Slashdot Mirror
Berman Bill Dead in the Water?
Masem writes "Last summer, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced a bill that would legitimize computer attacks by copyright owners on those users that they believed were illegally trading copyright material; the bill recieved a fair amount of criticism for the potental viligante tactics it suggested. That session of Congress ended without resolution of the bill, though Rep. Berman promised to reintroduce it this session. However, the LA Times reports that support for the bill is nowhere as strong as before, and many believe that laws already exist that allow copyright owners to punish illegal traders; as a result, Berman appears to be unwilling to support the bill further. For example, while the MPAA supported the bill, some of the liabilities introduced into it to punish those copyright holders that went too far in their attacks were too much for the Hollywood group." Unfortunately, the LA Times site requires registration.
Who is Berman Bill? And why should I care if he drowned?
E000-VB14-G8RY
Damn it. When I first saw this article, I interpreted it as "Rick Berman is now sleeping with the fishes, see?" I couldn't wait to find out the gory details.
What a let-down.
-- "I believe the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully." - George W. Bush, 29 September 2000
Netcraft confirms it: the Berman Bill is dying
Another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered RIAA committee when Slashdot confirmed that support for the Berman Bill was at an all-time low. The Berman Bill is collapsing into complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Slashdot Popular Bill Poll.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict the Berman Bill's future. The handwriting is on the wall: the Berman Bill faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all because the Berman Bill is dying. Things are looking very bad for the Berman Bill. As many of us are already aware, the Berman Bill continues to lose support. Funding has dried up and red in flows like a river of blood.
All major surveys show that the Berman Bill has steadily declined in voter support. The Berman Bill is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If the Berman Bill is to survice at all it will be among RIAA executives and dabblers. The Berman Bill continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, the Berman Bill is dead
Trolling is a art,
the bill recieved a fair amount of criticism for the potental viligante tactics it suggested.
viligante or vigilante
Not yet, but we better keep an eye on these domains just in case.
If legislation like this gets passed, I think we should all get together, buy a lobbyist, and propose a law that says when we think the recording industry is backing a crime against music (which would include the VAST majority of new releases), we should be allowed to attack them... Picture this: We catch wind that Ricky Martin has a new album coming out of the turd factory, we get to go drag some record company executive out of his house and beat him in his front yard. After that we fine him and jail him. I bet after a few "raids" like that, we would never have to listen to Avril Lavigne again... Maybe people would start feeling good about paying too much money for CDs. Hell, maybe the prices would actually come a bit closer to earth. Far be it from me to suggest violence as any kind of cure-all, but don't you think after wasting so much of our time with this crap instead of solving real problems, somebody deserves a savage beating? Make sure everyone eats something tonight and then worry about making sure everyone who hears it has paid for Puffy's remix of someone else's hit song. Maybe if I saw Sally Struthers do an infomercial featuring Celine Dion starving to death with flies crawling on her face... Then I would agree that something must be done. Since I'm sure the goodies in her dressing room at each performance cost about what I make in a year, I have no sympathy for her or anyone like her. How much is enough? Switching to decaf for the rest of the day...
Someday a real rain is gonna come...
I hate to muddy the waters, because I agree with your point. Having said that, I'll do it anyway.
In the States, at least, you probably could "be allowed" to shoot a man who raped your girlfriend, IF you caught him in the act, had a competent lawyer, and pleaded temporary insanity. ("I wasn't thinking clearly, Your Honor. I just knew I had to stop him from hurting my girlfriend.")
This would be a very humorous analogy for the RIAA to make when they got sued. (Though in a civil suit it would almost certainly fail.) "But Your Honor, we just didn't know what else to do when we saw 1337h@x0r violating our poor little Britney's copyright. We reacted emotionally to stop him by any means necessary before that poor girl got hurt any more."
viligante methods
Is this like the quote, "We had to destroy the village in order to save it"?
MjM
I only mod up...
XKCD:Xeric Knowledge Comically Dispen
This ruins everything! I have been seeding the Internet for the last few months with copyrighted material as part of my three step plan to profit.
If this doesn't pass my plans are going to be reduced to a bad joke!
me karma am bad
How about this: Send an email
I believe Echelon already possesses quite a few emails copyrighted by me.
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?