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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.

78 of 766 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So? by ShawnCplus · · Score: 5, Informative

    You would not need to be found guilty at trial to face this penalty. That bypasses the "Do the crime" bit since they haven't proven you've actually done the crime.
    --
    Excuse me while I gather the virgin sacrifice and assemble the pentagram required to solve your problem
  2. With added 80s music! by PlatyPaul · · Score: 5, Funny

    In case you missed the message, Don't Copy That Floppy!

    (warning: may cause eye strain and/or brain damage)

    --
    Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
    1. Re:With added 80s music! by CaptainPatent · · Score: 4, Funny

      From that video:

      "by the time you add up all the people involved in creating an application, you'll end up with 20 or 30 people" - LOL!!

      I think the best form of copyright protection would be if any time you entered blank media into a drive you had to listen to that video...

      Unfortunately I think the suicide rate may increase drastically too!

      --
      Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
  3. This is great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since the intarweb is used to facilitate copyright infringement, the gov't can seize the entire series of tubes!

    1. Re:This is great! by crossmr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm all for revoking America's access to the internet...
      could you imagine what a world it would be if the MPAA and RIAA and other special interest groups couldn't get online? Not saying there aren't groups like this in other countries, but they're not nearly as vocal or as damaging.

    2. Re:This is great! by blueg3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Of course, since 7/9 of the Tier 1 networks are American companies (one is in Bermuda and the other is an American company wholly owned by a Japanese company), I'm not sure how well that would really work out.

  4. A new AGENCY?! by Azuma+Hazuki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An entire new agency in charge of stopping copyright violations. Wonderful. I am SO glad to know our government has its priorities straight.

    --
    ~Eien no Inori wo Sasagete~ Searching for my Hatsumi...
    1. Re:A new AGENCY?! by jeffasselin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The government is by the people for the people. At least in theory.

      But the politicians are those who enact laws, and although they are in theory elected by the people, such elections are only possible thanks to the big money corporations give them. So, yes, those politicians have their priorities very straight: helping those that give them the money they need to keep their jobs.

      --
      If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
    2. Re:A new AGENCY?! by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Makes sense. After all, this is about protecting the only market the US still has the upper hand and that generates more revenue internationally than it costs.

      Take a look at the industry sectors. Agriculture? Heaps more imports than exports. Industry? Which? Production is outsourced to China. Service? Great, but you can only export a service when someone comes to you and consumes it, and leisure travel to the US isn't really too appealing with the rather xenophobic approach since 9/11.

      So what's left is content and patents. News, entertainment, rights. To create an entire agency to protect what's left of the US commerce is quite logic.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:A new AGENCY?! by OldeTimeGeek · · Score: 3, Informative
      Agriculture? Heaps more imports than exports.

      No, not really. The latest US Department of Agriculture forecast has a $15B net surplus for agricultural exports over imports for FY 2008.

    4. Re:A new AGENCY?! by Znork · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "After all, this is about protecting the only market the US still has the upper hand and that generates more revenue internationally than it costs."

      Mmm, no. Tricking _other_ countries into recognizing intellectual monopoly rights generates more revenue. Implementing more monopoly rights yourself merely makes your country less competetive, and strengthens the rights of _other countries_ to exact revenue from _you_.

      "So what's left is content and patents."

      Yeah, well, guess who's gonna own the monopoly rights of that content and those patents? Lets just say that the growing economies arent so dim they havent realized they too can get monopoly rights in the US.

      Realize this: Intellectual 'property' is, and always has been, a covert distributed taxation scheme.

      Saying enforcing IP 'protects jobs' is no different than saying 'raising and enforcing taxes protects jobs'. Give someone the right to exact taxes from some part of the economy and there's no limit to how large expenses they can create and how many workers they can employ. That does not equal competetive and efficient free market economy.

  5. EFF Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  6. So let me get this straight... by john_is_war · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If someone on my schools network downloads an illegal mp3, then the RIAA has the right to confiscate and sell every single router, switch, and hub between the two people... clogging the tubes is bad enough, but taking them away and stealing them?

    --
    Live life to the fullest. It's not that life is short, but that you are dead for so long.
    1. Re:So let me get this straight... by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'd like to seem them try to take the router from the local ISP. That could cause some major problems. Or the DNS root server that facilitated the copyright infringement. Legislation like this shows that the lawmakers have absolutely no clue how the internet works.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:So let me get this straight... by compro01 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Legislation like this shows that the lawmakers have absolutely no clue. those last 4 words were pretty redundant.
      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
    3. Re:So let me get this straight... by jamstar7 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Look at the (shudder) bright side.

      With everybody's computer taken and sold, there is now going to be a booming market in new computers, all preloaded with Vista. What a windfall this shall be for the computer manufacturers and Microsoft.

      How do you prove you've never downloaded anything off the internet? You can't. Doesn't matter if you have legal copies of the CDs you've ripped down to MP3 and stored on your computer, even if you have the reciepts for them, how do you prove you didn't just download them instead of ripping them from CD?

      And the theory that absence of evidence doesn't mean absense of crime is rather disturbing to me.

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
    4. Re:So let me get this straight... by egomaniac · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I bought a retail copy of MS Office. I'm looking at the CD right now. Unfortunately, somehow the case (on which the CD key was printed) disappeared, probably because of my two-year-old son's love of placing expensive things in trash cans when nobody's looking. I needed to reinstall it, but couldn't find the case and thus didn't have a valid CD key.

      So that leaves me with a dilemma. I know I bought and paid for the thing. I've got the stupid CD. But I couldn't find a key online which would work for this particular copy (as with all Microsoft products, there are umpteen million variations, and a key from one variant won't work with any others). So I downloaded a torrent of the same Office version (but obviously a slightly different edition of it).

      Technically, I broke the law. I could be thrown in jail and have all of my stuff confiscated for my horrible, evil copyright infringement. But... did I actually do anything wrong? I submit that I did not. When the law makes "not doing anything wrong" not only illegal, but assigns extremely harsh penalties which could destroy my life, we as a nation have collectively lost our minds. I could have stolen a physical copy from a store and faced much less serious penalties, and THAT crime actually would have harmed the store owner. My "crime" harmed no one and was not even unethical (in my opinion), and I risk jail time, massive fines, and confiscation of all my stuff. Thanks, politicians!

      --
      ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
  7. Re:Bad URL by PlatyPaul · · Score: 5, Informative
    --
    Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
  8. How is this wrong? Let me count the ways... by beef+curtains · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.'
  9. This may be your last chance... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 5, Interesting

    leave the US while you can. Serious.

    Well, let's see what happens in the next elections. If the people lose, you're welcome to establish here below the Bravo :)

    1. Re:This may be your last chance... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > leave the US while you can. Serious.

      And where would you go that isn't any worse?

      Is that your solution to life's problems? Run away from them?

  10. Based on other laws coming out in the USA by forgotten_my_nick · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Based on other laws coming out in the USA in the last 8 years this isn't so bad. It just means you should do your copying on the latest most expensive machine in the local shop, report them then pick it up at auction for buttons.

  11. Re:So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    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?!

  12. funny how... by Tom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For the past five to ten years, lawmakers have passed an incredible number of laws that the courts had to sort out as unconstitutional. It's almost as if they abandoned sensible work for a "let's try everything and see what works" attitude.

    Really, is it just my perception or has the number of stuff that was made a law only to be killed by the courts as unconstitutional skyrocketed? I really wonder, why that is.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    1. Re:funny how... by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Really, is it just my perception or has the number of stuff that was made a law only to be killed by the courts as unconstitutional skyrocketed? I really wonder, why that is.

      Don't know if there's a trend, but it does happen a lot. I believe reason is for election grandstanding. Come the following election, some Congressman can say he's tough on X while his opponent's soft, where X=[crime, guns, drugs, violent games, porn, sex offenders, copyright, gay rights, etc]. This works well for both campaign ads as well as soliciting contributions from companies who take an interest in these matters. It doesn't matter if the courts kill the law; the poor guy still tried and it's not his fault those Commies on the bench ruined everything. Or so he says.

      Similarly, that's also where you'll see the 417-3 votes, where somebody will sponsor a bill against killing kittens, with a line item here or there including funding for pork projects. Nobody can vote against your amendment without voting for killing kittens. And the three people who do vote against it will have fun come re-election time, when the opponent saturates TV with commercials that state how much the guy enjoys killing kittens.

    2. Re:funny how... by nerdonamotorcycle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed. I really wish there were some procedural way to penalize legislators who pass blatantly unconstitutional legislation. As you say, there's a tendency on the part of Congress to pass this sort of crap to make it look like Someone Is Doing Something and let the courts sort it out later. The problem is, SCOTUS doesn't get a case until someone's directly adversely affected by the law. That "someone" also has to be a good test case. (Sympathetic-appearing defendant, facts clearly on the defendant's side, law clearly open to misinterpretation/misapplication, etc.) Meanwhile there will be a lot of other "someones" out there who get screwed over who don't have the resources to pursue things through the courts to that level and/or whose cases are a lot more ambiguous.

    3. Re:funny how... by Reziac · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Which is why we NEED a "one bill, one topic" law.

      http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=83

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  13. Re:Shot down for all the wrong reasons... by DarthMAD · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As a Republican, I agree, but not necessarily for the same reasons. The big reason that Republicans should oppose this is that it creates more government bureaucracy - now I'm no crazy Ron Paul supporter who wants to get rid of every federal government institution, but really, this is not a good solution. I've always thought that government should stay out of this whole issue - it's costing the big media companies money, so they should be investing their money into stopping it. There's a reason that retail stores have security guards - it's cheaper for them in the long run to deter theft than to call the cops every time that something gets taken.

  14. Why bother with a judicial system? by jimicus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is absurd. There's no point in even debating that.

    I think it's the (RI|MP)AA asking for the moon - that way, when they tone down their demands they won't sound as absurd.

    Look at it from this perspective: how much resources do you imagine the FBI is dedicating to copyright infringement given the number of embarrassing gaffes that the entertainment industry is making? The entertainment industry wants a government department with powers similar to the FBI but dedicated purely to copyright enforcement. Such a department could not reasonably refuse to assist in arresting some relatively innocent granny because they have higher priorities.

  15. Re:So? by jeffasselin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You DO realize Bush has already suspended Habeas Corpus right? For "terrorists", in theory, but wait till they amend this law to label people who do "illegal copying" (or anyone who does anything that deprives any big corporation of profits) as an "economic terrorist".

    Although the US courts have blasted him and congress again and again over that, he keeps going at it.

    --
    If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
  16. Makes sense on some levels by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:Makes sense on some levels by GeckoX · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Er, big difference. If you aren't found guilty, you get your boat and other confiscated things back.

      This specifically entails skipping the due process involved. Basically, they can write you a spurious ticket and take your hardware...and never give it back, irregardless of whether you're guilty or not.

      This crap really has to stop. Someone has to draw a line. No, actually, the whole country needs to draw a line, and demand that everything that has already crossed that line be revoked. Things in the US are starting to cross over into the land of the surreal. Jumped the shark is an understatement, and I KNOW that this is not the kind of thing your average American citizen wants to see happen.

      --
      No Comment.
    2. Re:Makes sense on some levels by LordKaT · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem is that computers are not a hard boats and fish kind of thing. With computers I can use an exploited chinese machine to do all of my downloading, then use a relatively robust services, like Tor, to download that material.

      All of this while using a network connection that's three blocks away from me.

      The law also says that they can auction off the items immediately, rather than waiting to prove that to violated copyright. You know those honeypots that people set up? Yeah, the ones that only have the titles of material and just junk data? Those computers would be seized and auctioned off too.

      This law also doesn't discriminate between illegal and legal filesharing. You terrorist sumbitches that keep sharing Ubuntu via BitTorrent are going to be REALLY surprised one morning.

      No, this isn't a deterrent. This is legislation, drafted by a conglomerate of corporations, attempting to address something that is slowly becoming a cultural phenomenon.

  17. Re:Shot down for all the wrong reasons... by stretch0611 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "I predict that many Republicans will oppose this bill, ... but, becuase the industry that they would be tasked to protect is one that generally opposses them."

    You forget the one thing that all politicians value most: The almighty dollar. Once the lobbyists start handing out "campaign donations" you will see every idiot believing in the wisdom of the RIAA/MPAA.

    Of course my right to backup copies will be ignored because I do not even have the money to get my representative to blink. I only get lip service from him every two years near election time.

    --
    Looking for a job?
    Want your resume written professionally?
    DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
  18. Re:So? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nothing new here. Civil forfeiture has been a feature of the War on Drugs for a long time; extending it to the War on Copying is an obvious strategy. The "great" thing about civil forfeiture is that the defendant isn't you, with all of your rights; in a twisted bit of legal sophistry, it's the property itself being sued by the government.

    I'm sure it will be just as successful in stopping copying as it was in stopping drug use. (I'm just waiting for the violent black market in bootleg DVDs to develop.)

    "History repeats itself: First as tragedy, then as farce." - Marx got that one right at least.

    --
    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood
  19. A visit from the spelling police by Tetsujin · · Score: 5, Funny

    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... Let's take a moment to check your spelling...

    Hm... Lobby, lobbier, lobbiest...

    OK, it all checks out... You can go about your business. Move along.
    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
    1. Re:A visit from the spelling police by Sockatume · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think he just coined a term for "the most lobbying corporate lobbyists".

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  20. Re:Hmmm by megaditto · · Score: 3, Funny

    And I welcome a new way to avoid paing electronics recycling charge!

    --
    Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
  21. Re:How is this wrong? Let me count the ways... by mothlos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Look at civil forfeiture law in the US. The government can sue your property and is given the ability to seize and sell your property based on a mere probable cause that the property was used for criminal purposes.

    http://www.isil.org/resources/lit/looting-of-america.html

  22. Poppycock! Balderdash! by Stanislav_J · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you suggesting that here, in the Land of the Free(TM), that the government would seize and auction off your assets for a copyright "crime" even if you haven't been adjudicated as guilty? Oh, come on.....next you'll try to tell me that they'll seize and auction your car and keep your cash if they even suspect you of having drugs! (Chuckle) Yeah....like that's gonna happen....

    --
    "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
  23. Republicans passed the Bono Act and the DMCA by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I predict that many Republicans will oppose this bill, not because they are opposed to the idea of protecting an industry legislatively, but, becuase the industry that they would be tasked to protect is one that generally opposses them. If the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 and Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 primarily benefited an anti-Republican entertainment industry, why did the majority of Republicans vote for them?
    1. Re:Republicans passed the Bono Act and the DMCA by ultranova · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 and Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 primarily benefited an anti-Republican entertainment industry, why did the majority of Republicans vote for them?

      In all likelihood it was because the entertainment industry paid sufficient bribes that the politicians ignored their stated ideology and obeyed their corporate masters. The same as with every other stupidly evil bill.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  24. Hate your boss? Hate your company? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Download some MP3s at work. In comes the MAFIAA, seizes all computers and your company goes down the loo. Whether the company has anything to do with it is irrelevant. Guilty 'til proven innocent. Well, even if proven innocent, the hardware is gone and won't come back.

    Is that how I should imagine this?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  25. Indeed by Deagol · · Score: 4, Interesting
    So, let's count the ways The Man can seize one's assets w/o due process. We have the Never Ending War on Drugs, where if you are incidentally present during a drug "crime" (say, you get pulled over for speeding, and the cops find pot on your buddy and you had no idea), they can impound and sell your car. More recently, the SCOTUS has decided that privates citizens are trumped by commercial interests in Imminent Domain cases, where you are given a take-it-or-leave-it pittance offer for your real estate so the next big box store or McMansion developer can break ground.

    Now, without a trial and conviction, your computer equipment can be seized by the cops and sold to supplement the donut/hooker/beer petty cash fund. This is just fucking great. I'd love to see this shot down, but I doubt it will.

    And I love the "justification". The fact that the US doesn't make anything *real* anymore is not my fault. Ideas are great and all, but when your only product is ideas, and you've outsourced the manufacture of real, durable goods to other places, you will eat your own dog food eventually. I laugh at how they tossed counterfeit meds in there -- nobody will vote that down during an election cycle. "The senator from your state voted *against* protecting seniors from counterfeit medicine on the internet!" Nevermind that they're trying to kill out-of-country medication purchases *anyway*.

    Anyone know where I can get a free (or cheap and paid anonymously with cash) shell account overseas where I can SSH in and compile/run TOR? This is getting fucking ridiculous.

  26. So, this would mean.. by AJWM · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ..that the BusyBox developers could have Verizon's servers seized for the GPL violations?

    I can't wait.

    (Not that I really expect that would ever happen even if this became law. We all know there's one law for the people and another for the corporations (and yet another for the politicians).)

    What I'd really like to see is a constitutional amendment (that's what it would take) that automatically bars an official from re-election if he or she proposes, sponsors, or votes for legislation like this which is prima facie unconstitutional (they've violated their oath of office to uphold the constitution).

    But I don't expect that to happen either.

    --
    -- Alastair
  27. Re:How is this wrong? Let me count the ways... by wattrlz · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  28. Re:So? by enjerth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nobody challenged it when "drug dealers" were deprived of their money and belongings, without due process.

    This is just the next chapter.

  29. Littering by Tetsujin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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. That is harsh... But why did he throw it out his car window? Isn't that what the ashtray is for? (Drivers in the US never seem to bother using their ashtrays. Burning cigarettes dangle out the window, and then are cast aside when they're finished. It's like, what the hell, people? Why do you think that's OK?)
    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
    1. Re:Littering by Tetsujin · · Score: 4, Funny

      it has to be thrown away somewhere, maybe he thought spreading the organic matter around would help furtalise the country instead of it all ending up in landfill. Ah, well then he did a good job, then. Asphalt is a notoriously bad environment for growing crops: but thanks to his forward-thinking generosity, Main Street can once again become a garden paradise...
      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
    2. Re:Littering by networkBoy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't (any more). I pitched a cigarette out the window once. Gog popped for littering (rightly) and attempted arson (WTF?). I was in the middle of an urban jungle with no sign of plant life for at least a mile in any direction. When I went to court I pled not guilty to the arson charge and "guilty with an apology your honor" to the littering charge. The judge asked "what" and I replied that though I had done it, if I had any idea about the cost and hassle of what I had done you could believe I'd not have done it and would certainly never do it again. Fortunately she believed me on that count and thus I only paid $360 for the littering ($100 * court fees). As to the arson charge she asked me why I believed I was not guilty, requiring an explanation of the complete lack of vegetation, and similar lack of intent, along with the reasonable belief that my smoldering smoke would be extinguished by the *rain* that was falling at the time. Found not guilty.
      -nB

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  30. Re:Bad URL by jamie · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...

  31. Re:So? by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So what? If they search your car and find drugs they can keep pthe car, even if your case doen't go to trial. You lost that right long ago in their war on some drugs. The US has become a police state.

    ...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

    Except after your 4th amendment rights aren't violated when they search your car and they find a little baggie of pot under the back seat. They take the car! No trial, nothing. Even if you go to trial on the drug charge and are found not guilty, they still keep the car.

    A few years ago the newspapers reported that there was a soldier who was pulled over for driving a used car while black in some little redneck state down south. They searched the car and found cocaine in the door panels. He was arrested and his car confiscated. It turned out that he had bought the car three weeks earlier, and the cocaine came with the car. Nobody knew how it got there. The soldier was released without any charges being filed- but he never got the car back.

    So much for that part of the 5th amendment.

    They're not "undercover cops" or "plainclothes policemen". Call a spade a spade - they're God damned Secret Police, no different than the Communist KGB or the Nazi's Secret Police. If "crimes" like drug possession, gambling, and prostitution weren't crimes there would be no reason or excuse to have Secret Police.

    So now you have a "crime" that's a civil matter and you forfeit property without compensation or trial. Thank you, "Partnership for a Drug Free America". I hope your God damned children become needle junkies you fucking assholes, because drug laws make their becoming junkiest MORE likely. Marijuana doesn't lead to harder drugs, marijuana LAWS leas potsmokers to harder drugs.

    How far does this slippery slope slide? I love my country, I hate its government. Perhaps one day my descendants will again have a representative government, rather than the one party plutocracy it has become.

    -mcgrew
    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  32. Re:So? by Doctor_Jest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Due process is out the window since the War on Drugs. And some folks challenged it, but the difference was, no one "liked" the drug dealers... when Grandma loses her computer to the government... people might start taking the 4th amendment seriously. But I doubt the sheeple will notice. Such is life after soma.

    At least they had a warrant (such that it was...) when they stole the drug dealers' property. Now they don't even need that to grab your stuff.

    scared yet?

    --
    It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
  33. Members of the Judiciary Committee by Presto+Vivace · · Score: 4, Informative
  34. Remember AT&T Unix by John+Sokol · · Score: 4, Informative
    Back in the days before Linux and FreeBSD, back when AT&T Bell Lab Unix ruled the earth. 70's and 80's
    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
  35. Re:So? by homer_ca · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm just waiting for the violent black market in bootleg DVDs to develop.

    It may not be long. When you increase the criminal penalties on a black market item, it actually increases the violence because it drives away the more casual dealers and attracts the more hardcore criminals who are more willing to take risks.
  36. Re:Shot down for all the wrong reasons... by tjstork · · Score: 3, Insightful

    etting rid of governmental institutions (federal or not) is not laziness, it's being ethical. By supporting governmental institutions, you support organizations that routinely engage in theft, extorsion, slavery, kidnapping and murder merely by making their did legal. Don't be an accomplice.

    Government isn't innately evil, its the concentration of power that is. If all you do is get rid of a government institution to institute a corporate monopoly in its place, then you haven't solved much of anything. That's why its so important to oppose things like longer copyrights, and longer patents. Both tend to create monopolies when what we want is competition in the private sector to actually work. In an era where the barriers to entry are steep enough, it stands to reason that you don't need to reduce incentives even more for someone else to compete.

    If Republicans were so big into private competition, then what is so wrong about legislation that ensures that companies do exactly that?

    --
    This is my sig.
  37. Shut down Harvard! by Tipa · · Score: 4, Funny

    People at Harvard do illegal file sharing. Now the government can take all their computers! Woohoo! I bet they have nice stuff. They can go there on their way to MIT!

    The government is going to have absolutely awesome computers. And the beauty of it, is they can sell them, then go back and impound them later! Sell them again and again and instant $$$ Budgest crisis? Solved! Funding wars against the rest of the world? PAID FOR! Impound and auction, rinse and repeat!

  38. Re:So? by SL+Baur · · Score: 4, Informative

    At least they had a warrant (such that it was...) when they stole the drug dealers' property. Which wasn't anything. I recall one case in California, where they got a warrant based on an anonymous tip (claiming marijuana was being grown), entered the property, killed the owner, didn't find any drugs but took the property anyway. The property was adjacent to some kind of animal preserve area and they couldn't annex it any other way.

    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 ...
  39. Similar to drug seizure laws by penguin_dance · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the same crap as the drug seizure laws. Everyone thought--great, take the houses, cars, property of the drug dealers. However, what's ended up happening is people are having their cars seized because a friend had a small amount of pot. Worse yet people are having large amounts of cash seized with the attitude that you must prove yourself innocent. It doesn't matter that no drugs were found or any evidence of drug dealing, just the fact that you're carrying a large amount of cash is considered a crime. And good luck getting it back!

    Friends, our freedoms are being eroded away while we stand by. According to the Supreme Court, municipalities can grab your land under imminent domain to sell to Wal-Mart or someone building condos. Police can seize your cash for no reason other than you're carrying it and now they want the right to seize you computers on the claim that you might have illegally downloaded something. It's got to stop or this really will be a police state.

    --
    If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
  40. Re:Bad URL by LordKaT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Please actually perform the function of editors and edit the story. It'll save us the time of correcting your mistakes in the comments section.

  41. Re:So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Plenty of people have complained about it when it was done for drugs.
    I was at an infragard meeting where some LE person asked for feedback about a similar proposal he wanted enacted for child porn. I submitted comments suggesting that it was a terrible idea.
    Civil forfeiture laws are a terrible idea. They corrupt law enforcement and people do not get proper due process under this system.
    If a judge doesn't want someone to access something that enables a particular type of crime that someone has been doing, they can make not owning or using that enabler (say a computer or a fishing boat) a condition of parole. And if they want to punish the person with a fine they can choose one that makes sense rather than one that is randomly based on what property was nearby when the person was apprehended.

  42. Sony has infringed a copyright - when the auction? by MikePlacid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/13/sonys-rootkit-infrin.html
    Close examination of the rootkit that Sony's audio CDs attack their customers' PCs with has revealed that their malicious software is built on code that infringes on copyright. Indications are that Sony has included the LAME music encoder, which is licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which requires that those who use it attribute the original software and publish some of the code they write to use the library. Sony has done none of this.

    So, based on the proposed bill - how much of Sony would have been auctioned of I wonder...

  43. Re:So? by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The 4th amendment to the US constitution, that authority that describes the limits of federal law, emphasis mine:

    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.

    I'm having a lot of trouble reading this in any way at all that can justify trial- and conviction-free seizure and disposal of a citizen's property.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  44. Re:How is this wrong? Let me count the ways... by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, I think a Libertarian Randist like Paul could be a helluva lot worse than Bush. Bush is just an alcoholic puppet, Ron Paul is a lunatic with damn little understanding of history, economics and politics. The only thing that would really keep a maniac like Paul in place is that Congress would fight him at every turn.

    Why people are so addicted to this crazy bastard is quite beyond me. He speaks rubbish. Libertarianism is a fantasy. The closest I know of to a Libertarian state was the US until the Civil War, built largely on Maddison's and Jefferson's ideal state, but the idea of a minimalistic Federal government proved incapable of properly dealing with the economic disparity between the Northern and Southern states and its most obvious effect; slavery.

    Abraham Lincoln killed American Libertarianism, and needed to to preserve the Union.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  45. Re:So? by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Marijuana doesn't lead to harder drugs, marijuana LAWS lea[d]s potsmokers to harder drugs.

    Bingo. When a kid buys pot,he has to basically seek it through underground channels. The same channels that also traffic Meth, Crack, Heroine, etc. When you start going to various dealers you quickly realize that you're knee deep in the drug underworld, and you can ask for pretty much any drug you want and you will get it.

    If you just had to flash an ID showing you're 18 or 21 or whatever to the guy behind the counter, you'd be all set. I would prefer that gas stations and grocery stores not sell marijuana. but perhaps Head shops could apply for a license the same way as a restaurant applies for a liquor license, and can be turned down under the same criteria. If the state, county or township doesn't want it there, then they can ban it. And let adjacent regions pull in the tax revenue instead. This is how alcohol sales works right now, where dry counties lose sales as people just pick up their beer at stores over the border.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  46. Re:So? by GooberToo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Due process is out the window since the War on Drugs.

    I'm sure a lot of people have no idea what you're talking about. This started because state police in many states were empowered to seize property, without due process, and *pocket* the proceeds. This created an environment where almost every state cop in the US, where this was implemented, was actually a criminal. Several states, after a decade or more of complaints, finally started to investigate.

    It seems it worked like this. Cop sees nice expensive car. Cop pulls over the car. Cop claims you are a drug deal and plants evidence. Cop seizes you car and everything in it. You are arrested. Drug charges were often dropped. You car and all your property within the car is sold at auction. Cop pockets all of the proceeds. Normally out of state cars were the preferred targets, leave you little recourse. And in the end, who wants to champion "drug dealers." States only started to act when it was found that the majority of the "drug dealers" fit a certain profile such as "affluent retirees" passing through the state.

    States such as GA, LA, MS, and AL were especially bad. The solution was to tell the police to stop it. They couldn't simply arrest all of the criminal cops because in those four states, as much as 90% of the state police would be behind bars. It was thought that created too much of a risk to public safety to put criminals in jail.

    So chances are, if you've been ticketed by a state policeman in these states, you were ticketed by a criminal that has commit more crimes than most any criminal currently convicted, sitting in jail right now.

  47. Re:So? by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Also, I ran into the following on-target quote just now on Neatorama, and I hopped right back here to append it:

    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

    - Ernest Benn, publicist (1875 - 1954)

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  48. Re:Hmmm by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Well, this is nothing new really...just a progression from the suspected 'drug' arrest confiscation of property scam. No one complained that cops could seize your car, home and other bits of property if you were arrested for a drug charge....even if it was a mistake and you were proven innocent....

    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.........
  49. Re:So? by Malevolyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...any computer or network hardware used to "facilitate" a copyright crime and auction it off. So this includes entire ISPs and root DNS servers?
    --
    Your ad here.
  50. Re:So? by HiThere · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's a bit of a problem here.
    1) Before your trial, all of your assets are seized.
    2) Therefore you can't pay an attorney...so you probably lose if they try you.
    3) You can't appeal the verdict without:
          a) Paying a rather expensive fee for the appeal, and
          b) The appeals court accepting the case
    4) If you appeal, you can't appeal based on anything that wasn't raised as an issue in the original trial...where you had a lawyer who was either unpaid or chosen by the govt. (aka public defender).
    5) If the appeals court decides against you, you must appeal to the District court. (I think I have this right. Possibly this step is skipped.) All of the caveats WRT the appeals court apply again (if I haven't separated into two what is really one court).
    6) Now you can appeal to the Supreme Court. They refuse to hear most cases that are appealed to them. They will generally only agree to hear cases where the decision that they will make is politically acceptable. They are also quite expensive, and all of your assets were impounded before step one.

    Because of this, your only hope is if some organization, e.g. the ACLU, decides to get involved very early in the process. This rarely happens. It will essentially never happen if you represent something unpopular, because the organization depends on solicited funds.

    Also notice that each of these steps takes multiples of years. You're trying to swim upstream, and all levels of the government offer increased resistence when you do that. If you were trying to plead guilty the case might be decided within months, but since you are opposed to the govt., it will take years to decades even if you are *eventually* successful.

    So, no, these laws haven't yet gone to the Supreme Court. I doubt that they've ever gone to an appeals court. Remember that step one is to strip the defendent of the ability to pay for lawyers.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  51. Re:So? by internic · · Score: 4, Informative

    I recall one case in California, where they got a warrant based on an anonymous tip (claiming marijuana was being grown), entered the property, killed the owner, didn't find any drugs but took the property anyway.

    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
  52. (In good humor, honest!) by Dasher42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is that your solution to life's problems? Run away from them?

    I see you're no Einstein.

  53. Hang on a second...... by NiteShaed · · Score: 4, Informative
    Okay, yes, there are cases where [suspected] drug dealers property is impounded and then auctioned, but I think your description is way off.....

    Cop sees nice expensive car. Cop pulls over the car. Cop claims you are a drug deal and plants evidence.
    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.

    You car and all your property within the car is sold at auction. Cop pockets all of the proceeds.
    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.

    They couldn't simply arrest all of the criminal cops because in those four states, as much as 90% of the state police would be behind bars. It was thought that created too much of a risk to public safety to put criminals in jail.
    I would suspect that corruption on that level would attract both federal investigations, and media attention.

    So chances are, if you've been ticketed by a state policeman in these states, you were ticketed by a criminal that has commit more crimes than most any criminal currently convicted, sitting in jail right now.
    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.
    1. Re:Hang on a second...... by $pace6host · · Score: 3, Informative

      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.
      A quick search turned up this. There appears to be more information here. Try this:

      Blumenson, Eric and Eva Nilsen. " Policing for Profit: The Drug War' s Hidden Economic Agenda." The University of Chicago Law Review 65 (1998): 35-114.
      Or, do a Google Scholar search with it. Maybe Henry Hyde's Book from the Cato Institute is a good source? That's the Google Books link. Here's a quote from a review "Representative Hyde believes that police misconduct is more the rule than the exception in forfeiture proceedings. The volume of evidence suggests that profit drives law enforcement agencies to seize whatever they can from private citizens. The law is unbalanced on the side of law enforcement on this issue, which has led to far too many gross violations of individual rights."

      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.
      Here, the Seattle Post Intelligencer says:

      It took 2 1/2 years after concerns were first raised internally for the King County Sheriff's Office to stop allowing employees to use vehicles seized in drug cases. At one point, 21 detectives and officials -- including the budget and accounting director, the legal adviser, a volunteer chaplain and the Asian community liaison -- were driving the cars.
      Many of the other references have similar tales. I don't know how many you need to consider it a problem.

      I would suspect that corruption on that level would attract both federal investigations, and media attention.
      You might think that, and in fact there has been some media coverage, but a lot of people think "Hey, those are drug dealers things that were seized, who cares?" despite the fact that often there is no crime proven. Remember, being accused of something is almost as good as being convicted in the court of public opinion.

      I get the feeling that what you've got is some half-remembered anecdotes about evidence auctions, and a general dislike for the police.......
      I get the feeling that what you've got is ostrich disease, coupled with an overdeveloped confidence in the goodness of people in authority. I personally have a wonderful opinion of my local police, the few I've met have all been very nice, polite, and honest. I do, however, recognize that the police are drawn from the same population of humans as every other vocation, and that population has bad people in it. They're not infallible or incorruptible. That's why the Bill of Rights exists.
  54. Re:How is this wrong? Let me count the ways... by howlinmonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You are painting a false dichotomy here. The choice isn't between idealistic libertarianism and extreme corporatism. The choice is between a world where the government becomes increasing controlling and dictatorial and a world where individuals are free to make there own choices.

    Many of the abuses of the industrial revolution that you cite were the result of corporations buying off corrupt politicians to get what they wanted. It took a massive uprising of individuals to transform both corporate and governmental policies. The government was as complicit in the abuses as the corporations.

    In a truly libertarian society, the government would not have the power to act in the best interests of the corporations as they do today. It is even possible that many large corps would not even be able to exist in that environment. The reality is that our current political system heavily favor those with the $$$ to buy what they want, including legislation. Idealistic libertarianism would not be the perfect solution, but a good dose of libertarian common sense injected into our currently corrupt system would help tip the scales in favor of the Average Joe.

  55. Re:Some folks would disagree. by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are their words often used to support one argument, when their personal actions didn't follow?

    It's a mistake to judge past civilizations and societies by modern standards of right and wrong. This is one of the first lessons of anthropology. Past societies have done any number of things (slavery, wars of conquest, gladiatorial combat, human sacrifice, forced religious conversion and/or religious persecution) that would be considered abhorrent by modern standards. Does that mean that we can't embrace the progress that those societies brought in the arts, sciences, etc, etc?

    Yeah, that's what I thought. If there were one trait that both Hippocrates and Socrates had the least of, compared most men, it was hypocrisy

    So it's Jefferson's supposed hypocrisy that bothers you? Even though his actions were perfectly in line with societal norm at the time? Even though he supported efforts towards the reduction of slavery?

    One word: context.

    I fail to see in what context you can use the term "fat white man" and not expect it to stir racist sentiment. It serves no legitimate purpose other then an appeal to emotion and hatred. And I stand by my statement -- if I made a similar comment about somebody like Martin Luther King (maybe something like "nigger plagiarist" or "nigger womanizer") I would likely find myself called out as a racist and modded into oblivion.

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  56. Re:How is this wrong? Let me count the ways... by WhiteWolf666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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