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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. "
Now we can fill up our jails with even more people who are as dangerous as marijuana smokers...
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Well, as long as they're consistent. Looks like maybe Bill Gates will be doing some hard time for the Burst patent violations, right?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Sadly, as long as politicians are getting big contributions from the entertainment industry, the outlook for this kind of law is not so good because the real motivations are hidden and corrupt.
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.
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this title and /. article is highly misleading. did the poster rtfa?
this is about the usa pushing for china to start putting people in jail for counterfeiting. that IS widely acknowledged as "piracy."
sum.zero
For a change, I RTFA. They're pushing for the Chinese to start putting Chinese counterfeiters in jail under the rules of Chinese law.
While it might be a short leap for the same people to start calling for the criminalization of copyright infringement in the US, that's not what we're talking about here.
Jail doesn't work.
They call it the Department of Corrections, which is pure political bullshit. They've never corrected anything.
It's necessary to remove violent offenders from society for societies safety, but repeat offenses are high. Being in prison doesn't "teach" or "fix" or correct the problem.
Yet in America, we've set the system up so that virtually every last citizen belongs behind bars under the law.
We can start jailing kids for running kazaa, and it won't solve the problem.
It'll just increase the tax burden for the handful of people who manage to not get caught.
Everyone has done one of the following: tried drugs, infringed a copyright, exceeded the speed limit, drank alcohol underage, bought a violent video game for someone under 18, etc...
Why don't we just run razor wire along the coasts and borders, and declare everyone incarcerated?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Imagine the reaction if senior Chinese officials started calling for the internal laws of the US to be altered to suit Chinese business interests.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
The most useful kinds of rules are the ones that everyone violates, and that are therefore unworkable. In other words - rules are made to be broken.
Remember, kids, it's all about being tough on crime. If, for some inexplicable reason, crime continues to exist--you're simply not being tough enough. Throw more people in prison; make the sentences longer to keep 'em there. To hell with reform; make sentences punitive and harsh for the sake of scaring people straight. It'll work eventually, right?
1 out of 37 Americans have served time in prison. Our incarceration rates continue to skyrocket. How much more will it take for people to throw their hands in the air and say "Enough!"?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I don't know if you've been paying attention, but the companies took over the government some time ago. Both of our USA political parties jump to meet the needs of business. Voters are bought with lies broadcast in the media (and paid for by business).
You purpose in life here is to work hard (or go into debt) so that you can buy as much stuff as possible.
Any questions?... get back to work and stop wasting time.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
"Is defacing a website any different from spraying graffiti on someones walls?"
Yes. The punishments are different. If you are caught spraypainting a wall you might get fined or be forced to clean it up. If you deface a web site you might get jailed longer then a rapist.
evil is as evil does
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.
If a U.S. soldier can get six months for ordering some Iraqis pitch off of a bridge, then an offense for IP violation should SURELY be less than that, right???
Now before you inevitably mod me down for the previous comparison, actually consider it... and then consider who our government truly represent based on how it treats it's criminals in relation to their status of wealth and/or power in the system.
"Mistrust those in whom the urge to punish is strong."
The thing about these statements that bothers me is that the industries that are affected by the piracy are doing just fine economically. Movie ticket sales are brisk, CD sales are stellar, and people are flocking to concerts, paying top dollar to see their favorite artists, and yet the industry representatives are acting as though the entire future of American entertainment is in jeopardy. Is it, really? Pop stars and movie stars, as well as the executives of the companies that promote and use them, live lives of luxury that would make the wealthiest, most powerful emperors in the history of human civilization green with envy. They are flown from one 5-star hotel to another in private jets, and are drivin in limosines to the finest restaurants in town, treated like royalty by hordes of fawning, obsequious servitors.
I doubt that the lifestyles of the rich and famous are in any danger of bumping down a notch because a few street vendors in Beijing are hawking copies of their movies and albums.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
I was reading the parent's quote that we are telling China to put more people in prison for IP violation. At the same time, the US has been pressuring China over human right issues. I guess the message we are sending them is something akin to, 'Throw more people in jail, but be nice to them, too.'
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
You might want to read this account for a more balanced picture. The broken patent system we have in the West is coming back to haunt us.
Donate free food here
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?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
The whole point is that, to Chinese industry (and Korea, too), every bit of hard intellectual work that the the western world does is simply considered free for the taking. They are building their economy on theft, and figuring that they can build up a culture of actual innovation some other day when they no longer have people smarter than them to steal from.
Oh, the irony.
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