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Bush Signs Law Targeting P2P Pirates
BlakeCaldwell writes "CNet is reporting that President Bush signed into law the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (previously-reported).
A lawbreaker can land in jail for up to three years for distributing a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet. The MPAA's president Dan Glickman applauded the move, stating he wanted to 'thank the congressional sponsors of this legislation for their strong advocacy for intellectual property rights.'"
Straight from the EFF's Fred von Lohmann:...And the bottom line from the EFF:
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
...they don't have this problem.
They should call it the Federal Entertainment Copyright Act of Law (FECAL). That way, when the FBI goes to bust someone, they can have a press release where they say:
"We here at the FBI take FECAL matters very seriously, and Jimmy here is in way over his head."
No, Mr President, I don't think this has anything to do with the American family. Just say Movie Protection or something.
The MPAA's president Dan Glickman applauded the move, stating he wanted to 'thank the congressional sponsors of this legislation for their strong advocacy for intellectual property rights.
And they would like to thank the MPAA for their contribution.
....in my mouth..
I just can't understand how "buying" laws is considered perfectly natural and good legislation... (I know that's not exactly the context the word was used in, but still)
irony: President Bush signing anything that involves the word "intellectual"
I was going to make some cynical, sarcastic comment on this but... damn, what's the point?
With everything going on today we're going to hunt down... filesharers? And sentence them like they've committed assault. Right.
The guiding hand of corporate bribes, excuse me, contributions, was never more obvious.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
"A lawbreaker can land in jail for up to three years for distributing a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet." Some rapists don't even serve this much time. How does putting a copy of a movie on the Internet deserve 3 years in jail?
My spoon is too big.
Been nice knowing you guys.. wait.. we'll all meet up again in the big house and talk over the old times together.. it'll be fun!
No todo lo que es oro brilla
Start -> Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs
Wait for "The list to be populated"
Click "Remove" next to "eMule, used Frequently"
"Are you sure you want to uninstall eMule?
*sigh* "Yes"
Remember kids, when you use P2P, you're supporting terrorists, and because of that, using P2P will get you shipped to Syria where a confession will be tortured out of you, and then you'll be imprisoned without trial or access to a lawyer until such time as Democrats seize control of the government.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I know, sue americans, take all there money, put them in jail for years for doing things like hmm lets seee.. Oh yea stealing a few movies.
In the meantime lets let convicted murders get out on "good behavior" so they can get another shot and killing someone else.
Lets send rapests to see a shrink who can claim they are now safe for the world again.
Lets focus on every stupid little thing that happens EXCEPT the things that harm and affect us the most!!!
Cause gosh darn it I don't ever want to walk pass some "Axis of Evil" P2P criminal on the streets, the pure inhumanity of it all.
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The MPAA's president Dan Glickman applauded the move, stating he wanted to 'thank the congressional sponsors of this legislation for their strong advocacy for intellectual property rights.'
Glickman later added that he would like to apologize to those same congressional sponsors, as their seven figure checks will be delayed for up to two days.
always gives their citizens plenty of reasons to feel guilty so they try to keep a low profile and do not risk civil unrest or a revolution against a corrupted system. Schon Tacitus wusste: Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges. The greater the degeneration of the kingdom, the more of its laws.
US law only applies to USians. If you were a US citizen in the UK, sure, you could get into trouble.
Extradition doesn't mean you enforce foreign law on your citizens, it means you agree to repatriate foreign countries' citizens if they're wanted by the courts.
"All I do is eat and poop!" -- Bean
From S.167RH, Title I, Sec 103. which can be found under the Text of Legislation:
a. Criminal Infringement
1. IN GENERAL- Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed:
C. by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.
So much for distribution of television shows online. Almost all of them will eventually release a DVD of the series (commercial distribution) therefore anyone posting last nights tv show as a torrent will be a criminal.
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
If we're caught, we'll do less time than if we somehow managed to get a low quality copy of a movie from the theater. Heck, we can even lose control, slam into another vehicle, and kill an entire family on their way to visit grandma, at most we'll be slapped with a small fine and told how naughty we are.
Welcome to MegaCorp, where we make the rules, and frankly, human life is far less important than our profits.
Since mr. GW Bush is a known pirate, I suggest the DOJ investigate him first. Any other course of action would make a mockery of the supposed blindness of lady justice.
Seriously, Zonk, can you cite anybody in the Administration who has said that enforcement of IP laws is part of the War on Terror?
No, I didn't think so. So why the cheap shot connecting the two? It's funny how slashbots talk out of both sides of their mouths, that the technology shouldn't be procescuted, it should be the violators. Now the violators are being targeted, you guys still whine about...something.
Now that this law is passed, unauthorized peer-to-peer filesharing of copyrighted materials will be stopped and we can move on to more important subjects.
Isnt just downright amazing how out of sync sentencing is for certain crimes?
Take for example Massachusetts Sentencing Guidlines. And compare it to this new federal law that was signed.
Larceny on a scale of $10,000-$50,000 can get an offender 36 months (in some cases, less!) than someone breaking copyright on a *single file*. This means that Person A can walk into a physical record store and almost wipe the store clean via theft, and get sentenced the same as Person B who shares one copyrighted song online.
That is just amazing to me.
I WAS a Bush supporter...but this bugs the doo doo out of me. Of all the things that are going on in the country why has this become a priority? What about gas prices Mr. President? What about the healthcare fiasco Mr. President? What about all these children that are being kidnapped and nurdered by sex offenders Mr. President? What about the crappy education system in which our children score well below the rest of the world in nearly every category Mr. President? Maybe I expect too much for our elected officials...like concentrating on things that will make life better for Americans, and for the rest of the world.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
This piece of legislation has a particularly interesting act in it called the Family Movie Act. The legislation allows companies to market filters and equipment to skip over parts of a DVD. The idea is that people who don't care to see the more raunchy side of Hollywood can skip the profanity and sex. (Yes, I don't want the profanity and sex in the movies that I watch. I've heard all of the jokes, so let the rants begin.)
This part of the legislation was promoted by ClearPlay, a company that distributes filters and DVD players that can utilize the filters.
Not only do I like the ability to skip the raunchy stuff, but I like the fact that this promotes the idea that people can have control over the content that they pay to license. Hollywood considers the filters to be an "edit" of the original movie, but since the original DVD isn't altered, I don't see any difference between this and manually skipping content. It empowers the user and I like that. The implications are broader than just "Family Friendly Movies."
Ha, ha! Nobody ever says Italy.
I am a subscriber and saw the prerelease headline for this story. It was slated before the recent OS X story, then was pulled before general release. I wondered why, and now I know:
The original story led with a headline covering the aspects of the bill that make it explicitly legal to *filter* DVD content, certainly a positive side to this legislation for the tech industry and fair use. Apparently, that headline wasn't sexy enough, though, so they pulled the story and resubmitted it as yet another whine about the entertainment-industrial complex abusing all those poor shmoes who think they should be able to get other's creative works for free.
(Yeah, I'm editorialzing too, but I don't have Editor in my title)
Disclaimer - I own all my music.
What scares me here is the absolute disparity (right word?) between the punishment of virtual-space crimes versus violent, sexual and other more "real" crimes.
When you see murderers/rapists/etc walk free 12 months after their committal to jail and yet people can get 3 years for file-sharing... wow, I'm disturbed.
I think it's time more people in congress suffered to violent crime.
Absolute Bollocks.
Extradition laws apply only to laws which are punishable with jail sentences > 1 year in both countries. Generally this means serious offences like murder, abduction etc.
Now, once the UK starts banging people up for swapping movies you may have a point...
If you also look at Title II of the bill it also has an "Exemption from Infringement for Skipping Audio and Video Content In Motion Pictures" This will allow manufacturers to legally create players to skip over crappy content and effectively lower the moving rating.
Back when DVDs first came out, this was supposedly one of the big "features" that the industry was touting: the ability to select a G, PG, PG-13 or R rating for the movie. So far, Hollywood has never delivered on that. Then, when a companies (like clearplay) enter the market to fill the gap, they get sued. This bill protects that right to skip the content you don't want to see. There are a lot of good movies out there that would be a lot better if they would just leave out some unnecessary obscene material
Yorkspace
"Some rapists don't even serve this much time." Gee, you mean that some criminals don't serve the maximum possible jail time for their crimes? Unless this law is the one exception in all of US law, movie pirates won't all be serving the maximum time either, so they can still expect to serve less time than rapists and murderers. Since you'll probably get just a few months, go ahead and steal as many movies as you want! After all, it's all in the name of "privacy" - which obviously no-one except criminals have a right to. By the so-called "logic" of most slashdotters, anyone involved in the movie industry certainly can expect no right to privacy - unless it's to protect their cocaine.
you can steal hundreds of millions from shareholders and get a slap on the wrist. enron, adelphia, worldcom, dot-bubble, arthur anderson, xerox, tyco, haliburton, qwest, health south. where are the crack downs on these villains who steal real money from citizens? this doesnt even count the recent plague of ceo's stealing 10-20-30 million dollar salaries while golfing.
but if you duplicate binary bits that happen to form images when passed through an appropriate transmogrifier you go to jail for 3 years.
this people in this country are fooked! the only way to 'get ahead' in the new economy appears to be to break the rules and go for a winner take all one-time-fuck-everyone. if you want to survive, fuck your shareholders, fuck some government contract, fuck some competitor, send someone to die for oil, get a hundred million bucks, and then you're part of the "other half", you can live safely in your guarded conclave. sit at home, programming, sharing bits==go to jail.
its whistleblower versus pistol holder, demograns republicats one party system, they all gain from larger corporate subsidies.
I wish broadcasters and movie studios would learn from P2P instead of trying to eliminate it. I do not fit inside the typical demographic model they have for programs. I have a 55+ hr a week job and a 1 year old. I usually cannot watch my favorite shows when they are scheduled, and it is a real pain to get a babysitter so I can go to a theatre just to get mad at little teeny-bopper punks running in and out of the theatre and talking all the time. What I want is non-commercial TV on demand and first release movies that I can watch at home without waiting 4-8 months for the DVD. I will pay $100 - $150 a month for this type of service. They need to wake up to a missed financial opportunity.
For in his heart, he imagines himself your master. A lesson the Americans learned very painfully in Earth's final century, but incorrectly attributed; it was UN Commissioner Lal who said that.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I don't know how the word "pirate" came to be associated with the downloading of movies or songs, but it makes no sense in this context. A pirate is someone who boarded other ships on the high seas and robbed them of their treasures. Providing a movie or song for download without authorization may not be ethical, but it's not piracy. By calling it such the MPAA/RIAA have managed to raise the perceived level of badness by several orders of magnitude.
The bill is not targeting "p2p pirates," but rather people who put movies up for download before release (which, really, they should be hunting down the people who got access to the movies in the first place). Calling them pirates implicity plays into the ??AA's game of criminalizing anything that doesn't net them a profit.
rooooar
Remember kids, when you use P2P, you're supporting terrorists, and because of that, using P2P will get you shipped to Syria where a confession will be tortured out of you, and then you'll be imprisoned without trial or access to a lawyer until such time as Democrats seize control of the government.
Which probably won't result in any more than cosmetic changes. If you have only two political parties it's quite cheap for special interests to buy both of them.
Although this law probably takes no account of how lax security may be in terms of allow unwitting would-be publishers getting hold of a pre-release work, it is morally laudable.
I'm all for abolishing copyright as applied to published works, but unpublished works are the only true 'intellectual property'.
If it's unpublished, it remains property. Once published, it belongs to the people and enters the public domain.
The archaic 'copyright incentive' was only a sweetener that granted a publication monopoly for a limited time. It's time that ended (at least on the Internet).
So, yes, if the IP is unpublished and under lock and key, then anyone who steals it and publishes it is a criminal of the first order. Although, someone who privately distributes something under NDA to 50,000 conference delegates does not really deserve as much damages as a movie company who has distributed a DVD to 50 reviewers.
How long until congress goes the final step and auctions off laws? It's obvious that many of the recent laws are simply bought, even if the politically correct term is "lobbyism". Why not go the whole nine yards? In the long run, it'll be the only way to save the exploding deficit anyways.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
you know, the last time i check this country was supposed to be, by the people for the people and of the people. now it seems like its by the corporations, for the Corporations, and of the upper 1%
Not even that. The Corporations doing the lobbying are only a tiny minority of those which exist. It's probably closer to the truth to say that the US is being run by professional lobbyests. Who represent the interests of a few corporations, organised crime, nutcases and possibly even foreign governments.
Family Entertainment and Copyright Act Law!
If the US Law did apply to them, that would be a step forward. The problem is that the US detains them but does NOT apply US Law to them, nor any other recognisable form of Law.
One day the gold runs out and the aristocrats lose their heads...
Um... There are a number of people at Guantanamo Bay (and Abu Ghraib) who might disagree with you. US law applies to anyone the Yanks don't like and can lay their hands on.
Except that US law most definitly does not apply to the people kidnaapped to Cuba. Effectivly the people held in Guantanamo Bay appear to be held somewhere where their kidnappers are not subject to any country's laws.
I'd suggest we start hunting down filesharing criminals related to senators, representatives, the president and his staff, lawyers, leaders of corporations, and members of the **AA.
might as well add the pastors children to the list too.
The only way I can see the stop laws like this is to send the ruling class's children to prison.
As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Commissioner Pravin Lal "U.N. Declaration of Rights" (To be precise)
You might find the work going on at www.i2p.net rather interesting. They've already got anonymous HTTP, NNTP, FTP, streaming audio, and, yes, bittorrent up and running rather nicely - decent speeds, good anonymity and security (though it's still in beta, the security is already impressive, and getting stronger with each release)
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
"...many movies go overboard and many others have sex or violent scenes when it doesn't forward plot or character."
My point exactly. Would a graphic sex scene have mad Love Story a better movie? No. In fact, it would have been a distraction from the theme and message.
Would explicit special effects of Hunphrey Bogart's character getting decapitated with a machete have made Treasure of the Sierra Madre a better movie? No. (Actually, there was a scene that showed the character's decapitated head, but it was cut before release.)
Some movies/stories/plots call for graphic violence/blood/sex or whatever, and that is fine. But why film an inconsistent or gratuitous tumor into an otherwise great piece of work?
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
The number of federal inmates on death row is 37, Federal Death Roll Inmates, the number in Texas alone, 447. Death Roll Inmates By State
When the Feds do become involved, the sentences are rarely lightweight and the prospects for early release are negligible. California man sentenced to 30 years in sex case
In other news, the US Congress passes law targeting P2P pirates.
Before you start dressing in sackcloth and ashes over Bush's signing of this bill, first ask yourself if your own representatives or senators voted for it. The reason we're in this mess is because people like you find it easier to blame the big guy on national television instead of little guy who only makes your state and local newspapers.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!