Life in prison for copyright infringement?

Tuesday, May 15, 2007 by Dave Winer.

News.com: "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including 'attempts' to commit piracy." 

Theory -- this is what the Democrats got to look the other way and let the Gonzales matter drop. Howard Berman, the advocate for the RIAA and MPAA, is on the House Judiciary Committee, and in general, the Democrats are the ones pushing for legislation on behalf of the entertainment industry. 

Also, I have no idea what attempted infringement means, but it could mean visiting a site that has BitTorrents available for download.  

The News.com article isn't clear about this, but apparently there are some infringements deemed so serious that the proposed penalty is life in prison.