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Senate Passes Scaled-Back Copyright Bill
Finalnight writes "The Senate has voted to outlaw several favorite techniques of people who illegally copy and distribute movies, but has dropped other measures that could have led to jail time for Internet song-swappers..."
That only some of these got through than all of them or is it worse that any got through at all.
I call it the "Be glad we only broke your kneecap. We were going break both your arms as well." approach.
(Sponsored by cheeseSource for President 2012)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65796,00 .html?tw=wn_tophead_7/: "A Kinder, Gentler Copyright Bill?"
This is one of those cases, where the name says it all. What were they thinking?
The official name is: Family Entertainment and Copyright Act
How about if we add the fact that this is legislation:
Family Entertainment and Copyright Act Legislation
(FECAL). Guess that is fairly self-descriptive.
They introduce the bill, put draconian measures into it, and fight to pass draconian measures that would seriously impact the way Americans live their daily lives.
Then an outcry develops, they strip out the draconian measures and leave behind innocuous, small-step leftovers that they were hoping to pass in the first place, to make it look like they were being magnanimous by compromising.
The more they do this, the more they can get bills passed that erode the rights of US citizens and turn the US into a nation of good little worker bees making the elite upper class richer and richer.
I wonder what it'll look like in 15 years, when another five or six of these bills gets passed in succession?
You guys are so fucked.