"It's also unclear how a novel law such as this one would play in terms of international copyright treaties, enforcement and subject matter," said Weingart, who has long experience with copyright laws in the US.
"Anytime someone seeks to promote and profit from artistic or photographic expression, one walks a fine line between promoting its use on the one hand and protecting material on the other," Weingart said.
The copyright proposal is part of a wider law whose main purpose is to protect the country's antiquities from smugglers by stiffening punishments. It would also increase penalties for building on archeological sites.
The draft bill is the result of five years of consultations among lawyers, experts and Egyptologists on ways to protect the monuments, Hawass said.
"The most important thing is that those who steal antiquities will be put in prison for good," he said.
The law calls for five-year prison sentences for those building on archeological sites, which until now were only minimally fined. There are 6,000 such cases pending in Egypt.
Rules would also change for dozens of foreign archeological missions excavating sites in Egypt, which in the past were allowed to take 10 percent of their finds out of the country.
"I canceled that. I feel it is an honor for any expert just to work in Egypt ... not to take things outside," Hawass said.
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