WASHINGTON, D.C. — Members of the U.S. House of Representative are studying a new bill designed to increase penalties for copyright infringement and boost criminal enforcement. If passed, it also would create a new federal agency tasked with cracking down on content thieves at home and abroad.Introduced Wednesday, the 69-page, bipartisan bill is called the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property — or PRO IP — Act, and it has the support of some heavy hitters in Congress. Sponsors include the Judiciary Committee’s Lamar Smith (R-TX,), Judiciary Copyright Subcommittee Chair Howard Berman (D-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). In addition, the Motion Picture Association of America is firmly behind it.

The bill includes provisions that would allow courts to assess “multiple awards of statutory damages” in cases of compilation theft instead of the single maximum fine of $30,000 allowable under current law. It also would ease the designation of copyright infringement as criminal behavior by overriding the current law’s provision that repeat offenders become felons only after they distribute 10 copyrighted works within 180 days.

In order to accomplish increased enforcement, the Justice Department’s intellectual-property division would receive an overhaul with the creation of an “Intellectual Property Enforcement Division” that would — with an initial annual budget of $25 million — take on the tasks currently performed by the department’s computer-crimes section.

A bit troubling is a PRO-IP clause that would allow Justice Department officials to seize computer or other electronic hardware used to “facilitate” copyright crimes, auction the property, and use the income to defray the agency’s budget. This type of civil asset forfeiture normally does not require the alleged perpetrator’s conviction prior to his property’s disposal.

Also troubling on some levels is the proposed creation of a new agency to be called the White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative, or WHIPER. As with other federal agencies, the president would appoint the chief of the division, to be called “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary,” who would need to be confirmed by the Senate. On his or her staff would be 10 “intellectual property attaches” who would be stationed at embassies around the world.

Once ensconced (at an annual salary of more than $186,000), the WHIPER head would become the president’s chief advisor and spokesperson about intellectual property matters in addition to being tasked with identifying foreign nations that drop the copyright-protection ball.

WHIPER also would be charged with creating a “Joint Strategic Plan” to identify individuals who traffic in pirated goods.