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."

Comments

products like batteries

[antifoidulus]

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)

Re:That's funny...

[Albanach]

I don't see anyone but Al-Reuters calling it a 'declaration of war'. The headline alone is going to cause a flame war.

It's a fair point, but these headlines usually reflect the way it was spun by the government. You have to know how press teams work - they send out the press releases to Reuters etc, then they'll call the individual journalists and put their spin on it. Because they're then first to answer any questions the journalist might have they can influence the story.

Picture the conversation like this:

Journalist: so is this a real crackdown? WIll there be resources to back it up?

Apparatchik: Sure. Think of it like our war on IP theft.

Journalist: Thanks.

Criminal Intellectual Property Laws

[Mstrgeek]

I have found a great Link to some great information dealing with Intellectual Property Laws

http://www.cybercrime.gov/iplaws.htm

This site brings up some good points hope you find it as informative as I did

Certainly not the artist's

[tepples]

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.

Re:And legality?

[Fulcrum of Evil]

Afghanistan today: Most of the people are feeling optimistic about their future after decades of war and oppression. First person to vote in the first ever democratic elections was a 19 year old woman.

That's the official line. What I've heard is that people are afraid to vote, as they expect to be killed for cooperating with the americans, Opium production is something like 70% of the world supply, and the fundie religous types (like the Taliban) are gaining power again. Call me when they're sovereign and at least halfway friendly.