pharmaceuticals

Intellectual-property offenders face tougher penalties now that President Bush has signed into law the PRO-IP Act with greater penalties for piracy. The president signed the bill Monday.

The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007 passed both the House and Senate. The law gives government agencies tools to gather evidence for prosecution of intellectual-property crimes, provides funds to the Department of Justice to better enforce IP-related crimes, and boosts collaboration between agencies seeking to stop piracy.

We all know we have the power to make the world a bit greener – and many feel that includes messing with DNA for environmental improvements, or just better efficiency for our gadgets. Now there’s new hope that DNA could play a major role in making computers run with little or no external power.

Piracy is running rampant, according to a report from the U.S. government. Not the kind of pirates with eye patches and parrots on their shoulders, but rather the kind that downloads content illegally from the Internet, counterfeits products, and generally hijacks the profits of pharmaceuticals, electronics, software, and other goods. China and Russia were singled out in particular for their weak protections of intellectual property rights (IPR).