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CRM 1500-1999

1842. Copyright Law -- Reporting Requirements

Section 2320(e), as amended by the Anticounterfeiting Consumer Protection Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-153, 110 Stat. 1386 (1996), provides as follows:

  1. (e) Beginning with the first year after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Attorney General shall include in the report of the Attorney General to Congress on the business of the Department of Justice prepared pursuant to section 522 of Title 28, an accounting, on a district by district basis, of the following with respect to all actions taken by the Department of Justice that involve trafficking in counterfeit labels for phonorecords, copies of computer programs or computer program documentation or packaging, copies of motion pictures or other audiovisual works (as defined in section 2318 of title 18), criminal infringement of copyrights (as defined in section 2319 of title 18), unauthorized fixation of and trafficking in sound recordings and music videos of live musical performances (as defined in section 2319A of title 18), or trafficking in goods or services bearing counterfeit marks (as defined in section 2320 of title 18):
  1. The number of open investigations.
  2. The number of cases referred by the United States Customs Service.
  3. The number of cases referred by other agencies or sources.
  4. The number and outcome, including settlements, sentences, recoveries, and penalties, of all prosecutions brought under sections 2318, 2319, 2319A, and 2320 of title 18.

18 U.S.C. § 2320(e).

To provide assistance in construing the intended scope of these broad provisions, pertinent legislative history is excerpted below.

Section 4. Trafficking in counterfeit goods or services

Section 4 amends 18 U.S.C. § 2320 to require the Attorney General to maintain statistics, on a district-by-district basis, for all actions subject to RICO pursuant to the provisions of Section 2 of the bill. The statistics must include an accounting of: (1) The number of open investigations, (2) the number of cases referred by the U.S. Customs Service, (3) the number of cases referred by other agencies or sources, and (4) the number and outcome of prosecutions under those provisions.

H.R. Rep. No. 556, 104th Cong., 2d Sess. 7 (1996).

Section 5. Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods or Services

This section, which amends section 2320 of title 18, requires the U.S. Attorney General to include in his or her annual report to Congress statistics relating to all criminal counterfeiting actions. This provision willmake it easier to assess the extent to which commercial counterfeiting is being investigated and prosecuted by federal officials. In addition, according to testimony received by the committee, several witnesses concluded that requiring statistical reporting by the Attorney General of anticounterfeiting activities will facilitate prosecution of these offenses.

S. Rep. No. 177, 104th Cong., 1st Sess. 7 (1995).

[cited in JM 9-71.001; JM 9-71.015]