Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, commended the Senate’s passage of S. 3021, the “Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004″ and issued the following statement:

“This comprehensive legislation will enhance the enforcement and operation of the intellectual property laws so critical to our economy and our future.

“We must do everything in our power to ensure that our intellectual property is protected. As technology develops and changes, our role in Congress is to update our federal laws. This comprehensive package is the result of careful, bipartisan negotiations.

“I want to commend the Senate for passing S. 3021, the ‘Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004.’ This important legislation is actually a package of several intellectual property bills that the House and Senate have been working to enact over the past two years. This bill strengthens the intellectual-property laws that are vital to the ongoing growth of our economy.

“Title I of this Act, the Artists’ Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2003, (the ART Act), will close two significant gaps in our copyright laws that are feeding some of the piracy now rampant on the Internet. First, it criminalizes attempts to camcord movies off of theater screens. These camcorded copies of new movies now appear on filesharing networks almost contemporaneously with the theatrical release of a film. Second, the bill will create a pre-registration system that will permit criminal penalties and statutory-damage awards when copyrighted works are distributed illegally via the Internet before they are even made available for sale to the public.

“Title II of this Act, the Family Movie Act of 2004, resolves some ongoing disputes about the legality of so-called “jump-and-skip” technologies that companies like Clearplay in my home state of Utah have developed to permit family-friendly viewing of films that may contain objectionable content. This will ensure the future of technologies that enable families to watch movies without exposing their children to profanity or images of rape, sex or murder.

“Title III of this Act, the National Film Preservation Act of 2004, will reauthorize the National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Preservation Foundation. These entities recognize and preserve historically or culturally significant films – often by providing grants and expertise that enable local historical societies to preserve historically significant films for their local communities. This work will preserve the history of the 20th century for future generations.

Title IV of this Act, the Preservation of Orphan Works Act, also ensures the preservation of valuable historic records by correcting a technical error that unnecessarily narrows a limitation on the copyright law that protects librarians and archivists.

Title V of this Act, the Anticounterfeiting Act of 2004, strengthens our criminal and civil anticounterfeiting laws. Traffic in counterfeit copies of American goods has become a multi-billion dollar drain on our economy. Companies are combating this counterfeiting by using increasingly sophisticated authentication features to distinguish genuine, authorized copies of their products. Now, the crooks are stealing or forging these authentication features and selling them to counterfeiters. The Anticounterfeiting Act of 2004 will impose criminal and civil penalties upon those who traffic in counterfeit or stolen authentication features. This will help halt criminal traffic in authentication features before it can create the illusion of authenticity that allows counterfeit goods to penetrate legitimate markets and endanger our citizens and economy.

“Title VI of this Act, the Cooperative Research and Technology Enhancement Act of 2004 (the CREATE Act), will help public institutions and private entrepreneurs combine their expertise in collaborative, joint research efforts. Unfortunately, the literal language of Section 102(g) of the Patent Act could create a disincentive to form public-private joint-research projects.

“I believe that we must encourage – not discourage – public institutions and private entrepreneurs to combine their differing talents in joint research efforts. Indeed, Congress committed itself to this principle when it passed the Bayh-Dole Amendments to the Patent Act. The CREATE Act will simply conform the present language of the Patent Act to its intent.”