Congress yesterday sent to the White House a bill designed to ensure that books, music, movies and other forms of artistic creation get full copyright protection in the online world.

"We have produced a bill that should help spur the growth of electronic commerce while protecting the creative work of our nation's content community," said Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr. (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, which wrote what he called the "historic legislation."

The bill creates criminal penalties for anyone who disables or tampers with software systems that scramble or otherwise block unauthorized copying. That measure drew criticism from groups such as the American Library Association, which said it could lead to a "pay-per-use intellectual universe" that would prevent people from making legal copies of material for private use.