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Hilary Rosen from RIAA will write Iraq's Copyrights?
sould writes "The Register is reporting that Hilary Rosen is to assist in writing Iraq's Intellectual Property laws. Can't have those Iraqi's pirating Eminem now can we?"
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Haven't the Iraqi people been OPPRESSED enough already? Why would they welcome new draconian laws like the RIAA would suggest they have? I thought we just liberated these people....
. I love the sound of burning women and screaming rubber....
As if the Iraqi people were not burried in oppression, now we're going to mire them up in US patent and IP nonsense. By the time we're through, the people will never have a foothold to get any technological endeavor off the ground. They'll be forever burried by our stupid laws. Of course, bad patent & IP laws are better than being murdered by your government, it's still kind of a sinister trade. The Iraqi people have no idea what we may be getting them into -- until they try to make any significant advances in the global technology industry. Someone explain to me how this isn't colonization?
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Rather than waste time writing copyright laws, why don't they fix their infrastructure, health/education systems and provide essential services. No offense to copyright holders (I myself being one of them) but basic human rights should come before protecting whats yours.
Guess somebody has their priorities straight...
If I said I didn't have an incentive to grow oranges uness I could plant a tree in your yard, or if I said I didn't have an incentive to grow cotton unless I could own slaves on the plantation, most people would see this is these as the worthless shallow arguments that they are. But if I said I didn't have an incentive to to make beneficial or creative works without a copyright monopoly, then all of a sudden people just take it on faith, they don't even question it, they just assume that society would fall apart without them. In my humble opinion, this is intellectually dishonest, especially considering that the entire Renassance happened without copyrights.
The simple fact is, there is no equivalency relationship between copyrights and property rights - incentive does not a right make. The moral and historical foundation of property derives from the fact that property has physical limits, while the foundation of copyrights dervives from kings who granted publishers monopolies in return for not publishing bad things about the monarchy. The history of Copyrights is not one of rights, but controll of sharing and restricting the open use of knowledge.
That is why people who copy are not criminals, thiefs, or akin to pirates who board ships and murder people. No, infact they are really victims of a cruel deception. A deception that copyrights somehow financially benefit artists and creators. The simple fact is, that for every artist that makes it "big" there are litterally thousands who copyrights haven't helped a bit, even hindered, or destroyed.
However, this is not the only failure of copyrights - it is just one in many issues related to copyrighrts that are just blown off ignored, or glossed over. Like the failures of Hollywood culture, the failures of big media to provide quality material, the failures to provide reasonably priced books to college students while tabloids are dirt cheap, and massive anti-trust behavior in the software industry to name a few.
While the problems associated with copyrights might have been bearable 20 years ago when the biggist issue was Xerox machines, today we are entering into the information age where information is so easy to copy and manipulate that there can be no middle ground. Our society will either half to controll all of it or none of it. Our communications will either half to be monitored or free, our privacy to be either contunuiously probed or protected
In that sense, copyrights are like a vine that will never stop growing to choke off our freedoms until we cut it off at the root. The DMCA, infinite extensions, billion dollar lawsiuts, are all just symptoms of a poor belief system - not the cause. So the efforts to find a "middle ground" on copyrights are a failure because they do not address the core issue. That contrary to copyrights, the right to copy and distribute creative works and knowledge is a right!
Like freedom of religion, and freedom of the press, the right to copy things is a right that exists above government. It is a moral right, it is an inherent right, it defines the very nature of the human condition. It is beyond politics and the petition of leaders.
In fact, the entire foundation of politics rests on the notion that it's better to fight wars with words than wars with bloodshed. But to copy things does not require coercion or viloence at all, the rules are not the same. We will not change the copyright situation by petitioning our leaders, or voteing to change the system. No it can only be changed by defiance.
Defiance by holding the belief that people have rights, even if those rights appear contrary to the popular mob or to the system. Defiance, by shedding off the guilt and shame that those who try to impose copyrights impose on us and understanding that they are the ones who should be guilty and shamefull. Defiance by copying and sharing creative works whenever we have acess to them. Defiance by using technologies that make it harder and harder for copyrights to be imposed upon us. And defi
Or maybe we're going to write the laws, and then if their elected representative doesn't enforce them, we'll get a new representative. Or even better, we could help enforce them ourselves. Joy.
This will most certainly help the poor image of the US in the middle east. We're showing our strong corporate interests. It's such a nice, clean, humanitarian image the US partrays, isn't it?
Developers: We can use your help.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this will make Iraqis hate Americans more and more. For God's sake please stay away from imposing our rules (and ways) on them. Thats probably the last thing you want to do if you want to prove that we are there for liberation and not to force ourselves on them.
Jalil Vaidya
I rather expect as soon as the minders are gone they'll do whatever they damn well please, and IP crap dumped on them from american special interests will chafe and be the first things to go or be utterly ignored.
Maybe Jack Valenti can be embedded next time, eh?
"That's right, Bob, we've found a stash of illegitimate Backstreet Boys CD's in An Nasaryah, so the president was certainly justified in this invasion!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
We'll see about that.
;-)
Wait until Ms. Rosen can cut loose in a country without the Bill of Rights, ACLU, etc. to slow her down. There will be tons of Iraqi citizens doing hard time if they are caught *humming* songs without the CD on them.
Hate to be the Devil's advocate, but it's a matter of how you look at it.
If you consider copyright to be a basic right of the people, ie, any work a man creates should be copyrighted, then it falls under protecting their basic rights - "...all citizens have their rights protected."
Of course, I think that's absolute shite, but not a bad way wiggle out of it.
A US corporate figure is going to have a word about how future LAW will look like in Iraq ???
If there was any doubt that the USA is just acting in the interests of it's corporations, then that doubt is now dead.
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
We're dumping all kinds of conservative stupid shit onto Iraq. I hear also abortion is now illegal there, thanks to G.W. He's treating it not as an American protectorate but as a Republican Party protectorate.
Copyrights can and do benefit artists, when applied correctly. All the problems of the present copyright system are an outgrowth of the misapplication of copyright.
Copyright is supposed to benefit the whole of society by making sure that creative people get some recompense for being creative. Furthermore, the copyright laws of the US include a provision for fair use (like burning a disc for your friend); however, we currently have a copyright system that exists soley for the profit of CEO's. Copyrights now never expire, making them couterproductive to their original purpose, and the scope of what is considered fair use is being reduced everyday.
Simply ignoring copyright is not a solution. It gives the likes of Valenti and Rosen more amunition in their crusade for DRM and will lead to laws even worse than the DMCA.
If copyright really were a temporary thing, lasting, at most, 28 years, like it is supposed to, we would be able to freely trade almost everything ever recorded by The Beatles, The Doors, Buddy Holly, Elvis, etc. A great many novels would enter the public domain. Many films would be free to distribute. There would be a plentiful, rich, and significant public domain. As it is, books written by men long dead at the beginning of last century are still under copyright, a short cartoon of a rat is still locked up, and Michael Jackson owns the rights to Jahn Lennon's music. I agree that system is bad, but I think just ignoring will make it worse. The RIAA/MPAA/etc. will have even more fuel for their fires, and will be able to get laws passed that make the situation even worse than it is already. Fight for a return of reasonable copyrights, and artists and consumers will benefit.
my pet machine
How on earth did this get modded to 3:Interesting?
"If I said I didn't have an incentive to grow oranges uness I could plant a tree in your yard, or if I said I didn't have an incentive to grow cotton unless I could own slaves on the plantation, most people would see this is these as the worthless shallow arguments that they are."
Not only are these arguments shallow and worthless, they are not relavent to any discussion of copyright. In what way does copyrigt give anyone ownership of your property or personal freedom?
"A deception that copyrights somehow financially benefit artists and creators. The simple fact is, that for every artist that makes it "big" there are litterally thousands who copyrights haven't helped a bit, even hindered, or destroyed."
Keep that bit or tripe in you mind as you go to see X-Men 2 this weekend and ask yourself if the studio, writers, actors, etc., would have invested their time and hundreds of millions of dollars to create this work if there was no financial benefit in it for them. Yes there are thousands of of artists who haven't made a dime from their creations - this is a result of a free and capitalist economy, not the fault of copyright. Would those artists have made money without copyright?
I am a book publisher, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that people who write for a living actually like to make a living from their writing. Those that don't...generally cut way back on their production or quit writing altogether.
Your mind looks a little cramped. Why don't you stretch it a little?
Employing Hilary Rosen for this task is shameful. She is the human equivalent of a Weapon of Mass Destruction against Iraqi rights and fair use. Who said this wasn't an occupation?
Billy Bragg's "It's all about the price of oil" MP3... enough said.
I can't believe that. I'm sure that at least one of our proud 24-hour news stations would be all over that. Someone check the No-Spin Zone!
Face it, folks: This is an administration which plays the press perfectly and gets away with an astounding amount of this bullshit. We're just lucky it's not in the US this time -- he could be appointing more Enron lackies to head the army or obviously business-biased people to set policy. And he gets away with it 'cause the 24 hour "news" channels don't have the will or the stones to make, afraid that they'll lose interviews or access or credibility among people who made the WWE and NASCAR such powerhouses.
(sigh) Sorry, I guess my cynicism got out for a run again. I'm off to watch a few more hours of Fox News and MSNBC. Maybe I can hear another eloquent defense of that poor Senator from PA who's under attack by crazy lefties just because he hates homosexuals.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
How does America have any authority? I hope once the new Iraqi government is set up, they toss all the American stuff aside and create their own government. Iraq is Iraq, it's not a mini-America. They can do whatever the hell they want. Silly Americans thinking they can bestow their way of life upon any group of people. How many 9/11's is it going to take for America to wake up and realize they are not in control of the world?
The Bush Administration has stated over and over, VERY clearly that the Iraqi people are now "free" to build any government they want and "free" to write laws.
However, recently the Bush Administration has stated that it is unacceptable if the Iraqi people attempt to build an Islamic government (like that in Iran). And, Rosen is "writing" Iraqi law?
Does anyone see the double-standard here?
"You're free, as long as you agree with what we think is best for you."
Okay, I'm sure this thread will be overbrimming with vitriol against Rosen, Bush, the RIAA, etc., but I encourage Slashdotters to, instead of, or in addition to, venting your frustration & anger here (a.k.a. preaching to the choir), write to anyone and everyone who has either the power to inform the world of this colonialism/nepotism/whatever it is, or to do something about it. The discussion at Slashdot is often excellent, but sometimes I worry that we spend too much time talking and not enough time fighting for what we so passionately argue for here.
If they're already saying "The laws will be created by the following people", listing amongst them people who aren't even Iraqi, then why are they not being called on it? Why is no media entity asking why the US and UK governments are imposing laws on a country they claim to have liberated?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Back in the day, the colonists "brought a new religion and civilization to the heathens in Africa"... and exploited the natural resources.
Now The United Corporations of America goes and "liberates the Iraqi from despotism in order to instore a democracy"... and exploit the natural resources.
Nothing changed, just the name and the countries doing it.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
This would be the "Dismay" stage.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
"To wish death upon a person simply because her viewpoints are different from yours is completely barbaric."
Republican. Barbaric. Whichever.
More seriously, WTF is up with worrying about IP laws in a country that collectively doesn't have running water? Are photocopiers and CD burners so much a problem in a nation where most "modern" technology has been embargo'd for the last 12 years?
I can see it now: "Whip the camels faster, Ali, we almost have 'Jagged Little Pill'"
OTOH, Ms. Rosen is free for the first time to establish her dream: The Elite P2P Death Squad.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
I'm sure I'll get moderated down for this post, but how dumb are some people anyways?
/. readers think that because a US citizen suggests something to another country, that it means US government is forcing US values on that country.
According to the article the US government did not write this! So wtf are so many poeple blaming the US goverment for this???
Also, is not a law! It's a freaking draft that a US citizen is writing up to give to the new Iraqi government, when established. It's totally up to the Iraqi goverment if they want to make the draft a law or not.
Apparently half the
My God, did anybody even read that article?!
- Houdini
I know people will dismiss it because it was in the Mirror, but there are a lot of stories like this...
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Remember the good ol' days when the worst thing a president did was bang an intern? Doesn't seem quite so bad in perspective, now, does it?
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
There is no nation on this earth as good at making enemies as fast as you Americans do.
I've heard that statement before... concerning Vietnam. I recall it also concerning Iran.
In both places, the US had their wondeful little puppets (Ngo Den Diem and Shah Resa Pahlavi respectively) ruling in a 'democratic' state that very quickly degraded into totalitarianism that only stood because they were backed by the almighty military support of the United States.
What did the public want? In Vietnam, they wanted the Vietminh. They WANTED communism. They HATED Ngo Den Diem; buddhist monks lit themselves on fire in protest.
In Iran, they wanted the Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic state. The Shah had serious military backing, however, from the United States (It was Rummsfeld et all who did this, btw, along with war criminal Harry Kissenger).
So what happened? Eventually 'popular opinion' won, but not until long after many abuses of human rights and freedoms by the US-supported governments. Ngo Den Diem was assassinated, and the Shah was exiled. Both countries abhor the politics of the United States to this day for a VERY GOOD reason.
Want to take a bet on whether this is EXACTLY what will happen in Iraq? The US is already abusing their rights and freedoms, and this is BEFORE they've put in the puppet government.
- Then I looked closely at the Register article. The source of this "news" is one man: Greg Palast.
Who is Greg Palast? Here's a taste of what he's written.
There was a time where there was a president that was accused of wrongdoing by two reporters (just two, working together). I believe those names are Woodward and Bernstein.
I've read all those articles, and more, Like the expose of the deals that clinton did to keep the indonesian money out of his political life. He's written anti-gore things as well.
It either makes him anti-everyone.... or possibly someone that has something to say.
In Palast's words, Investigative journalism is a thing so rare, they actually wrote a book about it.
Problem is: US media is so 'in-bed' with the presidency, that they don't fact check anything.
I could go on....
"the difference between myself and a madman is that I am not mad" -Salvadore Dali
Speaking of which, doesn't establishing a Bill of Rights seem like a little more pressing of an issue in a recently-toppled government than copyright protections?
The only rights the Iraqis are likely to be getting are those the occupying forces and their approved "Iraqi leaders" want them to have.
The US won't be able to stop it for two reasons: 1) you can't stop shit like that, and 2) the US will be too busy taking 50,000 casualties in North Korea after Bush gets the war going there..
If the US gets into a war with North Korea it's unlikely to be started by the US. Whatever your opinion of the current US administration they arn't stupid enough to attack a country which can fight back.