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Infringement 'Detrimental To the Public Health, Safety'
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has declared that copyright infringement 'substantially interferes with the interest of the public in the quality of life and community peace, lawful commerce in the county, property values, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare of the county's citizens, its businesses and its visitors.' You might laugh, but that means they can close up a property for up to one year for violations of the anti-infringement ordinance [PDF] and the owner can be fined $1,000 for each infringing work produced on site. Not to mention the penalties in the PRO-IP Act, which just sailed through the House."
All governments become more aristocratic over time. They serve the needs of a smaller and smaller elite few, to the detriment of the greater and greater majority.
Then the people rebel, and the cycle starts over again.
Every time you download a file, a child gets AIDS
Are you sure?
(perfect setup for the response)
How many companies who currently violate the GPL and LGPL can these new laws be used against?
--jeffk++
ipv6 is my vpn
is that copyright infringement cures cancer. And the common cold. And male pattern baldness. Also, it can be used to make any car run on water. Clearly, it's a cover-up.
You do realize that in the USA the President is a powerless git that's unable to legislate? He can only approve stuff from Congress or veto it, and even if he vetoes it, Congress still gets a chance to pass it anyway.
All that "I promise lower taxes, more money, better education, this and that" are all LIES. I don't care if the President is Jesus Christ himself, unless he has Congress to propose legislation he can't approve it.
Now, if you really want to blame this on somebody, I hear your congressmen takes letters. Mine does, but he ignores them.
From the ordinance (note the use of the terms "improperly labelled" and "sell"):
Then again, maybe my reading of it is incorrect. That's not to say laws don't have a funny way of being interpreted and reinterpreted, or used opportunistically by law enforcement. Worst case scenario? Instead of having your car impounded when you find yourself driving down Sunset Boulevard late one Saturday evening looking for blackjack and hookers and meeting up with an undercover officer, you get your car impounded for what's playing on your iPod.
That's what's so insidious about the current copyright reign of terror. It's not about AC/DC, it's about freedom of press and without that you and I will never learn of those other serious abuses you are talking about. Real families have already been thrown out of their homes and stripped of their life savings on the flimsiest of evidence about sharing RIAA crap that both of us can agree is trivial. If it's so trivial, why submit to such massive punishment? Don't be fooled, though, this is all about control of public knowledge, opinion and culture. It includes control of entertainment but it's also about domestic spying and neutralization of political opposition such as yourself.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
There, fixed that for you. :)
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
I hear your congressmen takes letters. Mine does, but he ignores them.
Because you sign them with 'Anonymous Coward'?
sorry.
"To live well", most of societies, and especially American one, need better educated people. What requires better public education system. That happens to be expensive, requires a lot of work, provides no bread and pretty lousy circuses.
There is no way, enough ignorant people will admit their deficiency and support implementation of such such education system in a democratic way.
There is no way, in a republic, politicians will support public education because it is not a popular position among ignorant people.
There is no way, in Capitalist economy businesses will support public education, because it will decrease their control over consumers.
The only way to do it, is for smart people to manipulate powerful elite and its decadent culture into forcing education onto the masses. When the next generation of people will get an idea WTF they are doing and talking about, maybe they will find a use for democracy, socialism, market, or whatever other things that are now touted to be important for the welfare of mankind. But until then, long live oppression.
Seriously, long live oppression, the only way to get rid of oppression.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
The problem is the current IP laws do cost lives - thousands die from treatable diseases every day for no reason other than protecting the profits of drugs companies. For a copyright example, many third world countries cannot develop while the necessary infrastucture and knowledge cannot be freely distributed (software and books).
If you want a full review, check out http://www.iprcommission.org/home.html
People, such as the grandparent, need to stop simply associating copyright infringement with downloading movies for free and see the real damage IP laws and regulations do to millions of lives throughout the world.