US To Push Criminalization of IP Violations

Dr.Hair writes " Soon to be ex-Secretary of Commerce Don Evans speaks out on 'piracy' just prior to his last trip to China for negotiations. 'That means criminalizing the laws as opposed to (having) just civil laws...You've got to start putting people in jail.' The article points out that this lust for prosecutions extends from Evans to his successor, the American Chamber of Commerce, and the US Senate. "

Comments

Right Alongside

[Stanistani]

Now we can fill up our jails with even more people who are as dangerous as marijuana smokers...

Re:Right Alongside

[gspr]

Yep. At least it'll be easy to distinguish the dangerous people from the harmless "criminals". The harmless ones will be in jail for IP infringement / stealing food / doing weak drugs, while the others will be out killing people.
Good to know where you have people.

Either that, or we'll just cut health care to build new prisons!

Don't for a minute believe they won't do it.

[Concern]

For all the people who haven't thought this through yet:

When they come to lock you up, no one is going to stand up for you. Maybe the EFF will send you a Christmas card in prison.

The propaganda has worked. No one in the public at large has any notion of the rights and freedoms they are in the process of losing, let alone what they mean.

Society is 100% ready to accept zero-privacy, expensive, addled DRM solutions. They will have no sympathy for anyone doing a 4-8 stretch for "downloading." With one deft push from Comrade Gonzales, they will all line up to throw tomatoes at "developers of illegal software."

My advice for you all is to read early accounts of the rise of the Soviet state, and/or especially the transition years in Eastern Europe. Totalitarianism has a very recognizable feel, even in the very beginning, before you can barely feel its grip, you can smell it's breath long before it starts to squeeze.

Life in Jail for nothing

[Simonetta]

This is so true.

Someone could go to jail for life without parole for:

1) Getting into a fight in the schoolyard when they're 16...

2) Getting caught with the microscopic resin of cannibus on a pipe that they found on the ground..

3) Listening to music on an iPod or Walkman...

Of course, it goes without saying that no rich, white, republican kid will ever be bothered by this type of insanity that passes for justice in the USA. Only blacks, latinos, and middle-class whites will be subjected to the guiding light of the American justice system.

It also goes without saying that the legislators who are pushing for these insane laws to be passed are being paid thousands of dollars in bribes ('campaign contributions') from the private prison corporations who will be making $30,000 a year for each new 'dangerous criminal' serving life-in-prison-without-parole in a corporate prison.

If you are a citizen of the European Community or some other stable country with a basic tradition of justice, don't come to the USA. Don't even visit here. It's just too dangerous. The republicans have just gone fucking nuts. Visit Canada (in the summer) or Mexico (in the winter). Avoid the USA. Seriously.

Re:It's all about context.

[Eccles]

I otherwise agree with you, but...

I still think "hard" drugs, like crack and heroin, should be illegal.

Alcohol can kill its users with an overdose (or choking on vomit.)

Alcohol can kill its chronic users (cirrhosis, heart disease, etc.)

Users of alcohol can kill others via drunk driving or other acts done while under the influence.

Users of alcohol can have deformed babies (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.)

What can other drugs do that is in any way worse?