With only weeks before Washington shuts down for the holidays, some of Big Content's most reliable shills are putting on a show of their own.

Hollywood's Men (and Woman) in Washington, Senators Cornyn, Feinstein, and Hollings, are sponsoring the appropriately doublespeakian "Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention" (ART) Act.

Authored by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Artists Rights and Theft Prevention (ART) Act makes it easier to prosecute suspected pirates who offer "pre-release" movies and music online.

"We're trying to go after the pre-release stuff that is absolutely killing any potential revenue for one of the segments of our economy that's doing well," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Cornyn. The movie studios and record labels are "just absolutely getting clobbered."

Of course, it's already illegal to pirate music and movies, regardless of the medium and distribution method used, but this bill would mean that the mere act of recording would become a federal felony.

The proposed legislation would also close a pesky loophole where studios had to demonstrate economic harm from someone's sharing of a file. With pre-release films, since no revenue had yet been taken in, the harm was even more theoretical. Now the simple act of placing a file of a pre-release film someplace on a network would automatically be considered piracy causing economic harm.

In other words, copyright owners can now bring criminal charges against individuals without even proving that any infringement actually happened.

Of course, with the holiday break just around the corner, the tough talk may never amount to anything.