[JURIST] The US Senate has passed a bill increasing penalties for certain violations of copyright. The provisions, included in legislation approved, Saturday set up to three years in prison for those who videotape movies while in the theater, and stiff penalties for those who leak music or movies before their official release date. Also of note is what was not included in the approved version of the bill: several controversial provisions relating to criminalizing actions of "peer-to-peer" networks like Kazaa, and its users. Additionally, a provision making it illegal to skip commercials was removed. Most of the measures have already been passed in House as part of the PDEA, although the Senate bill will need to be approved again by the House in December, to harmonize minor discrepancies. Reuters has more. PublicKnowledge.org has background information on the copyright legislation package.