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U.S. Declares War on Intellectual Property Theft
bblazer writes "Reuters is running a story about a new US effort to stop intellectual property theft. From the article "The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday outlined what it called its most sweeping crackdown on bootleg DVDs, fake designer goods, illegal music downloads and counterfeit drugs." It also goes on to say that media (movies and music) is highly affected, but so are products like batteries, baby food and Viagra."
RIAA estimates that $2.6 billion worth of revenues are lost and the like through file-sharing - so what are they going to do about it?
Sue a kid in China or India for it? Unlikely, I think.
I don't see anyone but Al-Reuters calling it a 'declaration of war'. The headline alone is going to cause a flame war.
When will the US stop trying to "declare war" on abstract concepts like "terrorism," "drugs" and "intellectual property theft"? (Recent) history has shown that things like this just do not work.
He said the Motion Picture Association of America estimates that 2.6 billion songs, movies and software programs are illegally distributed over the Internet every month.
Because we all know how accurate their numbers are...
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
I can't tell you how many.... problems... I've had with my imitation Viagra. Luckily, my imitation woman is still holding up pretty good.
Oh no! They aren't going to crack down on my favorite Duraking batteries. Or maybe Dinacell?!
(For those of you unfamiliar with cheap batteries, those are real, and they are all made to look like duracell batteries)
Monstar L
Is there anything or anyone the US is not actually at war with at the moment?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
DVDs: eh.
Designer Clothes: made by sweatshops anyway. Who cares?
Viagra: DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH MY VIAGRA!! DEATH PENALTY FOR COPIES!
Just in time for the elections. "Hey Hollywood, us government types are doing the job you want us to! How about some more 'donations'!?"
Dirty theiving bastards
Become Microsofts enemy.
rYou dirty thieving bastards.
The Recording Industry Association of America welcomed the report. RIAA chairman Mitch Bainwol said the "commitment of focus, energy and resources outlined in this report is music to our ears."
FWEEET! Up against the wall! - did you pay for that song you're playing in your head?
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
Seeing how the "war against drugs" and the "war against terror" went I would be quite worried if I was an american.
while (!asleep()) sheep++
Ashcroft said the FBI also would increase the number of agents assigned to investigations, and develop youth information programs to encourage respect for artists' rights.
Who's rights? The IP owner in this case is the record labels and movie companies, no the artists. When's the last time you looked at the copyright label on a CD or DVD?
war on poverty
war on drugs
war on the body
war on love
war on copycats
war on peace
war on an active mind
war on real democracy
war on choice
war on, general ashcroft
As if the people behind this move are not rich enough, they want to extract the last drop of milk from us. Don't they understand that they are rich because we are the customers?
Viagra gives you intellectual property ;-)
Down there
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V
-- Segmentation fault. Core dumped
America and intellectual in the same paragraph.
Okay, I realise the word "America" isn't actually used in the paragraph.
"War on Intellectual Property Theft: Criminal raided, found hiding in the basement of an american family."
Let this be another entry in the WAR ON series, after:
War on drugs (with no results, other than taxpayer's money being spent)
War on Terrorism (Sure, we are much safer now than we were in 90s, and Usama is still at large)
I wonder where will THIS take us.
This
It's about time we crack down on illegal viagra. Maybey they can win a drug war for a change. Seriously though, someone tell Ashcroft to stop buying those little blue pills from dhsknc_fhkjds@superbizdeals.com
when they declare war on Canada. Well more running and hiding than interested really.
And like drugs and terror, you'll never stop it.
/, and in the real world).
And unlike drugs and terror, the politicians will never get the support they need from the masses to continue their latest favor crusade to the big cartels.
The war on terror is working because the majority of McWalmart Americans are convinced that them dirty a-rabs are just tootin' to bring their hoity toity core-anne over here and shove it down our capitalist lovin', god-fearin' country's throat.
The war on drugs worked because well-to-do soccer moms were and are scared that their Harvard-bound princesses will end up giving blowjobs for coke, or that their sons will end up slanging yayo in the hood.
What's going to be the hook for Joe Sixpack to endorse the "War on Piracy?" The fact that CD prices may rise even more? That Regal and AMC might up the price from 8.50 to 9 bucks?
Unlike the terror and drug "wars," the middle class constituents that these piggish fucks in DC need to support their endeavors will not see the importance of "waging war" on something that they do not percieve as a threat. They will not see the justice in their sons and daughters becoming someone's bitch in a maximum security prison for what amounts to petty "theft" (and yes, I know it's not really theft. But we must keep it simple for the simpletons, both on
The 60 million people who file swap "illegally" in this country cannot all be put in prison. If they try, they'll be met with protest and the backlash from the public. Becausse file swapping is such a part of our culture now that all the laws in the world won't make any difference. They've lost, rightly or wrongly.
"The war on drugs to me is absolutely phoney, its so obviously phoney, ok? It's a war against our civil rights, that's all it is. They're using it to make us afraid to go out at night, afraid of each other, so that we lock ourselves in our homes and they get suspending our rights one by one."
Bill Hicks
I've had the theme tune to Quantum Leap going through my head all day... Now you have, too!
That's how America operates, isn't it? We don't solve problems, we declare war on them. Problems with poverty? A war on hunger. Don't like narcotics? A war on drugs. Not much reason at all? A war in Iraq. And now, a war on piracy.
Solving problems... hard. Declaring war, good soundbite.
And people wonder why our homicide rate is so high. Every day you get to see the most horrific death scenes on network TV, but god forbid the children might see a breast, it's like they never breast fed? Huh?
Sorry, but it just seems as time goes on we live in a corporate-controlled violent culture, so seeing another "war" on something really doesn't surprise me at all.
Well, our previous wars have been so effective, so maybe this one will be. I'm sure the FBI will have an easy time busting down people's doors for downloading some music they were never going to buy anyway with their newly expanded PATRIOT act powers. After all, stopping those evil MP3 downloaders for your corporate buddies is probably more important than anything else they could be doing.
I just wish those people that make "fake" DVD's would use dvdshrink!
Maybe in a few years, prisons will be even more overcrowed...
"What're ya' in for?"
"Downloading Britney, you?"
"N'Sync"
What a joke.
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
Asskroft is setting himself up for a fat megabucks job once this Nazi regime gets kicked out of office by Kerry. And what precipitated this little MPAA/RIAA ass kissing episode of a news article? The massive butt whipping Kerry put on Bush laat night in the debate. As soon as that debate ended, Asskroft wrote up this little press release, humming to himself, no doubt, about the megamillions he would rake in while heading up the MPAA and the RIAA, etc.
People, when are we going to start treating our renegade employees like Asskroft as the criminals they are?
eat shiat and bark at the moon
I am writing this letter in the hope that you can take affermative action against my local drug dealer.
He has been selling counterfeit drugs for the last few months. The quality of his wares have been steadily dropping now, and I demand action.
When I go out onto the street, I can reasonably expect to purchase high quality original drugs.
Sincerely,
A. Concerned Addict.
liqbase
Well if all they are doing is protecting Intellectual Property that rules out most music and DVD since they have little to no intelligence in them.
In other news: "US Secretary Powell announced that the republic of Intelectual Propery Theft is producing weapons of mass distruction and is an immediate threat to the free (as in beer) world. Moreover, Powell belives that the republic is backed by 500 North Corean hackers. What is the best term of actions is still to be decided, Powell commented."
There is always a catch 22 when dealing with this type of issue. By researching how to make the drug or tool utility music or whatever it maybe it costs money and time. But you make money at the end of the tunnel. The profit margins are always dropped when there are counerfiet/fake clones etc around. BUT if the initial product was cheaper more people could afford the goods and there would be less demand for clone/fake items and the cycle wouldnt be as dramatic.
It's gotten to the point that I express outrage as soon as I see Ashcroft's name. I don't even have to see what he did anymore.
/. who can justify this guy? I'm admittedly pretty liberal, but when I complain about Bush, Cheney, and Ashcroft, I always hear people defend Bush and Cheney. No one ever says they agree with Ashcroft.
Seriously--are there any conservatives out there on
[insert witty sig here]
Like maybe the War against your incredibly retarded governmental system (and the people hiding in it leeching your hard-earned dollars)
I mean seriously... this is just nuts.
Machine9dotNet
Even if you might agree with that, it's unmitigated flamebait and should be moderated down as such. But then again, this is Slashdot, where it's chic to rail against The Man(tm).
Since this is being spearheaded by Ashcroft, just put a naked Lady Justice in front of him. He'll be so outraged he'll forget about this crusade.
with it's citizens/customers.
I think we should have a war on warfare, so we can stop all these "wars on [everything]" once and for all.
Sigh... When the US tried to stop the use of alcohol early in the 20th century, did that actually stop the use of alcohol? No! And in addition, there was a lot of crime, because people tend to go to great lengths for what they want.
When the US declared the War On Drugs, did that stop the use of drugs? No! And in addition, there was a lot of crime, because people tend to go to great lengths for what they want.
When the US declares a War on Copyright Infringement (not: theft!), will that stop the infrigement of copyright? No! And there will be a lot of crime, because people tend to go to great lengths for what they want.
Waging a war on something does not solve the issue. Never by itself. An issue can only be solved by looking for the motives that people have for doing things.
Ask yourself: Why do people use alcohol, why do people use drugs, why do people download material from the net? Only when you know people's motives, you can start to change things, because if you don't understand the motives, and just wage a war, you deny people something that they want...
... and there will be a lot of crime because people tend to go to great lengths for something they want.
Support a Europe-related section on Slashdot!
Baby food now?
Take batteries, for instance. It's fine to sell a cheap competitor to Duracell, but shouldn't it be clear what you're getting? If Cheapo brand offers a better deal for consumers, then they will gain a good reputation and from there gain market share, so it's in everyone's interests (including Cheapo Inc) for them to be clearly recognizable as Cheapo batteries. If they are crap, then why should they be allowed to poison Duracell's reputation?
On the subject of IP, I found this rather amusing;
Disney may be sued
I submitted it to Slashdot yesterday but it was rejected, which is unfortunate. I hope it's only because someone else submitted first.
It's ironic Disney should face being sued over the copyrights to Peter Pan. They claim that it's out of copyright in the US but Great Ormond Street hospital say it would have expired in 2007 but now expires in 2023 thanks to the Extended Copyright Act.... something Disney keeps pushing for.
"Dre don't get as high as me.... I'm Cheech and Chong" - Snoop Dogg
Why don't they concentrate on stopping the flow of US dollars to 3rd world IT sweatshops first? Then maybe there wouldn't be so many unemployed code jockeys with nothing better to do than find new and improved ways to pirate software and music. And with some cash in their pockets, they might actually buy some of that stuff.
And I want my free drugs now!
Best Slashdot Co
A downloader is not a soldier.
My question:
- Is Guantanamo big enough?
- Is the prision personal allowed to use torture in the interrogation?
- Will there be contracts for Halliburton?
- Will american soldiers die in this war?
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
I don't see anything intrinsically wrong with a 'war on IP theft'. However, as usual, there's the question of:
- priorities... is this really the thing that law enforcement agencies should be focussing on?
- rights: are they just applying a little extra zeal to find IP thieves, or will they mess with our laws and rights as well? Will this mean that recording a movie in a theater is now on a par with armed robbery, as far as sentences are concerned?
- tactics: is this a drive to crack down on the real high-volume pirates, or can we expect more billion-dollar lawsuits against grannies and teenagers, ruining their lives over a few downloaded copies of Britney in order to scare the rest of us into being good little consumers?
Usually, when the US declares war on anything, there is cause for John Q Public to worry...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
There is a Burger King/AOL advertisement about kids getting pulled over by a cop. They were essentially asked if the music they were listening to was stolen.
Will this be our future? Will an MP3 player in a car give probable cause to search for more stolen goods?!
I've always thought the real intent of drug laws were to give the government the ability to arrest anyone for any reason at any time. That's because there is no victim to testify against the person, only the cop who says he saw the person with drugs. And because it allegedly happens directly in front of the cop, the government doesn't have to worry about the person coming up with any alibi defense.
I think that copyright enforcement will become the new "victimless" crime of choice.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
- You're assuming the average American is smart enough to vote for someone other than Bush. I'm willing to bet that at this rate, we'll have much the same situation as we had last election; I can only pray that it's not Florida that causes the problem again (since I live there).
- You're also assuming that Kerry "is all that." I must say, I have trouble trusting either one of them. It's unfortunate that I have to fall back on "I don't want to give Bush another four years to perfect his screwing the country up, so I'll go with someone who will try to screw it up differently."
- Last I heard opinion was split on last night's debate (I didn't watch). Until I see more, I'm assuming it was a draw.
- It doesn't matter how much he gets paid, as long as he's made ineffective. And is taxed (well, we can hope, anyway).
Remember, you're talking about a man who lost an election to a dead man. That in and of itself should cause some concern, considering how well he's done for himself since then.I talk about stuff.
And I thought the Government offered free fake drugs in their war on drugs campain. ?-(
Beware, They are amongst us!!!
Don't forget the anti-(Anti-RIAA, anti-protection of intellectual property, anti-America, anti-government, anti-law enforcement, pro-illegal drugs), pro-bitch moan and complain.
The war on terror is working because the majority of McWalmart Americans are convinced that them dirty a-rabs are just tootin' to bring their hoity toity core-anne over here and shove it down our capitalist lovin', god-fearin' country's throat.
I'm curious why folks like you even bother with democracy. Why not just stage a coup with some of your "superior" buddies, if you think that the "masses" are so ignorant and unteachable?
that the USA is going to try to install/enforce its IP laws in other countries?
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Does it really matter what their numbers are? We know it's all bullshit, but nobody seems interested in putting the RIAA in their place.
Ya see, downloading copyrighted music to rail against The Man(tm) only gives them ammunition in congress? Don't we get it?
If we really want to see the RIAA crumble, STOP buying their music, STOP downloading it, STOP listening to it on the radio. Make it clear to the RIAA that thier actions have alienated us and we no longer want their product.
Of course, if this is really about getting Shit For Free, then I guess the RIAA is right after all.
Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
Stupid, that's all I can say. Bush isn't perfect but you've got the democrate blinders on so tight you can't see the damm road. How can anyone not see that Kerry is a tax and spend liberal. Who do you think is going to setup the draft? How is he going to put 80,000+ boots on the ground? Money and poeple have to come from somewhere. Taxes and draft. John f-in Kerry can't get away from his record and it will haunt him. Wake up you liberal wennie, manstream America is going to speak in November.
What you're railing against *is*. In a truely "free" market, companies would be free to pull this kind of fraud whenever they wanted, including labelling inferior cheap knockoffs "duracell".
"It is a good divine that follows his own instructions" - Portia, The Merchant of Venice
Why does everyone compare this to the "War on drugs" instead of the "War on stabbings" or the "War on illegal parking?" :-) Seriously, I know this administration's stupid branding is ridiculous, but this is what we need. The same people who will laugh at this article will complain, in another Slashdot discussion, how the US government doesn't enforce the existing laws.
They aren't talking about new legislation, they are talking about reorganizing to put priorities onto existing enforcement. This is exactly what we want them to do. No RIAA involvemnet, no special legislation. Just a retooling.
Also, keep in mind that things like counterfeit drugs are dangerous. Some of these people don't care if they poison grandpa when he buys his discount viagra, so long as they make a buck. The article sites a counterfeit battery (????) that exploded. Fraud is a real crime, and needs real investigation and enforcement.
Is the US economically able to not be at war for a prolonged time?
Dear RIAA, MPAA
The world has changed. Move On. Stop trying to recoup the costs of creation and promotion by building it into the cost of creation. Find some other way to profit from the works of others, for the method you are using now is nearing the end of its usefulness. You can sue every single person that copies a movie or song over the net, but how can you sue those that do not use the net as their means of transport? As large hardisks become more plentiful, your battle becomes harder. And this is a battle you will ultimately lose - the more you fight, the more costly it will become. For the people you are fighting are your reason for exisiting. If you put them in jail, take all of their savings, or alienate them, you might as well disappear - for they will never purchase your products again.
Welcome to the new world.
(I was only an egg, but then I cracked)
Laos, Korea, Somalia. Since 1898 America hasn't been able to fight/win a war without allies. When America starts a war it reminds me of the Jamaican bobsled team plucky but ultimately losers.
-1, Contrary to Slashdot Groupthink!
In spite of what the MPAA/RIAA want you to believe, downloading copyrighted material is not illegal (yet). Uploading copyrighted material is illegal. U.S. copyright law prohibits unauthorized distribution, not unauthorized use, of copyrighted material.
They can "declare war" all they want but unless and until the law changes, it is legal to download whatever you want (except: child porn) as long as you don't share it. This requires checking a box on your P2P client's "preferences" screen, or switching to using binary newsgroups instead of P2P.
In this as in many other cases, legality != morality. The (MP | RI)AA at least have an argument (albeit a distorted one) when they claim downloading takes food out of the mouths of poor struggling artists, but when they call downloading "illegal" they are just plain lying.
If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? - Will Rogers
the most egregious crimes like murder and rape
the simplest crimes in which to gain a conviction and make the court a little money off of fees like drug possession.
Over the summer my new car was hit (hard, like >$1k in damages) while parked a public parking lot. A video camera caught the other driver hitting my car, getting out of his, inspecting the damage on both cars and then driving off. A witness ask him to stay for the police but the guy left. In MA if there's >$500 damage you're required to call the police.
I find my car spread out over a 50 foot area and a note from the witness explaining what happened. I call the cops (City of Worcester) and they refuse to do anything. No charges and they tell me to forget about the hit 'n run issue. I go the Magistrate with video, stills and two statements. one from the witness and one from the parking lot attendant noting the damage to the other guy's car. They refused to press charges. They said it was unclear if the other driver knew he hit my car. The video showed the other guy picking his taillight out of my front bumper!
Moral of the story: fuck the police. They're totally useless. They'd rather bust a person for less than a gram of pot then do some real work. Time to revamp every police dept in the US and require civilian review boards.
Mick said it best: "Every cop is a criminal"
I can't stand to lose any more of my intellect.
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
Governmental Aide:
" War on IP theft...
War on Personal Politically incorrect thought....
War on Flying Purple People Eaters....
Check, check, check.....
" "Yeah, that will make us look like we're doing something useful."
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
This past year has started me thinking that reincarnation IS possible. Some of you out there may remember the Sen. McCarthy/ J. Edgar Hoover "communist witch hunts" that through the public/nation in turmoil and MANY civil rights were bypassed due to The Red Menace(TM). I see almost the same tactics happening now, and am SPOOKED by it.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
I can now say I have decided to never buy another CD/DVD again. The radio + cable tv is good enough for me, especially with cd and dvd recorders available. I attribute this decision to the RIAA / MPAA methods for using the US law to rob my friends of their money.
Just like they give their money to get the DMCA signed by a Democratic President, and the CDTBPA introduced by a Democratic Senator...
The war on terror is working in the sense that people are in favor of it.
Is the war on terror is working in the sense that it is yielding useful results? You are free to believe differently, but I don't think it's working. Osama is still on the lose, more and more people are turned against the USA, and Saddam turned out not to pose a threat to the USA (what a surprise). Meanwhile, Spain has been bombed for their support of the War and has chosen to retreat, and the hostilities stirred up in Iraq rage on.
I don't think this war does anything against terror.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
This is a clear example of getting taxpayers to fund the RIAA's private war, Schultz said. (Wired)
Operation Digital Gridlock has resulted in the seizure of more than 40 terabytes of intellectual property being exchanged illegally over peer-to-peer networks since the effort began in August. (Information Week)
Intellectual property industries account for 6 per cent of the US gross domestic product, employ more than five million people, and contribute US$626 billion to the US economy, Mr Ashcroft said. (SMH)
Such theft costs American companies $250 billion per year, the report estimated. Sales of copyrighted materials alone accounted for 6 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product in 2002. Companies that produce films, music, books, software and other copyrighted material employed 4 percent of the nation's work force in 2002, the report said. (The Mercury Times)
Specifically, the report asks Congress to introduce legislation that would permit wiretaps to be used in investigating serious intellectual property offences and that would create a new crime of the importation of pirated products. (SMH)
The report also endorsed the rights of companies to compel Internet service providers to turn over the names of people who have traded copyright-protected items online. That power is included in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but has been challenged by companies that want to protect the identity of their subscribers. (Boston.com)
US Attorney Debra Yang said that intellectual property is lifeblood of south California region. This is an issue that has been of utter and utmost importance to our community here in Los Angeles, she said. (China View)
The task force proposed a dozen changes to rules governing criminal enforcement of intellectual property law and also called for the opening of five new anti-piracy offices across the United States. (news.com.au)
Dan Glickman, the new president of the Hollywood studios' influential lobbying body, the Motion Picture Association of America, applauded the aggressive initiatives aimed at protecting his industry. Piracy of intellectual property is a massive, global problem with far-reaching implications on the US economy, he said. In addition to hard goods piracy, which is rampant throughout the world, peer-to-peer networks that facilitate illegal file sharing are some of the most dangerous threats to copyright ownership today, he said. (news.com.au)
Ashcroft declined to comment on the Supreme Court's action, saying that his department might have to be involved in future, similar cases. But he defended the task force's recommendations. We believe people in the private sector have a responsibility to address these threats in the civil dimension as the law allows them and we have a responsibility to address these matters criminally, Ashcroft told The Associated Press in an interview. (The Mercury Times/AP)
The report also suggested expanding educational efforts in schools to prevent illegal file sharing. It also included principles to be adopted when evaluating pen
I'd have to say that this is the first good post I've seen and obviously the moderater is among those you mentioned by -1 Flamebait. out of all the posts it seems that most of you seem to think that it's your god given right to "own" music that people have worked hard to produce for free. what's next? hey look farmers their fields are wide open lets go pick our own fruits and vegatables! but oh can't procecute you for doing so I mean we didn't know you've not ate for a few days.. there are place were you can go and get a free meal. Stealing isn't Ok because your hungry there are places to get help how does this relate to music? you don't _NEED_ music to live if you wanna listen to something and don't have money? turn on the fucking radio! it's FREE. Oh no they don't place Then request it! 1 of you said that until they understand why people are doing it they can't begin to understand it. it's stealing no matter how you look at it I'm sorry if your parent(s) or school system didn't teach you well enough to understand that, guess the "no child left behind" act isn't up to full swing yet.
If we really want to see the RIAA crumble ... STOP listening to [its labels' music] on the radio.
That's pretty hard when 99 percent of retail stores don't give customers an opportunity to choose which station gets played on the radio.
http://www.cybercrime.gov/iplaws.htm
This site brings up some good points hope you find it as informative as I did
Chris Williams clw7500nc@gmail.com
How about this: a law (appropriations bill??) that mandates a dollar goes to education for every dollar spend on the war on drugs/pirates/terrorists/Howard Stern/whatever. This kind of bullshit is sucking up far more money than it's worth.
----
"Ours was a free culture. It is becoming much less so."-Lawrence Lessig
When the US declared War On Terror, did that stop terror? No! It lead to more bombings and hatred against the US.
But then comes the question (also related to drugs, filesharing, etc.): do you have a better idea?
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Since American politicians seem to have forgotten that the people (indirectly) elect them, but big business funds their campaigns, here's what we do:
Presto, entities that can't vote don't influence the election process, and the citizens aren't reduced to making contributions they can't afford anyway. While we're at it, require campaigns to say only why their candidate is the better choice at least 85% of the time. Elected officials can then concentrate on their jobs (serving the people) instead of on what deals they have to make to get that next $20k check from Screw the Consumers, Inc.
The labels only have these rights because the artists assign them, and I have no sympathy
Label: "If you don't assign your rights to us, we'll sue you for subconscious copyright infringement of songs that we control." Given Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs and the combinatorics of western music, one would think that songwriters face a situation almost like that of software patents.
... that the government stop trying to aprehend and prosecute hard drug users/dealers?
.5 grams of highly-cut (ie. lots of chalk, flour, smashed glass (**) and other garbage) white costs about US$ 10. The cocaine content is probably under 100mg. The pure cost of production of one kilo of coke is around US$ 100, and would fall under US$ 50 if automated.
YES. YES. YES. The day you can buy 100mg of pure-brand, made by a certified lab, coke in the farmacy, it will cost a nickel instead of ten bucks (*), it will cause less ill effects, and after a brief explosion in the demand, things will stabilize again.
(*) in my town,
(**) yes, smashed glass: it cuts the interior of the nostils, making yet another passage for the coke into the bloodstream.
BUT... exists a reason (non-political) for not ending the "War On *" things: the economic depression that will follow. The problem is, today you have some goods that are sold with enourmous profits to compensate for the offer/demand imbalance. This money goes to the hands of the big dealers -- and their servants, and the supplier of the "normal" goods they all buy (cars, houses, dinners, clothes, etc). When you yank this enourmous profit margin from the economy, you'll slow down a lot the production of these "normal" goods... This, and the fact that your health system would have to absorb the impact of treating those addicts, and the fact that you'll put all those guys in the DEA and the drug precincts out of their jobs, etc, etc, etc...
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
I suspect that you have no idea how hard it is for an independent artist to make a living without the help of the record industry in today's market. You may call it "coddling" but it is actually simply advertising and exposure without which most popular bands today would simply be unknowns.
I wouldn't disagree with you that we should encourage musicians to try to remove the middle-men from the equation but to say that you have no respect for musicians who sign with the RIAA (essentially for promotional purposes) demonstrates a lack of understanding in how the music industry works and a lack of compassion for the struggling artist who for many practical reasons does not have the time nor willpower to effect their own marketing strategy on a nationwide level.
the war on drugs went awesomely..
the war on osama went just as well
the war on iraq is just goin great
im sure the war on IP Theft will be extremely successful.
In a truely "free" market, companies would be free to pull this kind of fraud whenever they wanted, including labelling inferior cheap knockoffs "duracell".
Even the Libertarian Party doesn't want a free market under your definition, as using someone else's trademark to identify your goods would still constitute fraud and coercion.
Calling Dr. Pavlov....
How about a war on declaring war on things?
Ashcroft said the government will add five specialist units dedicated to identifying and prosecuting intellectual property suspects to the 13 already operating across the country.
And with the coming of the specialist units, the balance was tipped in the favor of the powers that be and copyright infringement ground to a halt.
Voice of Darth Vader: You can't win, John. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
To declare war is a nice a dandy thing, but winning the war something the US doesn't seem to quite understand. They declared a war on drugs- and by doing that they have one of the worst policies in the world by sending people who "get" high to jail. Good send those people to jail because that helps them, and everyone else. They declared a war on terror- so far we have killed countless civilians in other countries, we have lost many soldiers to the war, and also in the entire process we have lost a lot of privacy rights to that great Patriot Act. Again, our people goto jail for stuff they didn't do. Now, the war on people who can't afford software or movies in theaters- Anyone wonder why they would do this? They raise the price of CDs, so we start to download the music. They raise the prices of going to see a movie, and we start to download the movies. Software is incredibly expensive for some garbage and we start to download that. Well guess what. The Government is going to now arrest more civilians for crap. Instead of reforming drug policy, instead of increasing intelligence in the government for counter-terrorism, instead of support these huge monoplies, we are subjected to jail time, huge fines, and lost of fines. A good analogy would be if the government were to raid a company that is stealing millions of dollars, and to arrest the people in the mail room for the entire company. Thats what the Government is currently doing. Its quite sad, but this is the country we are living in.
Did I miss the point were a law was passed that allowed the justice department to get involved in a civil matter (non-profit filesharing)?
I know there was a bill up, but I didn't think it had gone through. Without such a bill, that portion of their war wouldn't run quite so smoothly.
Maybe that's why my jar of Gerber Ham and Ham Gravy doesn't taste like I remembered it.
oops
When the fake viagra fails to work you can buy your girlfriend some fake duracells.
Eighty percent of the world's software is American developed and distributed
I don't know where that figure comes from, but I seriously doubt it. The Japanese have a dominating share of the video game market, and the Europeans on the server market (Even though Apache and Linux are free, then have enourmous use value. India is also a major producer of software (even if most of it is just outsourced US work). I would be suprised if the US had so much as a 50% share.
Intellectual property industries account for 6 per cent of the US gross domestic product, employ more than five million people, and contribute US$626 billion to the US economy, Mr Ashcroft said.
Translation: Intellectual property industries consume 6 percent of our national resources, tie up 6 million workers, and cost the US $626 billion. If free software, freelance artists, charities, government programs, and industry (which will write stuff when it needs it for its operations) could do the job for 1 million workers and 1% of GDP, then that would be a lot of resources for other sectors.
I guess the rest is mostly opinion, but it sure sounds like some pretty rabid and despotic stuff he's spouting
A war on X would be a great idea. Let's destroy all those ugly C interfaces; they are all just so 1986.
... ever stop to declare wars ?
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
An executive's nightmare is a populous who realizes they have all they'll need.
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
Its great we took care of threats to our countries safety, and now the government has the free time to use *taxpayers* resources to go after CIVIL issues..
I must have missed the press release.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The problem with abstract concepts is that success is not quantifiable. One never knows if the war on drugs or poverty or corruption or copyright infringement is a success. The metrics used on such wars are mostly speculative at best.
so any politician can claim victory or failure pretty easily.
There is a reason that no Gov't funded program exists to make sure everyone has music. There is no WIC for music; no First-Time Music-Buyer program. It is absolutely ridiculous to demand that you should be allowed to steal music/software because a means exists to do it. Someone could walk into your house and steal your belongings. That in no way gives them a right to do that. They could be the poorest, most pathetic individual stealing from Bill Gates and they would still be breaking the law. A CD is NOT a huge amount of money. You don't like M$ software prices? There are alternatives. Think OPEN.
Will tanks be involved? Will I be seeing one soon?
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
I could be wrong, but I thought that the issues being covered here are examples of IP infringement not IP theft. The concept of IP theft surely only applies when the rights themselves are being stolen (theft of certification of some kind) rather than when they are simply being breached.
:(
And that kind of theft is almost exclusively the preserve of Big Business ("no, you can't use tab to switch between hyperlinks, we 'invented' it first!") so unless the US plans to go after major corporations...
That wouldn't be such a bad idea but it's never going to happen
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
Go read a fucking history book you ball-sacking tool.
Blar.
The most stolen product (by value and quantity) is baby food.
O beautiful for spacious skies for ever something something... Go capitalism if they can't afford the brats starve em out!
According to WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn], 'War' is:
I'd say it's a mix of 1st (face it, they've used armed forces to 'bust' ppl down) and 4th (and used this as an excues, for their actions)
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
..axis of Levi ?
The problem with equating drugs with things like terrorism with things like terrorism, and IP "theft".
Drugs are bad for society, people do waste their time on them, the main problem with drugs isn't that people use them it's the means they are sometimes forced to go to getting them such as theft and ugly prostitution, it is bad for society!
IP Theft on the other hand is simply making information more freely available, it has side effects but they aren't anywhere near as bad as the problem they are curing.
Terrorism is a means of invoking political reform, the right to revolution simply taken overseas, these people aren't doing it for personal reasons they are trying to help a society. They are trying to cure societal ills, sometimes it turns out they were doing it for a bad reason sometimes not, you can't simply label all terrorism as being bad for society.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Leaving the music download issue aside, who is profiting from counterfit goods? Is it drug dealers? Terrorists? Plain old criminals? In any case, I have no sympathy for any of them. I'm behind the government on this one.
Look at the map here.And the article. Not too much cause for optimism.
Personally, I fully support the war on drugs -- even "harmless" drugs such as marijuana. After watching people go from "straight-edge" never-do-that type personalities, to becoming complete wastes-of-oxygen in very short duration to their usage, I feel entitled to have a strong opinion on it.
It is not, however, being pursued correctly. Users should be prosecuted, but not with jail. Make it like violating the law on underaged consumption of alcohol. Driving or not, you lose your driver's license, fines, etc. Make the fines for being caught with low-schedule controlled substances something insane, and require mandatory forfiture of driver's license, any other federal licenses acquired (FFL, hell even a HAM radio license.) Can't pay? Tough shit. Your posessions will be siezed and sold at auction.
Putting recreational drug users in jail only crowds prisons -- but they definitely should prosecute them.
As for distributors, or those with "more" dangerous substances, those are the ones they should be going with. Make the fine for distributors a mandatory year in jail per gram carried over 4 grams. Anyone with about an eighth or lower, fines...more than that, felony.
This is one of the few areas I staunchly support the conservatives on...I consider myself a rather good liberal, but drugs and gun control are two places I think very differently.
They narrow the war on drugs to just the fake dope!
sudo ergo sum
Are you aware of the so-called "CREATE" and "PIRATE" acts currently in the Senate? They create "a civil enforcement authority" in the DOJ. This is very very scary. Tell Your Senator to Oppose H.R. 4077 and H.R. 2391. Seriously.
Well, I recently bought 2 dutch euro cup soccer jerseys. They were cheap like $25 for the 2, when I got them they were sold as "replicas" because I assumed they were unavailable. Well. I found out nike has a nikefootball.com and for like 58 euro (so around 90 canadian) i could have 1! not including shipping. Considering it's a novelty item to me, i don't see why i would care if its fake, it cost me $25. Fuck nike, let them drop their prices... Same goes with DVDs and such, music etc... I view fake items the same way I view car parts, There is the original BMW stuff, $$$ and then there is the aftermarket knockoff stuff $. :) So, i should actually have a choice between fakes and not really when it comes to some things.
One of my thoughts is that, Advertising is more effective then anyone else has previously estimated it to be. That if 'they' didn't advertise 'their <said> product' so furiously ... less people would know about it, and less would be persuade/feel the urge to 'see/want/have' it ... that if they didn't have the amount of currency at-hand (say, they've allready spent the amount of money they had - face it, most people aren't that rich that it pours out from their wallet(s)) they'd think of alternative methods of getting it...
I should also say, I don't mean the 'persuade/feel the urge', that one is 'brainwashed' by the advertisement. But rather 'the <said> product' directly (you like it) or in-directly (someone from your 'close circle' of friends, etc - likes it - and after a while you to start to like it...) ....
So then the Q would be, why would people go to alternative methods of gaining '<said> product' ... that the simple 'just let it go/be' action is ignored?!
Another thought, is that businesses have a voracious appetite toward 'money' (Think 'gollum' -JRR Tolkein, did indeed write a masterpiece
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
"The US Government: the world's leading terror organisation for the last 50 years."
If this isn't flamebait I don't know what is. I'd give anything to unload a can of regime change on your sorry ass.
The US (due to the War on Drugs) has the highest prison population in the "free" world.
I wouldn't put it past them to attempt imprisoning 60 million more of us. After all, prisoners make goods for $1 a day.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
There are "imitations," and then there are fakes. Many imitations are legal and look like the more expensive competition, but don't claim to be the same: sunglasses, jeans, cologne, etc. Dynacell batteries, etc
Then there are fakes, products that are make to look like the real thing, and labelled as the real thing, but are often vastly inferior quality. In many cases they are also dangerous: there have been reports of some powered products being subject to shock/fire, and even things such as children's teddy-bears which have been found stuffed with rubber bands and a bandage.
Oh, and FYI I'm Canadian, but we get the same crap sneaking in at the docks. The government here isn't declaring a "war" on the fakes, but has been paying closer attention to them.
Now, the illegitimate copy/rip of an anime movie that you can ordered off eBay is also under fire because many consumers think they're getting the real thing. In fact, the packages look real, the disks are realistic (I know people who come back from China with bootlegs that look very authentic, complete with DVD movies etc), but sometimes they turn out to be cheap VCD's or DVD's that don't play well in all machines.
Prescription drugs, well we can see where this can go bad. Not only the viagara that doesn't work, but perhaps when somebody depends on a medication and finds that it's only sugar pills (or the wrong medications).
My primary fear here, however, is that they aren't really going to crack down so much on the physical fakes, but just focus more on the movies/music filesharing, and put more legislation in place to block drugs order from places like Canada (which may be 100% legit pharmacuticals, but are busting the profits of US companies because they are regulated and much cheaper).
For more information on the US Government's respect for intellectual property, do a google search for INSLAW.
-- $SIGNATURE
God damn it a fucking war on everything the religious fascist right doesnt like..
war on poverty
war on terror
war on drugs
war on flatulence...
fuck this war rhetoric, it just reaffirms the barbarian nature of american politics in the 21'st century.
and radio stations for, after all, they are the biggest contributers to itellectual property theft.
Why should a library pay for one copy of a book and let potentially hundreds of people read it?
And the radio? What if someone records one of those songs? They are no better than sharezaa. And MTV? VH1? all these things need to be shut down immediately to protect the artists who produce this music.
Hey Mr. Wanna-be History Major, wake up! The U.S. did not put the Taliban in power. In fact, the Taliban were not in power until 1996. Afghanistan had a democratic government after the Soviet Union left, and then in the 90s, the country went into a state of civil war, and when conditions were right - the Taliban sneaked in the door. As for U.S. support of the Taliban, there wasn't any. Carter and Reagan supported the mujahadeen in their war against the USSR. Most mujahadeen were not radicals - they were just defending their country from the threat of the Soviet Union. Yes, one of these mujahadeen was Usama bin Laden, but he's just one man among many.
Judging by the next article, their declaration of war doesn't seem to have had much effect so far.
And since the war on drugs is run so well, of course this will be done just as balanced and sucessfully.
Um, so, um, they're tying to think of some kind of campaign slogan? Fake DVDS? Fake clothes?
:)
So, if I make my own clothes, is that illegal? So VCRs will soon be illegal? How about if I take a video and record it with a camcorder that I hold in my hand, is that illegal. It doesn't make any sense.
This isn't designed to help innovation, this is designed to stop innovation and keep the companies who have profitted for years, in play. I know the US makes money off entertainment but the technology is changing. The digital era introduces a new concept, virtual world. Everything in the real world can be immitated in the virtual world. There is nothing that exists that should not be stored in some other format.
We've already outsource jobs so of course the prices of everything went down. Our technology improved so an average person can immitate anything. The technology used to be huge and bulky and take a few wharehouses, now, it's been improved upon and shrunk. People are getting the knowledge to do anything a company could do where it used to take forever to learn (and is produced way cheaper then guaging corporations). Or maybe people who like the idea of American self-reliance, are more relying on themselves then corporations to provide all their needs. Artists have bee ripped off for years for corporate record labels. I read the stories all the time. This RIAA fight isn't to protect artists, it's to ensure that the corporations continue to keep the artists at bay. Pretty soon, artists won't even need giant records labels.
Most of this doesn't make any sense, but some of it does. I just needed to say something because it's kinda disgruntling for society from time to time to make up a whole new reason to galvanize everybody into being upset about something that to many degrees is pointless.
Cheers
Oh yeah, it's even like the idea the solar energy costs too much money. Does the sun charge a toll? If you buy a car, I don't care if it only goes about 50 miles an hour, once you hope in it, it goes forever (or until the sun goes down). I mean no gas charge, nothing. Just hop in and ride. No internal combustion engine, no catalytic converter, no greenhouse emition and practically no noise. I mean geez, it's the biggest psyche ever to convince you that paying for gas with a car that parts break down every few miles and pollutes the atomsphere is way better then a solar powered car.
Oh, cheers again!
Scenario:
John gets sued for downloading a movie. John looses his house, all his possessions and additionally gets 2 years in prison. All John's hopes and dreams are swept away. John is now a desperate man. Repeat that statement for a few thousand other people like John.
Now we have a very dangerous thing: Lots of people who doesent care about what happens to them. They have no money, no house, no possesions, no future.
All of the sudden they get organized and decide to declare war on those who took all that away from them.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I wish the courts or something would step in and say it is not the governments job with taxpayers money to protect intellectual property. Especially pursuing the people themselfs. The damn companies can get a supoena or sue them but I do not feel it is law enforcements job to hunt these people down and incarcerate them.
Say, for example, if France is unhappy with the US invading Biaffrogalistan, all it has to do is not prosecute people who pirate Jerry Lewis movies!!!
send out the army of compassion to crush these enemies of freedom and justice!
Creators or their publishers don't have a natural right to copyright, they are granted that right by the people, under terms agreed to by the people. Exactly what right do they have to claim "it's not enough?"
So MPAA and RIAA want to stop ilegal downloading of movies, music, software, etc. They claim they lose billions $$$ per year. So they lobby Congress and get weird copyright laws and now this. It isn't a war on copyright infrigment, it's a war on customers. Why battle against the people that made them rich? Wouldn't it be easier if they would just calm down and learn to use this technology for thier own good. Why not make a program so people can pay either monthly or per song/movie? Why not let pirates download this stuff? Better yet why not drop the prices?
Main reason people download stuff is it's too expensive to buy. Photoshop is great but at over $500, it seems like a rip off for a single CD. Same with Windows, MS Office, etc. There is no justification for these programs to be so expensive. Same wih DVDs. Where I live they are now $20 or more. A year ago they were $15. Why the price increase? Oh yeah piracy.
Companies stand behind IP theft so they can charge too much for thier products and sue customers. I do have 2 solutions people can do to make RIAA/MPAA feel our wrath.
First, use FOSS. Most is free or cheap compared to commercial software. If enough people do that, commercial companies will have to reduce the price.
Second, rent, not buy DVDs unless your hardcore fan of something. That will bring down sales and they may lower DVD prices.
Third, support small or local labels. They have great talent and could be local. Most of thier music is made without a commitee of marketers as well so quality is higher.
Do that and RIA/MPAA/etc will have to listen to what customers they have left.
Please don't use any of my tax money for this crap.
Sweden just was bombed for patent violation and weapons of mass copying.
These are the same people who managed to link Iraq to 9/11, at it again.
Note this quote from a Wired article today:
The report-- which covers copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks and patents -- also says that those who benefit most from this theft "are criminals, and alarmingly, criminal organizations with possible ties to terrorism."
That's right, now when you buy that higher-than-average-quality bootlegged movie from that guy on the street, you're possibly funding *GASP* terrorism!
Jesus H. Fucking Christ, we need to vote this God damned Bush administration out of office-- it's clear that anything they don't like gets linked to terrorism to justify going after it. If he gets re-elected, Bush's jackbooted thugs will probably start searching for Osama in stateside abortion clinics.
"Property" is a very specific legal concept. Patent, copyright, and trademarks are not property under the law, they are licenses. Ideas are never protected, only implementations, and even then you are only granted a license to restrict implementations by others for a finite (though ludicrously long) period. Bootlegging is not "theft" in any respect under the law (in the US, anyway).
The term "intellectual property" is merely newspeak neologism aimed at deluding the masses into accepting the false premise that corporations can own and control ideas and their expression. Nothing new there, they do that anyway; but here they are attempting to bring legal legitimacy to their agenda.
Speaking of sedition:
I've got a postulation or a saying:
-Bush will get us bushwhacked
-Cheney will get us chainsawed
-Wolfowitz is the American Werewolf in Baghdad
-Powell will get us COLONized
-Rumsfeld will get us into war drunk on his rum
-Rove will get us rolled-over
-Rice will plant her rice bugs in more embassies and offices of the UN, France, Germany, and other places
-Ashcroft will have us lying in ashes (I forgot to include this one, so I added it here...)
I'm surprised the REST of the world has not more vociferously trounced and resoundly DENOUNCED our asses. Too bad "the global economy" (far worse than in the past...) has such deep and long tentacles. It's hard for nations to take out retribution without being hurt.
Truth indeed IS stranger than fiction
Don't count on improvements anytime soon.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
It is the USA.
From Washington State to SoCAl, From Aberdeen Proving Grounds, to firing ranges off florida, a map shows it. I saw it in Oregon, at Powell's City of Books. It was amazing. I knew this stuff, but it was genious to see it on a large poster, in color, for sale, during 2002/2003. It seems to keep selling out.
--------------
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Let's look at this topic from a different perspective: the personal saving rate over the last few years has been the lowest ever in the entire history of the USA. Right now it is hovering around 1%. Meaning that 99% of the disposable income for the average person or family is being turned around and spent on something. So, let's assume we were able to completely eliminate piracy and that there really are 2.6 billion songs, movies, and programs people would now be buying instead of stealing (no laughing please). Where is that money going to come from? It would be hard to push that 1% figure even lower, but even if we did push it lower, the total 1% does not represent enough money to cover all those 2.6 billion items. So, the money to cover all those 2.6 billion items would have to come from somewhere else ... people would have to restructure their disposable income so that they now spend less money on items and services from other industries. That means that other industries will suffer while the BSA, MPAA, and RIAA industries flourish.
But what is the net effect on the economy of the USA? Nothing. The net effect is 0 because the consumers are not spending any additional money. Perhaps we need to put the US Treasury in charge of this effort rather than the US DoJ. The only accomplishment of this new "war" effort is consumers spending extra taxes for the DoJ to shift wealth to the rich moguls of the BSA, MPAA, and RIAA.
The key difference is that the extent to which Germany really was systematically trying to kill of Jews, Gypsies was not really known at the time the decision was made to go to war.
In fact, anti-Semitism, with a long tradition in Europe and Russia, enjoyed a following in the United States in the 1930's (lookup Father Coughlin, radio show host) and prominent Americans like Charles Lindbergh and Britains like former monarch Edward were Third Reich sympathizers. Most Americans preferred isolationism and figured Europe should fight its own messy wars.
It was only during the liberation of occupired territories that the extent of German atrocities in the concentration camps became apparent.
[And, while we're on the subject of victors writing history, we can mention that the Allies needlessly bombed Dresden and that no war crimes tribunal comparable to Nurnburg was ever held in Japan to call leaders to account for what they did in East Asia.]
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Stop calling it THEFT! The "owner" still has the everything he had before the alleged "theft" took place. When you catch the "thief" you don't make him give anything back.
It's not "theft". It's wrong to do it, but we need a better term than theft.
$8.95/mo web hosting
Maybe changing our foreign policy will ease things a bit, and if the government sees terrorists as "nits" or mobsters who are the "cost of doing business with a minimum of destruction on either side", then we could live a little quieter, even despite the effects of a "mob's invisible tax". We print money for all sorts of pork-barrel shit, so why not just pay mobsters and terrorists until they attrit? We kick back money to politicos, so how is it much different. Murders, abuse, lies, and more occur regardless of being a politico or mobster. We're talking two sides of the same coin here.
----------
Some of the biggest problems not acknowledged are:
--organized religion
--manifest destiny
--imperialism
--colonialism
--conquest
--mass genocide
--racism
--indifference
--onerous tax burdens
--massive benefits for ranking elected officials while the masses fend for themselves or get reamed by corporate health and medical czars
(How many of you out there know that before the 1800's, when missionaries entered Japan, they forbade the Japanese converts to take their baths or bodywashing routines. So-called smart Christians at the time thought bathing was ridding the body of godliness and this was rammed down the throats of the people in Japan. Eventually, the got "rights" to ) bath 1 time every other week, then every week.
Talk about voodoo and unsubtantiable beliefs. )
---------
Why doesn't the US (or any for that matter) government unplug the anal probiscus of the rich and powerful and start forcing (our) businesses OUT of markets where we make enemies.
I profoundly believe that bin-ladens don't arrive from a vacuum. We're told we're responsible for our own actions and inactions, yet we're also called products of our environment. Well, bin laden is either going off on a secret script created by elites who need a reason to keep up the Cold War military production rate, or bin Laden is doing what he thinks is 'rectificatin' of imperialist/colonialist vermin invading simple or otherwise backwards people who out to not be forced to "catch up with the times". I don't condone hijacking or blowing up civilians. But, shit happens. I'd RATHER see OBL be a bit more focused and surgical about WHO he goes after, not just indiscriminantly attack civilians whos votes are, at the national level, effectively powerless when someone like bush and rove hijack the white house.
I'm sure bin Laden and others US-haters would diminish their bent on destruction if we (or any technical/financial nation) would pull out and stop practicing "expand or die" business practices or "god is my pilot" religious articles or cultural "manifest destiny" rampages.
Because big business, selected individuals among the rich, and fighting warlords or international treasure-seekers just don't know when to quit, we have constant fighting and waste of lives. We're WASTING untold BILLIONS, partly because the current cabal in the WH is IN BED with many of the people following what I suspect are SCRIPTS to shake up and keep off balance many of the world's people who are increasingly coming under social, personal, and privacy attack JUST because a too-calm world would undermine the profits gained by defense industry and certain rich types.
To me, terrorism is the result of being denied a voice. Imagine this: The police run you in or ticket you for something. Maybe you deserved it once, maybe not. But, they keep running you or your friends in. Internal Affairs or the Civilian Review Board don't respond to your claims, or dismiss you gruffily. Eventually, you TIRE of the shit, the lack of responsiveness, the lack of justice or whatnot, and you send a nastygram. They retaliate by having you kneecapped or beaten. You escalate by torching some squad cars, but are caught on footage. They escalate, and tit-for-tat continues until civilians are dragged into it.
After a while the SMARTER of the populace says, "who GIVES a rat's ass 'bout who STARTED the sh
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
No wonder the armed forces are stretched thin...
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
"Pol Pot killed one point seven million Cambodians, died under house arrest, well done there. Stalin killed many millions, died in his bed, aged seventy-two, well done indeed. And the reason we let them get away with it is they killed their own people. And we're sort of fine with that. Hitler killed people next door. Oh, stupid man. After a couple of years we won't stand for that, will we?" --Eddie Izzard
Godwin's Law has, more or less, been invoked. This conversation has now reached the point of irrelevancy.
(Someone had to say it.)
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
the statistics you list are obviously worded with the intention of making tobacco look bad. If all drugs were handed out with equal distribution that list would be very different.
Try fighting propaganda with facts instead of contradictory propaganda.
-theed
I'm not trying to take a side either way with this but one thing I've noticed that kind of brings it all out of line with the whole War on Drugs and Terror thing is that with music and movies, there are still channels with which it can be legaly obtained. This is not so with Drugs. With Terror, well... I hate the gray area that brigns with it.
define:pharmacy
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
The U.S. hasn't legally declared war since 1941.
war on cancer --> more cancer
war on drugs --> more drugs
war on terror --> more terror (coming, I'm sure; makes for bigger government)
war on intellectual property theft?
HEY, the distribution model has changed. The "war" is just a pretext for corporations to act like bullies, shop around for legal favors in Congress and just generally avoid doing what every other business in the US has to do: adjust to changing markets.
The one thing that hasn't happened in any significant way is CD prices coming down to a level where people no longer have incentive to share music. Although the recent pressure from Wal-Mart sure is interesting.
Ah, so the war on IP theft is going to be faught using terror.. which means the war on terror was actually a war on IP theft - see the terrorists were stealing the governments use of terror, theres only room for one terrorist and thats the Bush admin.
This is going to equate to more stupid sentencing (its already 5-10 years for filming in a cinema) and more lives ruined. I can only hope that at the very least these bullshit laws make my life better somehow, ie if i ever create something that some corporation 'steals' i will be able to sue them for every penny they've got, and i mean _every_ penny. Plus, if i ever own a record label for example, you better hope this crack down will allow me to charge the highest prices and make the most extortionate profit off the most crap.
Im still waiting for the war on bribery, odd isnt it?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Hey when you've got a tiny little prick like Bush, you need to lash out against defenseless countries to prove you're a big man.
Can we tackle identity theft first?
Historically, whenever the US declared "war" on something, that meant that they were also funding whoever they were fighting. e.g. War on Drugs (and the CIA selling and producing Cocaine), War on Terror (funding Al Qaida, the Bin Laden family, Saddam, etc..).
By extension, if the US is now declaring a war on IP theft....
Let's see, now, US goes to country X, steals their IP. Then US declares war on X, and invades it because US claims X stole OUR IP. Yup. That sounds about right, I think.
Or better yet:
Prez: We're going to invade country X because we know they have IP secrets. (How come we know - we gave them the secrets)
Country X: We don't know anything, we don't know anything!
Prez: Yeah you do. And your leader is an evil dictator (How come I know - he's my best buddy, I put him in charge)
(3 months later)
CIA confirms Country X never had any IP secrets.
But hey, that's ok, cause we got rid of the evil dictator, see.
Law is only a tool. A tool is designed to help its user. When the tool no longer functions, it must be changed or discarded. The law as a tool is no longer functioning properly. Therefore, it must be changed or discarded. So, now, those whom the law serves are changing it.
that US citizens declared war on the US government?!
Meh.
Hopefully this goes better than the war on cocaine with the hunt for Pablo Escobar. Because wow! They did catch in the end, spending hundreds of million of $ and what was the result?
A much more sophisticated drug cartel (Cali) with the Columbian government on their side.
I don't get it. Why must everything US does be so fucking shortsighted?! Why be so fucking stupid?
Don't you have anything better to do with your time?
All praise to the forces of libertarian freedom unleashed in the xUSSR by Amerika in the early 1990z.
....or software for that matter is real terrorism.
All hail the spirit of capitalism, free to flourish in the manner intended. The top 1% of mafiosi get to eat lobster with cheese, for another 40% nothing changes, and the remaining 49% suffer huge declines in their standard of living to below the poverty line. To the point they can barely afford food and clothes,let alone a full price DVD.
This, dear reader is the best case scenario awaiting Iraq. But I digress.
Cheap CDs, software and DVDs for local and international consumption are wild west capitalism in its purest form.
Thus, there is just no way piracy is going to be stopped. An occassional bulldozer across a pile of CDs for your TV cameras is all you can expect, gringo.
I especially love some of the articles linking terrorism to patent law. See this article foran example.
I can only agree.
Linking patents to control over essential drugs, agricultural seeds
And needs to be actively resisted.
Copy a CD today. Join the fight.
Since the left wing has been traditionally associated with Hollywood to a greater or lesser extent, it would seem that this is a political move designed for an election year.
Notice that part of what is being said, at least - is going after the pre-internet problems - piracy in Asia, and that area. This has been a problem since before there was even such a thing as Windows or Apple.
So I noticed in the article that there is some effort being spent in going after actual "piracy" as it has been defined for decades, in an international sense, with a focus on Asia, perhaps India - and there are education programs and so on for kids here at home.
If you notice Cheney's remark about the dot com; if you saw Rumsfeld's anger at how easy it is to transmit photos electronically and how he just "wasn't prepared for that" and, and if you you saw the man himself, the great Mr. Wrong, suggest last night that those who lose their jobs to outsourcing (many of whom hold BS and MS degrees) should go back to their local community colleges and get educated for "the jobs of the 21st century", it becomes obvious that this administration is not really all that aware of what's going on.
I think that they might be pumping out the fear, but as far as this affecting individuals too much, I wouldn't hold my breath. I think we'll still come out ahead of many other countries in the amount of freedoms and personal choices we have in many areas. These republicans might be scary, but it's Kerry who wants more cops. Either way, it's probably going to boil down to court decisions in the end.
Nixon invented it with his War on Poverty.
Just say, "No" to poverty.
The mechanism and chemistry of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which is almost all antidepressants, is very, very different than the way barbiturates act on the brain.
I don't deny that antidepressants are wildly overprescribed, and they can have unintended consequences, but to equate Prozac to heroin is ridiculous.
Getting a concussion also changes your mental state; is it the same thing?
Heisenberg might have been here.
Am I the only one who thinks associating these two is just wrong?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
A more accurate headline? Since trademarks and copyrights are actually government enforced monopolies.
if the US really gave a shit about IP theft, there wouldn't be one-click patents, EULA's ot SCO's. It all depends on whose big fat ox is being gored.
C|N>K
I hate to sound like a LiveJournal loser, but I think everyone will appreciate the lyrics from KMFDM's "World War III".
I declare war on the world
War in outer space
I declare war in a nutshell
War all over the place
I declare war on every government
War against all odds
I declare war on your inner sanctum
On your bloodthirsty gods
War on the axis of morons
All out war on complacent consent
I declare war on the war against drugs
Rape and slaughter of the innocent
War on Big Brother
Warmongers and profiteers
War on your Dogma Dubya
Armageddon's engineers
War in a heartbeat
I declare war on so-called civilization
World trade globalization
Organized desinformation
War on ambassadors of pretense
War on MTV and CCN
Macdonald's Walt Disney and Bethlehem
On Christina Britney and Eminem
I declare war on the world of anti-choice
On violent unilaterality
On the amassment of murderous high-tech toys
And all crimes against humanity
War on the moral majority
On corporate.com imperialism
On mindlessly bumbling stupidity
And police-state terrorism
World War Three - Be all that you can be
The US delcares war on everything. The US has given up on having individual wars, and decided to combine the wars on drugs, terrorism, poverty, illiteracy, intellectual property theft, single mothers, and Iraq into one combined War on Everything.
The US president said in a statement today "It's become impossible, given so many wars against so many aspects of our society, to keep multiple fronts open all over the world. Therefore we have combined them into a single front, the war on Everything. As everything is now the enemy, it must be destroyed immediately. We will begin operation of the doomsday device in ten minutes. Our enemies will finally be vanquished. Kiss your mother and your own ass goodbye. God bless America."
Unless Iran actually has WMDs, in which case Syria is most likely next in line.
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WMDs! This government doesn't give fuck-one about those. Just ask the North Koreans, Israelis, and all the other nasty freaks and bullies who DO have WMDs.
OIL
I'll say the magic word again:
OIL
That is why Iran is most likely next.
I can't agree more with this. We need to start thinking more critically about the way we handle life-consuming issues like drug abuse.
Right now, we seem to fear drug information as much as we fear the drugs themselves. In fact, we shy away from giving people information on a lot of things - sex, alcohol, gayness - and we're especially squeamish when it comes to our kids. We'd rather make those things completely taboo, the subject not to be breached under any circumstances.
Whether we do this under a mantra of morality or just because "it's against the law," this sort of prohibition doesn't work. People are still going to take drugs, get drunk at frat parties and sleep with that girl who has enough communicable diseases to get her registered as a biological weapon. And when that happens?
No support base. The system falls apart because the taboo is set and we aren't supposed to even think about this sort of thing much less help the dirty heathens who crossed the line of common morality. The nerve! Coming down hard on drug offenders just enforces this, making people feel like addicts "deserve" the downward spiral of a growing addiction compounded with legal trouble and social censure.
I'm not saying that hard drugs like crack need to be legal. I'm just saying if we could teach people how not to die from it, that'd be great.
A strain of paranoid prevention can be worse than the disease, whate'er the intention.
Shouldn't John Ashcroft be out chasing Osama bin Laden or something?
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Consumer Reports mentioned finding look-alike batteries that were unsafe because they leaked chemicals.
file sharing is to common. they cannot stop something so many people do it will never ever happon unless they outlaw the internet itsself witch will never happon. even befor p2p people downloading things using other methids. they will soon relise thers knothing they can do kinda like the war on drugs lol yet you can buy drugs easy in any naberhood. shure a unlucky few will get fines or jail time but when they piss off enough people things will change and the riaa will eyther get with the nwo of the internet or die kicking and screaming. as for the movie studios i cant relly complane to them they have been using the internet to sell movies and even rent them movielink and other on-line based companys. riaa drm has aruldy failed misabirly people have done everything from bypassing it from taking back the infected cds and refusing to buy them. there tatics are failing they can lobby all they whant and use stupid war on x terms but it whont sway anyone in there faver but rather sway them further away from them. how bought a war on rising oil prices or finnly stop holding back eltric and fule effecent cars do soething usefull insteed of filling are jails of people who downloaded a crappy song.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
..moving on to start the next line of that song (apologies to Wilco):
You're gonna lose.
If they're serious about this, they've got to go after fraudulent patents, i.e., patents that were granted even though the applicant knew or had reason to know that prior art made them invalid.
Otherwise, I'm just going to consider this more corporate graft by the government.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
And in Portuguese, Farmácia is written with F. :-)
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
There are a lot of 13yo prostitutes in LA too, don't you?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Yes but legal as it is,it is still unethical and at its core fraudulent
You DO realize you're talking about the *AA and the US Government, right?
If I have to choose between supporting 'Intellectual Property Theft' and whatever principles are driving current US policy, I'm totally going to support the IP 'thieves'. Fuck the US and their hyperthreaded warfare. Every war is another whole category of enemies for America.
Great one, US Government, just what we needed! More enemies!