Last Friday, the U.S. Senate passed the controversial Pro-IP Bill, which would effectively create a "copyright czar" answering to the President. According to the Senate bill, the IPEC will chair a committee made up of representatives from the Office of Management and Budget, the DOJ, the U.S. Trade Representative, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Department of Homeland Security, the FDA, and others.
The new House bill also would create an "Intellectual Property Enforcement Division" within the Office of the Deputy Attorney General and create an Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC) that will serve within the Office of the President. However, a controversial measure granting the Justice Department the authority to sue copyright infringers on behalf of Hollywood and the music industry was removed after the White House lobbied against assuming those new powers, despite the cheers from the RIAA.
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