The Senate Judiciary Committee passed S. 3325, the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008, a scary bill that will make the Justice Department a legal resource for media companies and copyright holders.

The law is the evolution of the PRO-IP Act, which the House passed in May, and the PIRATE Act in the Senate and remains just as one-sided to Big Content as before.  The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act increases damages for infringement while adding an Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator to advise the president and oversee IP enforcement over various federal agencies.

The scariest aspect of this law is granting federal prosecutors the power to bring civil suits against copyright infringers.  This makes the Justice Department, normally in charge with protecting the U.S. and its citizens, will be protecting one industry’s obsolete business model in court, wasting taxpayer money and turning over any awards to those media companies.  What’s worse is if someone is falsely prosecuted, they cannot sue for legal fees like they can against non-government plaintiffs.

Several amendments were removed including raising penalties for circumventing DRM, but the worst still remain and will likely be passed by huge margins.  The reason: Big Copyright funds elections while consumers pay the price.