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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.
Something I didn't think of before, but really illustrates my point:
These "IP" laws have really become like the speed laws. Your driver instructor tells you that yes, you can get fined, etc. for going 5 over the speed limit, or for putting the hood of your car over the white stop bar at traffic lights. But in reality, how much does this happen? (and spare me your "I live in a hick town where the one cop in town has a vendetta against my family so yes it happens" tales.)
Likewise, who ever gets sued for downloading a single mp3? How long will it take them to sue everyone? How long will it take them to sue enough folks to make anyone care? Will anyone care? The way I see it, I have about 8000 songs on my PC. Assuming I were a dirty pirate, and assuming they were all illegally aquired, if the RIAA came after me and demanded a 5000 dolalr settlement, I'd actually view myself as getting a pretty cheap deal, as opposed as to if I had gone through iTunes, etc.
They can't slap casual swappers with the "max fines" they advertise (250k per work,) because it would cause outrage. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't. I don't envy the RIAA at this point!
They do understand this, but they also understand that in affluent societies, prices of luxury goods (such as CDs and DVDs) have a fair amount of elasticity, and thus, can be kept higher, netting them even *more* money. That is what they realise.
Government won't do too much to stop them, as higher revenues look better for the economy in general, and help keep the nation's growth looking healthy, which in turn prevents it from being eclipsed by other rising powers, and subsequently outgunned.
This is what happened to Great Britain, already in relative economic decline before the First World War. The government's method of preventing a similar fate befalling the US is to do pretty much anything it can to keep the economy ticking over, even at the expense of civil liberties and public opinion.
Not meaning to troll or bait flame here, but there's a lot of these type of news stories around, and I think this is my take on it.
I've also seen "Enercell" batteries, another Duracell knock-off, and a calculator I once bought for exams (wasn't allowed my usual programmable one) came loaded with a SQNY battery.
I can't see these misleading people. In fact, a study carried out in supermarkets a while back showed they don't. They asked shoppers whether they had intended to buy the brand, or supermarket label (which often had similar packaging). There was no significant difference in mistakes between products with similar packaging and products with quite different packaging. If you really do believe a market stall has 20 Duracells for a quid, there's something wrong with you.
Also, some manufacturers produce their own cheap knock-offs. Panasonic, for example, produce three ranges of batteries (check star rating on the package). This has caught me out - I trusted Panasonic's name, and the shop (hardware) had a "Discount Battery Centre" sign, so I thought I had a bargain. Duracells would be 2 or 3 times as much, but probablary last 10 times longer in my GBA. As a result, I won't buy Panasonic batteries again, even the high-end ones.
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
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...
Exactly, I think for the US, the war has become an end and is no longer a means.
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.
60 million people are a lot of people, but as many large numbers it's hard to conceptualize. To put it in contrast, in 2000 George 'Dubya' Bush got 50,456,002 votes (source: Wikipedia ). Does that mean there are more criminals walking the streets than people who voted for the president?
When there are so many people breaking a law, isn't it time to revise the law, rather than futilely try to enforce it?
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.
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"
And your suspicion is wrong. I worked in the indie music biz for years, and one of my reasons for getting "out of it" is the bullshit state of advertising and distribution and the hammerlock the labels have on it.
I quote "out of it", because I still consider myself a musician and a creator. I just am not ardently pursuing a career (the elusive "success") in that enterprise. I have a satisfying job in another field (one with a significantly lower parasite-to-host ratio) and I can comfortably create to suit myself. The ultimate in artistic freedom...
Lack of compassion? Maybe so, but you can bet I have a boatload more compassion for struggling artists than any A&R rep...
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
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.
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).
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.
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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. )
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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
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