Congress May Outlaw 'Attempted Piracy'

cnet-declan writes "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is asking Congress to make 'attempted' copyright infringement a federal crime. The text of the legislation as well as the official press-release is available online. Rep. Lamar Smith, a key House Republican, said he 'applauds' the idea, and his Democratic counterpart is probably on board too. In addition, the so-called Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 would create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software in some circumstances, expand the DMCA with civil asset forfeiture, and authorize wiretaps in investigations of Americans who are 'attempting' to infringe copyrights. Does this go too far?"

Comments

Yes.

[Concern]

Does this go too far?

Yes, this goes too far.

I promise vehement grass roots activism to defeat any elected official, Republican, Democrat, or Independent, who gets anywhere near voting for this. Full stop.

This will not sneak by in the dead of night. We are watching. You are either against this violent insanity, or you are against the voters.

Re:Yes.

[NeoPaladin394]

Why is this guy still in office? Is he trying to pass as much law for his puppet masters as he can before the angry mobs get to him? This is ridiculous! I'm not surprised at all that the President backs this.

FTA:

"Currently certain copyright crimes require someone to commit the "distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of at least 10 copies" valued at over $2,500. The [Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007] would insert a new prohibition: actions that were 'intended to consist of' distribution."

So not only are we going to punish thought crime and what big brother thinks you're going to do, but this bill would even require Homeland Security to inform the RIAA and associated companies if one of us imports discs with "unauthorized fixations of the sounds or sounds and images of a live musical performance." Why don't we just reorganize the RIAA as another extension of the federal government? They're practically there anyway, and they'd be able to add an RIAA Piracy tax to our paychecks.

This does not bode well. This does not bode well at all. It would be interesting to see how current presidential candidates handle this proposition, but am I too jaded if I think it will never reach any debate podiums?

Minority Report anyone?

[LoaTao]

Attempted copyright infringement? When we can't get our elected officials charged with real, already committed and documented crimes? What is going on in this country!?!

Re:Lifetime Crime

[morgan_greywolf]

"would create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software in some circumstances"

I dont know what circunstances are those, but yeah right any judge would sentence that.

RTFA

The proposal increases the maximum penalties for 5 2320 offenses from 10 to 20 years imprisonment where the defendant knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause serious bodily injury, and increases the maximum penalty to life imprisonment where the defendant knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause death.

And exactly how is someone going to cause death while committing criminal copyright infringement?

Homeland secuirty to be arm of RIAA !!!

[RichMan]

FTA: Require Homeland Security to alert the Recording Industry Association of America.

Sure that is what everyone intended the anti-terrorism money to go to.

Re:This is brilliant!

[CastrTroy]

This is more true than most people think. Do you keep receipts for all the software you buy? Can you prove you have a license? The only safe software will be Open Source and Free. Anything else could land you in jail, because you can't prove that you actuallly have a license. This is why I think more businesses should be using open source software. It makes it a lot easier to keep track of licenses.

Re:Life in prison?

[tomstdenis]

They didn't say life in prison, so much as they said that they want to trigger repeat offender status [e.g. three strikes]. I'm sure if you were convicted of murder a third time you'd definitely get life.

That said, I agree that it's absurd that we can even think of locking people up for life for copying bits. There are easier and more humane ways to go about this. For example, probation, being forbidden to own/operate a computer, etc.

You can still be a totally productive member of society without a computer. Being locked up in a cell is hardly productive.

Tom

What I think is going to happen....

[arkham6]

If this law passes, I see the following.

(mp/ri)aa will flood the various file sharing networks with dummy files, aka 'master_of_puppets.mp3' that are actualy null files of a certain size.

Random user tries to download file from *aa over the network.

*aa records IP address of user

*aa submits IP information to DoJ

Random user goes to jail for attempted piracy and *aa also files a civil suit.

PROFIT!

Re:Several reasons.

[superbus1929]

But how do you define "attempted" piracy? Is downloading a honeypotted torrent the only thing? Or is just logging into the Pirate Bay or ISO Hunt enough?

This is getting old...

[Cervantes]

This pattern is getting old.

1) Introduce bill with ridiculous provisions
2) Public upset over ridiculous provisions
3) Remove ridiculous provisions
4) Pass the rest of the bill, which by itself would still be ridiculous, but now everyone's happy that they "fought The Man" and won.
5) Slowly expand power and scope of existing bill until you can do really silly things with it.

Enjoy getting your computers confiscated by The Man (sorry, "Civil Asset Forfeiture") just because you have Shareaza installed. Also enjoy having Homeland Security (a government agency) notify the RIAA (a private company) when you come back home with a bootleg tape of that concert you went to. Don't forget to smile when you get sentenced to many years in prison and many tens of thousands of dollars in fines because you downloaded MP3's of an out-of-circulation album. I'm sure you all have the tens of thousands of dollars required to fight all that in court and win, right? And you can do without our assets or money or liberty while you're fighting it...

How does that line go again? "... with liberty and justice for all* "
* liberty and justice sold separately

When ya'll get sick of this crap, Canada and Mexico are both just a few hours drive away.

Re:Several reasons Horsesh*t

[Kelbear]

I've got a better analogy.

This is slashdot, it's not like the readers aren't familiar with the issue at hand.

Software copyright infringement is like........software copyright infringement.

I think that should encompass all the idiosyncratic details related to the issue at hand without blurring the issue. An imperfect analogy here only serves to derail the topic by bringing to light all the flaws in the analogy rather than the original point of discussion. An analogy is only useful when the issue isn't clear. This is slashdot and it's crystal clear. Points should stand upon their own merit rather than a reference to an imperfect analogy.