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Congress Creates Copyright Cops
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Not satisfied with pitiful potential penalties of $150,000 for infringing upon a $0.99 song, Congress is proposing new copyright cops in the "'PRO IP' Act of 2007, specifically the creation of the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER). They also feel that the authorities need the authority to seize any computers used for infringement and to send copyright cops abroad to help other countries enforce US laws. MPAA boss Dan Glickman praised the bill saying that, 'films left costs foreign and domestic distributors, retailers and others $18 billion a year,' though Ars points out that it allegedly costs the studios only $6 billion."
The latest thinking on allergies is that we live in such a clean environment that our immune systems, with few actual germs to fight, starts "looking for stuff to attack." Children raised on farms seldom have allergies, nor do kids in third world countries.
Perhaps nations do the same. The US has no enemies left that will go toe-to-toe on the battlefield. So we make war on "terror", war on "drugs", and now copying.
Maybe this is the human condition: we're just wired this way. How depressing.