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'Pirate Act' Would Shift Copyright Civil Suits To DoJ
mammothboy writes "News.com.com has a story about the new so-called Pirate Act, which seeks to allow federal prosecuters to file civil suits against file swappers. These lawsuits can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if you guessed that the RIAA is lobbying for it, you're right. What's scary is how fast and how quiet its march through the legislative process has been. In '97, the No Electronic Theft Act allowed for criminal lawsuits, but none have been filed, so isn't it clear that the Justice Department has better stuff to deal with?" There actually have been some prosecutions filed under the NET Act, but not many. Update: 05/26 18:51 GMT by T : Declan McCullagh (author of the linked News.com story) writes to clarify: "FYI there have been prosecutions under the NET Act, as you say. But
there have not been any of P2P users. That's why the Senate is doing this."
As a member of Citizens United against Network Thievery, let me be the first to jump for joy. For too long musicians and movie moguls have resorted to smaller mansions, some with empty garage spots, as wanton piracy has hurt sales of their reasonably priced products. This rampant hooliganism must be stopp... ed.. whoa... what's this square of blotter paper doing in my coffee?
Trolling is a art,
Isn't funding your own prosecution a bit of a conflict of interest?
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori
Being a swashbuckler myself, I find the name
"Pirate Act" to be highly inaccurate.
It's copyright infringement.
Piracy is a different matter altogether.
Anybody can download a song, but it takes
quite a bit more daring to pilage at a professional
level.
Arrr.
They should test this idea out somewhere before applying it to this fine country. There are lots of good test data in places like China, India, and Pakistan. They'll see in no time how well their system will work.
1. Convince all the software manufacturers in the country that they need someone to manage their industry.
2. Become president of the SIAA (Software Inudstry Association of America).
3. ???
4. Profit!!!
I think #3 has something to do with lawsuits...
FLR
FALAFEL:
Federal Assistance for Limiting the use of Acronyms For Evil Legislation.
Finally jumped the shark.
Naw, just turn it back into a Terriory and cover it with Renewable Energy Algae Vats. Sell the excess to the rest of the world and pay off the national debt.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
it's be a wellcome irony use the law RIAA/MPAA bought against them.
1- create an encripted P2P network
2- make sure it's easy to decrypt
3- create a user licence saying that if you're DOJ/RIAA/MPAA you can't decrypt
4- wait for them do break in and tap the network
5- sue their ass based on DMCA
6- profit
What ? Me, worry ?
I'm tired of wasting my tax money looking for nonexistent terrorists. Bush wasted how many tens of billions looking for Ben Laden in Iran? Everyone and their grandmother knew he wasn't there.
It will be *much* cheaper to devote our govt forces to pursuing file swappers, than drug smugglers and terrorists.
Plus, file swappers don't shoot back.
So this is all good...
Your comment just made me think of something funny. The biggest filesharing system in use by Windows users is probably currently Kazaa. They may not have an actual law in place for destroying computers of filesharers, but just being on the Kazaa network seems to do the trick. Toss in some spyware and the random virus you get from the network, and Windows users everywhere are raped.
Windows IS the destructive system for filesharing. Sad, yet eerily true.
hrrm.
If only we could pass the .NET Act, which would make running MS .NET illegal.