We hear lots of talk about copyright and intellectual property these days. For example, Kazaa just reached a settlement for lots of their piracy ($115 Million). And all that is good, but you almost never hear discussion about another part of copyright law: the criminal part.
See, these cases are mostly civil–a creator (copyright holder) sues a company for using the work without permission. But there are criminal penalties for copyright abuse. Depending on the severity of the infringement and whether or not it was deliberate, theoretically a copyright criminal could go to jail for 1-5 years. Federal prision.
I say we should lobby for stricter application of the criminal parts of the law. Think about how that would get lots of the lazy pseudo-bloggers (those who just steal material and post it on their sites) who are making money off the ads on their sites! I can think of more than a few folks who deserve to do the perp-walk and make friends with Bubba Gangthug in the slammer.
It would also make life a lot better for creatives. Think about how, as an art director, you could turn to your client and say “we can either pay for comp usage of this photo or I can do marker comps for the presentation–which do you want?” rather than using an image from a sourcebook illegally and then having your client get married to that shot.
So call your representatives and make a stink about it. Copyright crime is as much of a crime as any other form of stealing.