Washington - U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has proposed a new bill that would make "attempted" copyright infringement of intellectual property a crime, CNET News.com reported.

The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 would update federal law to make it a crime to attempt to commit copyright infringement, removing the barrier in current law that requires that an act of infringement actually have transpired.

"We wanted to include as a crime any attempt to sell even if there were no direct evidence of selling," a senior Justice official told Variety, using as an example the discovery of a warehouse full of pirated materials -- which under the bill would qualify as "distribution" as well as illegal copying.

The bill would also allow for more wiretapping and computer seizures in piracy investigations; stiffen penalties for violating anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other copyright crimes; and require the Department of Homeland Security to notify the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) when it learns of attempts to import pirated CDs.

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