Both houses of the US Congress have now passed the Software Copyright Protection Bill after the Senate accepted House amendments late on Thursday last week: the bill, which upgrades commercial software privacy to a felony from a misdemeanour now goes to the President to be signed into law; it defines commercial pirates as individuals that willfully copy software for commercial advantage or private financial gain, and sets prison terms of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 for those convicted of infringing at least 10 copies of a copyrighted software program or any combination of programs with a retail value greater than $2,500.
