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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
Just in time for the elections. "Hey Hollywood, us government types are doing the job you want us to! How about some more 'donations'!?"
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?
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?
"War on Intellectual Property Theft: Criminal raided, found hiding in the basement of an american family."
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.
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!
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
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.
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!
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
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.
And I thought the Government offered free fake drugs in their war on drugs campain. ?-(
Beware, They are amongst us!!!
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.
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)
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.
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
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.
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.
When the fake viagra fails to work you can buy your girlfriend some fake duracells.
... ever stop to declare wars ?
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
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.
After all, the market's already shown it's willing to pay ten bucks, right?
Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
Go read a fucking history book you ball-sacking tool.
Blar.
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).
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.
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. )
---------
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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