Slashdot Mirror
Senator Seeks Restrictions to Music Laws, Fines
Justen writes "Following this article from last month, Senator Norm Coleman (R.-Minn.) has announced that he will seek to limit federal penalties for copyright downloads and seek to restrict the subpoena power essentially granted to the industry through the DMCA. The RIAA responded by calling the current situation an 'epidemic.'" Sadly, there's no quantitative values for proposed reduced measures yet, but given the speed at which government moves it's reassuring to know the issue is this far along already.
Senator Norm Coleman (R.-Minn.) has announced that he will seek to limit federal penalties for copyright downloads
I didn't realize there were federal penalties for downloading copyrights.
"First you gotta do the truffle shuffle."
Putting aside what this guy is doing, I've always been a little surprised that the GOP doesn't side with downloaders on the P2P issue. I think that the fact that they don't shows that they have a very real committment to property rights, and that they don't want to compromise that for political expediency. In that sense, I think it's fairly admirable.
Because on the other hand, Hollywood is one of the main sources of support for the Democrats. The Democrats raise tons of money out there, and movie stars and other prominent Hollywood types are almost all Democratic.
P2P represents an almost ideal way for the Republicans to extract revenge on Hollywood, to "cut off their air supply." But there's almost no support at all for doing that within the party.
I know it will rub a lot of people the wrong way to say that it's possible to interpret protecting the property rights of international corporations as a principled position, but I think that's what's going on.
I sort of wish they wouldn't, though...
It seems to me, copyright laws were written with publisher in mind. The high penalties prevent a company like Random House from lifting a work from McGraw Hill and selling and distributing the books. Fining a 15 year-old $100,000 for sharing the latest Limp Bizkit single is just a little out of whack. The "crime" doesn't fit the punishment.
<a href="http://www.joblessjimmy.com">Work is dumb and so is Jobless Jimmy.</a>
"Our team"? Since when do you decide what "team" the members of the /. community belong to?
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
My guess is that he's talking about the team that claims Senator Fritz Hollings (D-Disney), and therefore gave you this mess in the first place ;)
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.