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Copy That Floppy, Lose Your Computer
Over the weekend we posted a story about a new copyright bill that creates a new govt. agency in charge of copyright enforcement. Kevin Way writes "In particular, the bill grants this new agency the right to seize any computer or network hardware used to "facilitate" a copyright crime and auction it off. You would not need to be found guilty at trial to face this penalty. You may want to read a justification of it, and criticism presented by Declan McCullagh and Public Knowledge." Lots of good followup there on a really crazy development.
Excuse me while I gather the virgin sacrifice and assemble the pentagram required to solve your problem
Here is the EFF Link that should be in the article summary: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/12/pro-ip-act-increase-infringement-penalties-and-drastically-expand-government-enfor
Fixed.
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
Amendment V
No person...shall...be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
I understand here that "due process of law" is actually being changed to make this legal, but I feel that the following serves to define "due process of law" in a way:
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Just once I'd like someone to call me 'Sir' without adding 'You're making a scene.'
Even more so: since you do not have to be found guilty, I think that would very clearly be an unconstitutional Government "Taking" denial of Due Process. It's one thing to ask if corporate lobbiests have a grip on the government but quite another to ask ARE THESE PEOPLE COMPLETELY MAD?!
This make sense to me in some ways. I know people who were caught poaching fish (catching more than their license allowed). They had their fishing rods taken away, as well as their boat, and the truck that they towed the boat, and just about anything else that was even remotely involved in the crime. It may seem a little excessive, but it's quite a deterrent. Getting your computer taken away for sharing copyrighted content seems to be in alignment with most of the other laws I've seen. Now if this is excessive, than maybe all the other consequences for a lot of other laws are also a problem, but that's a different issue.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
it's been suspended in the UK for a long time, ever since the introduction of fixed penaltys for certain offences that can just be handed out by police officers, or general busy boddies employed by councils.
one example would be a man who was handed a £60 fine for littering when he threw a used match stick out of his car window.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
No one uses floppies any more, despite their conveniently rhyming with the word "copy".
Cute headline though. Too bad you decided to be cute instead of being clear and correct.
In addition: Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Please tag a story 'typo' when you see this. It'll alert us admins to a problem and it'll get fixed in probably less time than it takes to write a comment about it...
No, not really. The latest US Department of Agriculture forecast has a $15B net surplus for agricultural exports over imports for FY 2008.
Members of the House Judciary Committee
You have to remember that a proposed bill means nothing. Its final form may be very different.
Starting from an extreme position knowing that you will bargain it down to a more reasonable position is a perfectly legitimate tactic.
AT&T Unix source code was somehow put in some national security list. Basically if you were caught with a copy of the source without having had paid or part of some University that paid the $60,000 source license, the Secret Service would come with guns drawn and seize every piece of electronics equipment on the premises.
There is little documentation that this had even happened and almost none of the victims ever received there hardware back.
http://www.chriswaltrip.com/sterling/crack2l.html the Chicago Task Force were now convinced that they had discovered an underground gang of UNIX software pirates, who were demonstrably guilty of interstate trafficking in illicitly copied AT&T source code. &
http://www.cs.wustl.edu/cs/cs/archive/CS142_SP96/notes16.html
This finally ended with Steve Jackson Games that managed to sue them for a similar seizure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games,_Inc._v._United_States_Secret_Service
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
No, not really. The latest US Department of Agriculture forecast has a $15B net surplus for agricultural exports over imports for FY 2008.
With over 8 billion in subsidies, that's not very impressive.
Would it be possible file a class action lawsuit against congress for passing unconstitutional laws (derliction of duties, public endagerment, etc)?
Generally speaking, no. You can only sue the (Federal) government when it decides to allow you to sue it, and the exceptions are defined pretty narrowly. While maybe you could argue that doing something blatantly unconstitutional is tortuous, it'd be an uphill battle. (Cf. "Federal Tort Claims Act")
Pretty much the sole remedies afforded to you by the Constitution if you don't like what the Government does (aside from a violent insurrection, which isn't really given to you; you always have it as an option, albeit a suicidal one) are bitching and moaning to your elected representatives, and voting.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Guilty until proven innocent, shoot first gather facts later, etc. are an extremely dangerous way to conduct law enforcement, though fortunately that can't happen in the United States because the Founding Fathers wrote protections against it in the constitution. Oh wait
The US isn't alone in this. It's a game that all countries play...
Obviously this law will be used against little people exclusively with the odd small company punished as a mock demonstration of fairness. We are at the point of a collision with the reality that big business has far too much control over government and it is high time for the people to retake control of the system by whatever means needed.
Make no mistake. We can not negotiate in the usual ways. To quote a Frenchman "Our grandfathers negotiated with the bosses and we were poor. Our fathers negotiated with the bosses and we remained poor. We will never negotiate with the bosses. There will be no bosses."
In essence geeks have control of technology and somebody is about to dance to a very different tune.
So, since that one was 'accepted'...they've naturally progressed to 'lesser' crimes.
Another step in the guilty until proven innocent transformation of our legal system.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I disagree.
Riders and amendments are another check and balance in our government, the same as the power of the SCOTUS to overturn legislation. They prevent the tyranny of the majority by allowing the minority party (or parties, ha!) to still get something done. It is part of the culture of compromise that Congress should be (and, day-to-day on a majority of issues, grandstanding aside, still is).
Pork is a vital part of the culture of compromise: "I'll let you add this amendment to get funding for X program in your district if you will vote for the bill." Without this compromise, the whole system would grind to a halt and nothing would get passed. The margins between the minority and the majority are too thin. In cases where the Executive and Legislative branches both have the same party in power, getting rid of amendments and riders would create an oppressive regime.
The reason it's abused is us, the voters. We let it happen. We vote in a couple senators and a few congressmen and send them off to Washington. When they come back to the district with pocketfuls of pork (subsidies, jobs, programs, funding, bridges to nowhere), we applaud their efforts to revitalize the community and vote them back in to do it again.
I don't have any good answers on how to change the system for the better. Each community wants legislation that benefits its populace, so its representatives work hard to get them those programs, things that the rest of the country calls "pork." However, a one-bill-one-topic law would destroy one of the systems of checks and balances and remove a major vehicle for compromise.
Democracy may be about rule by majority, but a free democracy also protects the minority.
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
Is the case of Donald Scott the one you're talking about? I've never heard of this and would be interested to know. I bet others would as well.
"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy
Here's my first problem.....the way you're stating this, the majority of cops are cruising around with a trunk full of cocaine just waiting to frame the innocent. Yes, there are cases where evidence has been planted, but in the ones I've heard of there's usually a stonger motive than "I want to confiscate your car". Unless you cite a good source, there's no way I believe it's that rampant.
In what jurisdiction does the cop get the proceeds of auctioned property? I've never heard of this being practiced in the United States. The state gets the proceeds, and depending on where, it could go either directly to the police budget, or the general budget. Again, unless you can cite this, I'm having a hard time believing it.
I would suspect that corruption on that level would attract both federal investigations, and media attention.
I get the feeling that what you've got is some half-remembered anecdotes about evidence auctions, and a general dislike for the police.......
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
Ahhh,
The Ad Hominem.
Ron Paul is a lunatic with damn little understanding of history, economics and politics.
Ron Paul may not be an unequaled sage; there are most likely students of history, economics, and politics who are superior to him.
These people are not, however, in our government. Obama is a toll. Hillary Clinton, though quite bright, fundamentally doesn't understand the long-term strategic mis-steps the U.S. has made in the past 50 years. That being said, both Obama and Clinton have a much better grip on reality that the rest (as in non-Paul) of the Republican slate. McCain, Huckabee, Giulani, and the rest have no clue on basic things like immigration, economics, foreign policy, and religion.
Does Paul say stupid things some times? Yes. However, if you do some research, you'll see that he is far more knowledgable about the issues he speaks about that his contemporaries, and many of the things that he advocates are sane, sound policy decisions.
For example, the DEA, and the drug war, is a ridiculous mess. If the only good thing that came out of a Paul Presidency was the end of the drug war, the U.S. would be a much better place.
The same is true of the IRS, which is also a complete mess. Keep in mind that Paul who advocate a replacement such as a sales tax, which is the sort of mechanism that European economics use (they call it a VAT).
Our government has gone through large scale reformations before, and survived. Recently, even; look at the Department of Homeland security, which has completely reoriented the operations of domestic law enforcement, and the USCIS, which is a newish entity replacing the INS.
I, for one, am willing to trade the possibility of the free market failing in providing economic equality in exchange for strengthening of our civil liberties, the end of the drug war, a return to a more conservative foreign policy, pursuit of a balanced budget and trade, and a complete overhaul of our insane tax system.
Who are you to call me a lunatic, and why are the risks involved in moving to what I believe to be a "better" government any worse than the shitstorm the democrats and republicans are currently driving us towards? The vast majority of the electorate has delved into the issues far less than I have, and the vast majority of the congress, and every _other_ lunatic running for President, is a good deal less informed than Dr. Paul.
Either you are a hopeless optimist, and like the direction this country is going in, or you've become so conservative and a afraid of change that any large-scale reorientation of the government is terrifying to you.
Hell, I'd excuse people like you if you had a candidate who would restore our liberties without pursuing radical economics changes, however, given the current slate of possibilities on both sides of the aisle, no one other than Kucinich and Paul defend civil liberties that way they need to be defended.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
There is a general consensus that the dollar being "the oil currency" is important for it and the US money system. Just how important economists can't seem to agree upon, the range is from "it would hurt a little" to "it would destroy the entire US economy" if that would change. That's got nothing to do with sales to the US and everything to do with the fact that everyone else has to own dollars in order to buy oil. the country with the largest GDP in the world According to both the IMF and the CIA, you're #2 with the EU being #1. Unless you insist on the literal meaning of "country". However, given your and their current growth rate, China will be taking over in about two years.
Yes, you are big and powerful. If you rest on that for just a while longer, it'll be gone. That was the whole point I made.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org