D.C.-based public interest group working to defend citizens' rights in the emerging digital culture."