Plus, a partisan spat over judicial nominees has made it hard for the committee to get a quorum and Republican members didn’t show at the committee's last business meeting. Ranking member Arlen Specter -- who cosponsored the bill with Leahy and Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio -- criticized the pace at which judicial appointments have been considered by the panel and the Senate on the whole.

The bill in question was a compromise among several intellectual property enforcement measures introduced this Congress. It would provide authorization for the attorney general to enforce civil copyright laws; improve civil intellectual property laws by only requiring registration of a copyrighted work before bringing a civil infringement suit; and eliminate other "unnecessary burdens" to launching infringement suits. It also would harmonize forfeiture provisions in criminal copyright infringement cases.