New Congressional Bill Makes DMCA Look Tame

An anonymous reader writes "Representative Lamar Smith is sponsoring the Intellectual Property Protection Act. The new bill is designed to give the Justice Department 'tools to combat IP crime' which which are used to 'quite frankly, fund terrorism activities,' according to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Among the provisions is lowering the standards for 'willful copyright violation' and increasing the corresponding prison term to 10 years." More information is also available at publicknowledge.org.

Comments

Terrorism!

[kestasjk]

How can I put this in a way politicians will understand?

Misinformed articles fund terrorism!

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

[reldruH]

Be careful with how loosely you throw around the 1984 references. You never know when Big Brother is watching...

Re:Fund terrorism?

[plankrwf]

Well, obviously open source is going to help terrorits:
imagine all the extra time they need not spend on system administration:
obviously they would have more time actually planning terroristic attacks!

Would be a thought though: give all the Al Quaida's of this world the newest of newest of computers
with all the newest propriotory software, just to see them fail as a terroristic
club seeing that they spend all their time actually getting their systems up and running.
We would see newsitems like:
ThisJustIn: Bin Laden proclaims next suicide hit to occur moments after Vista finally released.

Roel

Re:Amerika - Why was the parent modded down?

[Mjlner]

For crying out loud!!! This guy points out that American freedom of speech is going through dire straits. And what do Slashdot moderators do? Mod him down, ie. silence him. That exactly proves how right he is. Do you really think that you somehow improve freedom of speech by silencing the voices pointing out that your first amendment rights are in deep trouble???

Re:The old chestnut about funding terrorism

[ronanbear]

1 Rip collection of CDs and DVDs
2 Upload torrents to botnet
3 ???
4 Profit!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Trying to tell us something?

[arafel]

I like the way Slashdot carefully arranged "New Congressional Bill Makes DMCA Look Tame" and "Social Networking From Your Cell" next to each other. I had to read it twice before I realised it was a story about phones...

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

[xSauronx]

Fuck you! TAFT started all of this!

I'm confident...

[Xeth]

...that every penny of profit that The Pirate Bay takes in goes straight to Al-Qaeda.

Re:From Wikipedia...

[lovebyte]

Very familiar, especially the charisma part.

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

['nother poster]

I have no idea where you get off blaming taft for Hamiltons screw ups.

Re:This Law promotes Terrorism

[MadJo]

It seems to me that the actions of the RIAA against suspected file sharers are an act of terrorism. Demanding payment under the threat of a lawsuit, just because your underage child downloaded music without using a computer is simply a shakedown.

So, fixed it for ya.

O il

[Anonymous Coward]

Iran, a world leader in promoting terrorism, gets its funds from selling bootlegs? Research suggests not, Iran's "terror trove" comes directly and undisputedly from the selling of oil.

"Oil, quite frankly, funds terrorism" remarked a slashdotter on the condition of anonymity. "To combat this, we need tougher laws, harshly penalizing those involved in the production and distribution of oil." Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney were unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

[voice_of_all_reason]

Somebody change the combination on my luggage!

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

[tha_mink]

just when i thought american politicians couln't sink any lower... guys, how on earth can you put up with such a bunch of lying scheming bastards controlling your country? using 'terrorism' as an excuse to do how they please makes me absolutely sick to the bone

But...but...but...if you download Metalica, the terrorists win. Doesn't everyone know that?

Re:minus profit == fund criminals/terrorists???

[Anonymous Coward]

It's actually a fairly simple equation, and it's one that the likes of the RIAA have been using for years to drive their business policy:

(1): All people who are not turing over all of their money are criminals who must be punished.
(2): Criminals are the same as terrorists. GWB says so.
(3): Not turning over your money means you will have more money available to you.
(4): (1)+(2) means that (3) is giving money to terrorists.

The bonus of this is of course, that we will now have legally mandated excessive consumerism, just like in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

[Anonymous Coward]

So therefore copyright infringement = marijuana?

JH

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

[Captain Splendid]

I don't know. If you download one of the recent Metallica releases, everybody loses.

Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name)

[itchy92]

The scariest part is that it works.

personal anecdote:
I'm getting a mattress delivered to my condo today (in Miami). Our management has a strict policy about reserving the elevator several days in advance, and will refuse any delivery not scheduled. So I was talking to the front desk security guard about it yesterday, and the exchange went something like this.

Me: ...I know you guys are ridiculously strict about your service elevator.
Him: Yeah, but don't you prefer it this way? I mean, we can keep track of anything coming in and out of the condos.
Me: Not really. Frankly, how is it any of your business what I'm bringing in and out of my condo?
Him: Well, it's for security, you know? Someone could easily bring in a bomb or something. If it happened to the World Trade Center, it could happen here. We've got families and... (all I remember is a faint buzzing noise from here on out)
Me: (incredulous stare with mouth agape)

... So this guy just told me that we have to schedule our service elevators to protect against terrorism. And he compared some random high-rise condo in Miami to the World Trade Center. Whether that's his personal view, or that of the management, I don't really know or care. I was absolutely dumbfounded that this would be the reason they cite.

And apparently it's okay to bring bombs into my condo building, as long as I schedule it beforehand.

fun and games with asset forfeiture

[necrognome]

From TFA:

Creates civil asset forfeiture penalties for anything used in copyright piracy. Computers or other equipment seized must be "destroyed" or otherwise disposed of, for instance at a government auction. Criminal asset forfeiture will be done following the rules established by federal drug laws.

Now we know how the FBI will go about upgrading its outdated computer systems.

Re:What the heck is it about Texans?

[Jack Schitt]

rnturn lists 6 Texas-based entities
1: G. W. Bush
2: Tom DeLay
3: Lamar
4: Cornin
5: Gonzales
6: Enron (Ken Lay)

member57 lists 5 Non-Texas-based entities
1: Robert Kennedy
2: Clinton
3: Pelosi
4: MCI Worldcom
5: TYCO

Based only on number of entities listed, rnturn has more items listed creating a valid 'better than even' situation.

Based on an average entities/state ratio, which I did not take the time to actually calculate, you'll notice that all entities listed by rnturn originate in Texas, wheras member57 lists entities which I assume are approximatly evenly distributed across the country.

Based on this analysis, rnturn's statement is valid and member57's reply, even though the number of entities listed is similar, should, nonetheless, take into account the density of entities as well as their location.

This statement was written by an unbiased, nonpartisan commentator. This statement favors rnturn's statement only on the merits of the argument and is not based on any political bias. Should anyone have reason to question the veracity, accuracy, or bias of this article, please reply to it before it is archived.