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U.S. to Get New IP Czar
tetraminoe writes "Reuters is reporting that Congress's latest spending bill provides for the creation of a federal copyright enforcement czar. According to the article, 'Under the program, the president can appoint a copyright law enforcement officer whose job is to coordinate law enforcement efforts aimed at stopping international copyright infringement and to oversee a federal umbrella agency responsible for administering intellectual property law.' It also gives $2 million to the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council (NIPLAC), created in the '90s and never funded. NIPLAC will work to protect American IP overseas and oversee enforcement."
I guess they don't have to police everything themselves now.
"Forget, we don't want on Internet2 any more"
...is version 6. But knowing the government, I doubt it.
This is news for nerds, IP should mean Internet Protocol, not some copyright sillyness.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
I am just glad they found a cause better than education to give money to. I was affraid my kids might get an educaion. Everyone knows we cant have that.
And then they armed me with moderator points and the world mourned.
Because I was so worried the MegaCorps aren't getting the government backing they need. They're so weak and defenseless, what would they do without government intervention?!
It also gives $2 million to the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council
Well, at least we know they will have a full set of pens and pencils now...
IP every day.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
I feel so much better knowing my tax money is going to help fund the enforcement efforts of the RIAA and MPAA. Obviously that is much more important than the fact our borders are wide open, that security screeners at the airport are more concerned about searching 78 year old black men and 18 year old young ladies than some more obvious candidates. Sorry for the rant.
Im sure the war on CopyrightAbuse will be as affective as the War on Drugs and the The War on Terra.
Look people. At some point, when there is rampant illegal copying and distribution of creative works, someone is responsible for the damage to the creators. We don't wanna hold the developers responsible for eggregious assistance in infringement. We don't want to sue 12 year olds. So what else is left but for this to become a law enforcement issue?
Look forward to our Disney-Cartoon Millenial masters.
Acquiescence leads to obliteration
Why do I get the idea that this new IP czar isn't going to be concerning himself much with corporations abusing copyright law to silence their critics and prevent parody and satire being made about their property?
And is he going to work toward finding a middle ground between fair use and IP protection? I have my doubts.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Its comforting to know that a government agency will be responsible for ensuring the MPAA and RIAA are profitable.
And we get to pay for it both on the enforcement and higher prices caused by inefficient distribution systems.
What a warm way to start this holiday.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
The power of the MPAA, RIAA, and FBI have combined to firm... NIPLAC!
503 Sig Unavailable
The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
Now we'll finally stop screwing around like a bunch of liberals, and invade Russia to stop their theft of honest American labor. Once we've got them whipped, it's on to China! The Czar rides again!
--
make install -not war
And I thought I could avoid the US copyright insanity by living in Canada!
Will they also be responsible for sifting through and cutting short spurious IP claims?
Maybe instead they should have allocated more money for USPTO auditors so we can put a stop to people gaining patents for shit like shoelaces by calling them:
"cords made of woven fibers, providing tension across multiple eyelets to prevent footcoverings from falling free of the body"
seriously, this is bananas. what next?
"All that glitters is not gold"
Anyone else breaking out their sleds? I see a great slippery slope to head down...
[insert sig file here]
How can a czar (of all things) enforce our laws in another country? Other than certain areas where our law is recognized, we would be SOL! I can jsut see it.
"Hello Nigeria, we have about 4000 people we need to have you arrest for sending spam and rerouting information over the internet in a effort to scam our residents. What are you laughing at? Stop it! Hello? Hello? Oh well, we will try again tomorrow."
I can't imagine this actually taking hold.
If I wrote something witty, you would say I stole it from somewhere.
welcome our new Gov. enforcing, brutally regulating, fiercely punishing, justice mutilating, freedom curtailing, property upholding, paradigm shattering, useless blathering IP overlords.
...we didn't spend it on education or anything stupid like that.
That isn't flamebait and yes, i know we have edu money, but if you think it's enough, go hang out in k-12 and then hit up a state higher ed. campus. It's not enough.
I guess NIPLECC was too close for comfort. :-)
D.
NIPLAC... yeah, I think my wife still has one of those left over from when she was breastfeeding...
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
Needs to be tarred, feathered and deballed!
... the copyright industry lacks sufficient funds to sue infringers on their own. Poor Disney. Poor Sony. Poor Universal. These guys really need a break!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
As for being the enforcement arm of the *AA, this country's core creed is "the protection of capital" even to the point of propping up failed business models (hey, it works for Amtrak and the Big Three Airlines). Ignore that at your peril.
Yeah, right.
Quote form the article " While NIPLAC has been around since the early 90's, it has never done anything" and it gets 2 million dollars! Thats my life plan and they stole it from us. I'm going to sue. Who do I speak to?
motion picture industry can take care of itself.
Actor violates copyright
Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!
It's spelled c - a - r.
IDIOTS!
IP in my computer.
So if the Drug Czar runs the War on Drugs and the Intelligence Czars wage the War on Terror what does the IP Czar run? The War on Freedom?
I sure hope not.
-Pinkoir
'Czar'? Weren't czar's, like, emperors who had ultimate rule in a non-free society?
Is that what it's come down to in 21st century America? 'Czar's?
At least the US gubment is going out in the open about it. No more of this pussy footing about the real intent here: screw freedom. Drug Czars, IP Czars, what next?
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
We all know this is just a ploy to sue the world
if they infringe on anything US patent and copyright
even though it costs too much to fight it.
Thats why China wont sign the WTO and allow
this kind of Economic Emperialism to spread!
Suck on that
Ching Gao
None other than Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
...you'll notice *who* gets to appoint said position, the President - i don't have a good feeling about that either.
Is this guy going to be spearheading more commando-style raids by the RIAA of little old Mac using grannies?
Is there any reason to expect this won't just be a post to make sure that big business continues to suddenly have their own law-enforcement branch, as opposed to actually having any interest in the consumer??
Will Microsoft now get to buy a judgement saying that Linux already infringes and is therefore illegal?
Sigh More protectionistic laws to come out of America are what I forsee here. But I'm sure they'll start putting pressure on Micronesia and The North pole and the like to harmonize their copyright laws with the US so we can all bend over^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hbow down as we should.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
"...protect American IP overseas..." ..
does that mean the US starts bombing Europe when we don't allow software patents? It wouldn't surprise me.
The bad news is that the other posters are right - this czar will probably focus more on coordinating the RIAA/MPAA legal fights and forcing computer makers to build in DRM so that I can't even legally backup copies of my own CDs/DVDs/etc.
It frustrates me to see people who *share* content getting more persecuted/prosecuted than those who try to profit from stolen content - the real pirates.
Good to know that Ashcroft will continue to have a place in our fair and unbiased government
damn, and i said that with a straight face
#include sig.h
The new spending bill also included a clause that makes it illegal for States to enforce laws forcing HMO's and other insurance companies to cover abortions as a legitimate medical procedure.
And if Democrats hadn't caught it last week, it would have contained a paragraph allowing any member of congress or their "agents" to have undocumented access to any citizens tax return.
Currently the director of the IRS has discretion over whether or not a congressmen or anyone else can view tax returns.
The Republican leadership claims they don't know how it got there. They have blamed it on "A few aides, and maybe someone working at the IRS"
This is a major piece of legislation! They know damn well who made the changes but they're not going to tell us.
All this bullshit and this is the VERY FIRST BILL PASSED after the election. The GOP thinks it has a "mandate" and this is how they're using it.
This concludes the broadcast for this evening.
Courage.
Now I know that *really* updating copyright law is akin to abolishing Medicare or Social Security on the list of things that 'won't be discussed by those who want to keep their cushy political jobs... EVER,' but we can dream, can't we?
---As my daddy used to tell me: "You gotta be smart before you can be a smartass."
How about "Drug Fuhrer"?
"Education Pharoah"?
"Emperor of Homeland Security"?
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
"This isn't the Pirate Act, but I think the taxpayers would be surprised that there's money being spent for copyright enforcement when terrorists and criminals still roam the streets," said Gigi Sohn, president of the nonprofit fair-use advocacy group Public Knowledge. "When every dollar is being counted for education, health care and homeland security, it seems like a strange priority."
Indeed, it's funny how certain industries always seem to get government help when they need it. Must be nice. "Lesse, my business is suffering because of competitors who won't play by my rules. I could try to out market them, or out produce them, or enforce my own rules, or, wait a minute! I know! I'll just cut a check to my congresscritter and get them to do my job for me! Whee! Ain't America grand!"
Maybe that's why the article began this way:
"Buried inside the massive $388 billion spending bill Congress approved last weekend is a program that creates a federal copyright enforcement czar. "
Yeah, better not let this one see too much of the light of day. Just bury it in the spending bill that has to pass.
It is funny, but if we could scrape up enough money together, wouldn't it be fun to lobby for something stupid just to see congress spelled out as the greed-driven bottom feeders they are? Hrrm, what should we lobby for? Maybe make geeking a religion, and have all our computer parts become tax free and subsidizeable? That would be cool..
Quick! Somebody patent the idea of government-enforced copyright protection!
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
seriously, this is bananas. what next?
Patent application for plant-based cylindrical food product, tapered at the ends with slight curvature along length. Product employs ColorGrow(tm) technology which enables consumer to judge product age visually. Also incorporated natural and artifical flavor molecules to aid in ingestion and marketing.
For those of you who don't know, there REALLY IS an international conspiracy to limit people's freedoms. Globalization according to the WTO/IMF/WorldBank is not about giving cellphones to Eskimos, it's about preventing sick people from getting patented drugs at a penny less than the Corporations allows. Things get really scary when you look at GATS VI.4, which creates a non-democratic Panel that will have veto power of parliaments, the US Congress, everything. It's real and it's very, very bad -- unless you hate freedom.
Now stop that! :>
Don't you know we never RTFAs.
We make wild ass rants, and prefix all our posts with, IANAL but...
Seriously people shouldn't be surprised about the emphasise on IP. We're an "information economy" now. Alan Toffler and others predicted this. Of course people who have forgotten history. Should remember we had "protections" when we were a more industrial society. People bitched about those too.
I just read the headline as: Your Rights Online: U.S. to Get New ZIP Car. Oh, that's nice. I need more sleep.
Can't they pick a more friendly, inviting title than the Cold-War-Era-feel inducing title of Czar?
It's very frightening to me personally.
I guess this is a national version of WIPO? Would NIPLAC deal directly with WIPO?
I work for a company that has been attempting to "clean up" some fraudulent sites who use our copyrighted name to spam and sell "vi\[ag)(ra" and "c[]el3br1x" via email, www popups, etc. We, as a company, have delt with WIPO on many occasions since it seems a lot of the domain owners are in Asian nations (like China). Our efforts have been mediocre at best (it's been 6 months of chasing registrars and new registered owners to just live up to the WIPO ruling).
Anyway, I wonder if we could use the gov't power of NIPLAC to assist us in obtaining these domain names. That would definately assist us in dealing with ICANN and their "approved" registrars, at the very least.
I would think the *AA lobby would appreciate this - they are no longer the bad guys for suing grandparents because of what gets put on their machines during weekend visits and they have someone to complain about when U2's new album shows up as MP3s before the master is cut.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Is this the embrio of what would be required to invade China?
Looks sacry if you start policying internationally about ideas too. Not that it is any good doing on petrol like the US is doing in Nigeria, Afganistan and Iraq.
What a world.
Where is my mind?
to add corporate catering, innovation retarding, *IAA enforcing, common law redefining, content restricting, product shilling, obsessively litigating, objectivity abandoning, livestock fucking, (well ok maybe not that last one).
What do you think will be their primary focus, trying to enforce existing corporations IP like the RIAA.
Or will they make an attempt to get some type of process here in america working with filing.
TruePunk | Games
its nice to know that all the terrorists have been eradicated so they are no longer a concern.
Its nice to know that there are no more starving children in the country, or neglected. or abused.
All other *real* crime has been removed from our land.. so now we can waste resources on meaningless things like this.. and have the feds invade farther into our lives, what should be civil issues?
Don't we all just feel so much safer now?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"who here thinks that its a good thing that you can buy "Oceans 12" or "Half Life 2" on the streets of Hong Kong today for 50 cents?"
Piracy is the only check we have on the price of games, movies, and CD's.
CD prices have dropped recently. Why? Because the competition (i.e. "free") forced it down.
There is a myth that if there was perfect copy protection, prices would decrease because of "less losses from piracy".
In fact, prices go up in this situation, because there is no competition.
I view a small amount of piracy as a healthy thing for the consumer, because it forces the producer to compete with *something*.
The private prison industry is growing and to sustain that growth they need fresh meat. Any guesses who's on the menu?
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
Back in the day, it was pretty easy to spot couterfeit computer software. You could take one look at the floppy disk in question, check the label, and examine the disk contents.
These days, the internet has made most removable media redundant, and strong encryption is commonplace. Somebody could simply load all their illegal software onto an encrypted drive and a search by an unauthorized user would turn up absolutely nothing.
In these cases, gathering evidence of IP infringement will become pretty useless pretty quick. The only way to gain evidence would be via networks, and even then that is fraught with possible errors.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
I am sorry but this is chump change. They must have wanted to create the token appearance of funding something.
Czar, as you should remeber from history class, is russian for Ceasar. Ceasar, as you should remember from lunch, is a salad. So, like the drug and IP Czars are just like leafy green vegitables coated in a mixture of vinagar and oil. I might be afraid of soft furry kittens that rub agianst my leg, but I couldn't be afraid of something so weak and pittiful as romaine lettuce.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
This is an interesting and amusing way to put it. It's trivial to create treaties and even push though laws in other countries, but when it comes to enforcement it's like pushing a freight train up a hill with a well cooked spaghetti noodle. It's not that you didn't find the train that needs to go up the hill or that you didn't get your noodle ready. The problem is, that noodle will not push the train.
The trick here is that the assumption that you can force other countries to enforce so-called IP laws as they are enforced in the US is to assume that other countries already have similar law enforcement systems in other respect, ie, outside of this fig newton of the imagination called IP, and that assumption is an outrageous leap into fantasy.
So, "overseeing" is a nice way to put it. This new tax payer funded office will be very busy "overseeing" the enforcement, and the lack of it as well.
I can hear the Czar already.
"Yep, I can see a long ways from this office. Hell of a view."
In the other hand, "international copyright infringements"... what about US infringements about international copyrights? US laws/view of the problem always seems to be "i am the right one, the other countries just copy what is done here" even when its not, same with the "fair trade" US definition (accept our products, lets see if I accept yours)
I say bring back McCarthyism - anyone calling themselves a Czar is obviously a Commie spy and needs to be removed from the US
Fnord.
Fnord.
Would it be too much trouble to think of a better name? We went through this when the 9-11 report called for a "Intelligence Czar", naming a government position after a line of Russian monarchs is not the best public relations move one can make.
Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
And he said, he was going to protect me. I trust this is to protect me from the terrorists getting money to buy WMDs from piracy. Why are you people whining? You're all terrorists, im calling Departement of Homeland security, damn commies. And in other news, Slashdot editors were hauled away by the DHS this morning for alleged conspiracy to commit "insert political FUDword"... More news at 11.
The ceasar of Rome ruled a republic (most of the time).
Indeed. Then came the fall of the republic. The average citizen still thought he was still living in a republic, when in fact, the fix was in. The purportedly free country was in fact an empire, ruled by the Caesars, but the poor schmuck citizens still went about thinking they were living in a republic.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Having the GOP control the entire government is bad on so many levels - and one of the worst is the constant shilling they do for corporations at the expense of individuals. The normality of our nerd lives is continually threatened by the Republican party.
so...bsically, National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council is going to enforce this law in other countries as well? can you say "what the fcuk?"
1001100 1100101 1100001 1110110 1100101 1001101 1111001 1000010 1101001 1110100 1110011 1000001 1101100 1101111 110111
After a recent trip to the theater I am a bit skeptical and a bit scare about any corporation or goverment agency with the word umbrella in it.
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
Ceasar
So if intelectual property is our ideas or thoughts, is this a national thought police agency?
And is he going to work toward finding a middle ground between fair use and IP protection?
"Middle Ground" is a firing offense in the Bush administration.
We'll see swat teams take out MP3 swappers Branch Dividian style in a couple months, just wait and see.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
This is a good example of the political reality that if you have a big enough lobbyist you can actually get a branch of government creates to benefit you and only you.
Usually in George Bush's America if you have an industry that needs some money you go invade a country and hire that country to administer the post hillarity era. But in the case of movies and music, we can't actually force people to listen or watch it at gunpoint, yet. So we have to create a special branch of the Federal government, like the FCC for example which is specifically dedicated to insuring that you use the approved products and only the approved products and services.
In Soviet Russia the Bolsheviks overthrow Czar!
This was the same with trademarks and copyrights.
Coupled with the Sonny Bono copyright extension act, this should NEVER have been passed. Now we have taxpayer $$$ being used to enforce near-perpetual copyrights. This is WRONG and violates the spirit of the original copyright drafters.
Copyright are entertainment tools, people. There is no public threat to copyright infringement. They pose no threat to the economy, to defense, to public utility infrastructure, or to domestic security. Entertainment is not an economic cornerstone like banking, transportation, farming, and raw goods.
I can't believe this provision evaded the radar of gov't watchdog groups.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Criminal Penalties Suggested in S. 2560 are Anti-Consumer and Set Dangerous Precedent, Says ACU
http://www.conservative.org/pressroom/040920.asp
When the taxpayers weren't forced to pay for having their own rights trampled? When copyright holders were required to take pirates to court at their own expense and prove damages before a judge or jury?
[ home ]
Thirty years ago or more Nixon appointed an Energy Czar to make us more energy independent. Since then we're ever more dependent on the Saudis & their ilk.
Every administration since at least Reagan has appointed a Drug Czar. He has had absolutely no effect on the availability of drugs in this country.
Before creating the Department of Homeland Insecurity, Bush appointed Tom Ridge to be his Homeland Security Czar. Far from making everyone feel more secure, he's spent the last three years or so scaring the bejezus out of us.
So now that we're going to have an IP Czar, file traders everywhere should be breathing a sigh of relief. It means the government isn't really serious about the "problem" and is just going through the motions.
yeah. that sounds about right.
Nice to know the Stormtroopers are finally coming. Lord knows we can't have all those evil Movie thieves running loose. I guess Bush thinks that's better than funding... Heck, anything else.
Corporate money in the federal government is a major problem. It enables huge corporations to extend their money grubbing wishes into federal law. This is a major conflict of interest and borders on corruption, but I'm sure the first thing they did was lobby the government to declare that this is not corruption.
When a corporation is able to use its money to lobby the federal government to enact a law which in turn forces taxpayers to foot the bill for a corporate wish, something is seriously wrong.
Can you imagine how much more pure government would be if lobbyist money was kept out of the politicians' hands?
So will this federal copyright enforcement czar work to enforce the GPL as well?
Or is US made Free Software not considered "American IP"?
In Soviet Russia, a federal copyright enforcement czar from the US watches you!
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
If they're going to be protecting US IP abroad, they probably want a name which doesn't make it sound as though their focus is entirely domestic. Two million in any currency is cheap for an organisational renaming nowadays.
Czar czars. So many czars, somebody's gotta keep track.
(They're going to hire a guy named Binks...)
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
Umm.. "then came the Fall of the Republic.." which was actually 400 years later not the next day. The Caesars vastly increased the territory of the Empire, its wealth and maintained order 2x the time the entire US has existed.
This new person will highly ineffective against the top level professionals making money from it and will make the average person's life a lot more hazzardous annoying and expensive.
Or at least mentioned an act that is indecent in most southern states.
Either way, by posting it online, you are in deep trouble!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
but can't put an Astronaut through college?
You fuckers and your "priorities".
Read some Machiavelli. Wars have historically almost always been seen in economical and political terms. At the moment, the US is powerful enough and self-confident enough not to worry about the political, hence the economic factors will tend to take precedence.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
With a half trillian dollars in deficit... where are they getting this "money?"
If so, then everything we try to do to get consumer-friendly laws pass will be thwarted, and all we will be able to do is to watch as current trends move towards their logical conclusion, where there's a small number of ultra-rich corps/people, and the rest of the world lives like Bangladeshi farmers do today.
Have a pleasant holiday!
"Im sure the war on CopyrightAbuse will be as affective as the War on Drugs and the The War on Terra."
Apparently the War on Ignorance goes up their too.
"And is he going to work toward finding a middle ground between fair use and IP protection? I have my doubts."
Uh huh. Explain to me what your job is, citizen?
but don't the states have 55E12$ to pay off already?
since when does a couple mil not matter?
oh wait, lame duck session and president. my mistake.
A-Day
And just to show that there's no hard feelings between the /. crowd and the IP czar, I think we should chip in and buy him a brand-new cellphone...
"Its comforting to know that a government agency will be responsible for ensuring the MPAA and RIAA are profitable."
..."
As a small time artist, it 's comforting to know I have legal recourse against those who have zero respect for copyright, or me. But then no one ever mentions that aspect, and thinks it's all about big business. Dehumanizing one's "enemy" is always the first step to justification of one's actions.
"And we get to pay for it both on the enforcement
Blame the victim.
Crimminals don't have any effect on society. That's why you don't needs pins and passwords. You don't need locks on doors and windows. You don't need to pass through metal detectors, and body searches. Your checks aren't written on safety paper, and legal documents watermarked. Your insurance rates are at an absolute lowest because no one speeds, or drives drunk. Your goods and services are at their cheapest because people don't do five-fingered discounts, or "scams". People don't fill up and drive away without paying. People don't submit false claims to their insurance. Perfectly healthy people don't lie in order to get welfare benifits. Identities don't get swipped, and we all don't have to clean up the resulting mess.
People are absolutely upright, and honest, and all the bad consequences are the victims fault.
"...and higher prices caused by inefficient distribution systems."
Appaerntly it's so "inefficient" that it's keeping them from making money, and you from getting goods and services.*
*Make note audiance. The implied "efficient distribution system" is always electronic in nature e.g. Internet. Now who here knows about the real world and can tell me why this will only work for a small portion of the total music, and movie buying public. Anyone? Maybe the guys over at Fark know, because no one here with their "better distribution systems" do [1].
[1] Here's an idea. How about you all become "artists"? You suddenly become even more "efficient" because you're doing all the work, instead of someone else. How about that for eliminating the middle man between consumer and entertainment the world owes me? You even get to keep the money you're too tight-fisted to exchange for goods amd services.
What a great idea.
Too bad they can't catch /bin/Laden in the
act of downloading a movie or something...
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread.
-Anatole France
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
"Piracy is the only check we have on the price of games, movies, and CD's."
No it isn't. You can start your own companies to fulfil demand. Pure lazyness on consumer (and citizens) part is what's keeping that competition from appearing. Oh wait, it is appearing from people who've done just that. Guess some people do put their money were their mouth is. The rest just make hollow excuses.
"hey, it works for Amtrak and the Big Three Airlines"
Amtrak was never a corporation in the sense that United or IBM was a corporation.
The Federal Government helped created Amtrak to make sure there was infrastructure in place for passenger rail. As such, the business was set up without regard to a mission, or even how to make money.
Its kind of late to complain about it.
The proper debate is whether we should have passenger rail and what form it should take, not "ooh, Amtrak is failed". Well, as a business yes, but it has accomlished what the feds wanted it to.
Besides, we've poured half a trillion into Iraq to destroy it. Seems a bit cheap not to spend some money to pay for useless infrastructure at home...
Much manufacturing is already outsourced. More software engineering is getting outsourced. What will be the most important thing that America contributes to the world market in the not-too-distant future?
g et/hist /US_Historical_budget,_1962_-_2008.html
Distribution rights for copyrighted media and patent licenses!
So all it will take for the US economy to collapse is basically the rest of the world deciding not to honor US IP. What a great thing it is to base our economy on.
So the US just has to enforce their IP rights... I guess that's why we spend 15% of our budget on the military. At least it's less than what we spend on the Treasury department (presumably mostly on interest payments on the national debt)
Numbers: (from a few years back, I ought to update this)
http://hairball.bumba.net/~rwa2/misc/USbud
What has a republic of free citizens got to do with all these Tsars? It's authoritarian, I tell you.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Exactly - this is just a front to appease/fool large companies, and also to send some sort of message to the "Public". Nothing more. Its like the Jedi Mind Trick, except it only works on idiots. That kind of funding just doesnt warrant any "Real" progress - i mean, were talking about a governmental Entity here, those things are notorious guzzlers. They'll probably spend most of their money on "American" office supplies and non-pirated, high cost software. LOL.
Do you realize that we are currently in a situation with Russia? Your comments are harmful and will be viewed world wide.
The United States will never invade Russia.
Though we did send 'trainers' their during WWI.
...so that fat fuck Steve Ballmer can go around Far East and bully small countries into using Winblows over Linux, which violates M$'s IP rights.
God Blesh Amerika
Since Congress likes to appoint a czar for every type of crime I propose that the next czar be the Loitering Czar. Included in his jurisdiction would be simple loitering, cruising, skateboarding in public places, being black, ringing bells, "hanging out" (either literally or figuratively), being poor, and we can through in J-walking, since of course all loiterers facilitate their heinous crimes by first j-walking over to their intended loitering spot.
I can't feel outraged over something that was inevitable.
Did you fools think that you could eat the music and movie mafia's lunch and they were going to let you?
I read 'international' not 'domestic' in that law. So does this new czar have any domestic law enforcement capability?
Do you really think that the groups that should have been doing this stuff (the FBI) will let this get by? It will slice their budget.
Most in government are not the 'evil facist' that so many who post on the net these days seem to want to have be real. They are just people who want to go home and have dinner at the end of the day.
Stop stealing movies and you won't need to worry.
"Until all the political donations by artificial entities are eliminated, things are going to get a lot worse."
And then they will be replaced by individual political donations. Oh much better.
I doubt that they will do what you say to Chinese or Indian nerds.
You hit the nail on the head. "Of the people, by the people, for the people" became "of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations" bit by bit as corporate personhood became the norm in the US. Since corporations are immortal and made of the labor of many people, however, they have a distinct advantage over the rest of us poor slobs.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Or a Giant Corporations that Get Unconsitutional Laws Passed in Order to Sheild Themselves from Copmpetition Czar? We can dream...
I'm ready for the revolution.
I can keep going, but I'm making a list. Maybe I'm violating David Letterman's IP.
See how STUPID IP laws are?
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
What a stupic acronym. It's like it's short for Nipple Lactate.
Are you trying to imply that the RIAA is somehow not justified in its claims that downloaders on p2p services are hurting them? Let me explain the simple math for you: if you have a choice between "paying" and "not paying" for music, which will you do? Hm. That's a tough one. So obviously, OBVIOUSLY, it's going to hurt musicians when people can download. So yess, the RIAA has 100% legit claims of financial ruin.
9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
I couldn't have thought of a better way to wreck the U.S. economy... help the big ones crush the small ones.
I wander how long the U.S. economy will last with this in place.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
I know thats flip, but they're not even trying to hide it anymore. And all this has a cost you and your family pays. If I was a corporation you can bet I'd be making damn sure this czar was on my dinner list.
Quack, quack.
In practice, this plays out through the operation of two seemingly diametrical systems. The laissez-faire economy is operated for the poor and working classes, who must either sink or swim, while a kind of socialism is provided for the rich. They are entitled to sink all they like. Their political servants--the US government--will always be on hand at poolside to revive them, pump their waterlogged bellies, and towel down the poor dears while delivering fulsome praise for their bravery and daring in plunging to the bottom.
It frustrates me to see people who *share* content getting more persecuted/prosecuted than those who try to profit from stolen content - the real pirates.
The real pirates operate out of places like Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Russia where copyright is nothing more than a 9-letter word. These are countries that are notorious for not enforcing copyrights as well as not being within the jurisdiction of the United States Of America. The real pirates are laughing all the way to the bank. The copyright infringers are mostly in America and are subject to its laws--hence a 12-year old child is sued for copyright infringement. Being a minor, their parents are legally held responsible in the suit and are given the choice of bankrupcy by going to trial or settling out of court for a stiff penalty.
This is all absurd and truly shows that Money Talks and nothing else matters.
By comparison, If the 12-year-old had committed some heinous crime--like kill someone--they'd probably be detained until they became an adult and then let go. I guess the rationale is, you can always replace dead people through procreation so why bother crushing defendants with steep, steep fines?