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

Re:Right Alongside

[stratjakt]

They're pushing hard for "three strikes" laws, and at the federal level.

This is really bad, because it takes away the one power a judge really has - the power to look at the merits of a case and decide an appropriate sentence.

But, I read a story of some guy who was charged with disturbing the peace (he cussed out some kid working at a movie theater), and as his "third strike", he's now a lifer. His original two charges were nothing major, a couple assault charges that could probably be chalked up to drunken assholery.

The bitch of it is, we all have to pay for all these convicts.