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Orrin Hatch to Lead Senate Panel on Copyright, Patents

Posted by timothy on from the can-we-batten-down-the-hatches? dept.

PontifexPrimus writes "Senator Orrin Hatch, (in)famous for his idea of destroying the computers of copyright violators is to head a Senate 'panel, which will have jurisdiction over copyright, trademark and patent law, as well as treaties intended to protect American intellectual property overseas.' Looks like file sharing will finally be erased once and for all. Oh, and this looks like another field day for those who refuse to subsume patent, trademark and copyright law under the heading of 'IP law.'"

3 of 534 comments (clear)

  1. File Sharing personal information by hugesmile · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Off Topic, I know, but while we're on File Sharing...

    It's tax time - time to run the annual check to see who is sharing their .tax files (and "Tax Return.pdf") with the world.

    Good old P2P. You think it's cute that your kid saves a few bucks by downloading music for free. Instead, you set yourself up for identity theft by publishing your complete tax return on the Intarweb.

    Gnucleus (or substitute BearShare, Kazaa, or the P2P program of your choice) shows handfuls of people sharing .tax files. But don't try to be a Good Samaritan and tell them! They may shoot the messenger if you let Dad know that Daughter has opened up the confidential files to the world!

    It's like telling someone that their zipper's down, and they punch you because you peeked.

  2. for (i=1;i++;) by tmasky · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Potential flamebait, but I'm damned curious.
    Why are you Americans putting up with this crap? Governments have been violently overthrown for less than what the current administration has done.

    Common answer: "Because corporations have a stranglehold on our government. It doesn't really matter who gets elected."

    Yes, but you still have some kind of pseudo-democracy.

    Why do I not hear of any collective group being formed to help inform Joe Public and try and rally some support? Power in numbers! Don't stand for what is currently being dished out to you. It's insulting.

    Hell. There's at least a couple of hundred thousand Americans who read slashdot every day. There's a start.

    And I'm not talking about something which just called for a change in administration.. like moveon.org

    1. Re:for (i=1;i++;) by hugesmile · · Score: 5, Interesting
      The only thing I have seen that is close to this is The Free State Project, where a Yale guy worked out the math that if 20,000 like-minded Americans move to a less populated state, they could form a voting block that could return Freedoms.

      Get one state, then then work on the federal government. Show how one state's freedom increases the quality of life and others will follow. etc.

      He's up to about 6500 people who have pledged that they will move to New Hampshire once they reach the 20,000 number. I'd love to see this succeed!