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H.R. 4279 Would Establish Federal IP Cops
MrSnivvel writes "H.R. 4279, Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008, is gaining momentum in Congress. It passed the House a few days back. It would allow the Feds to seize hardware that has even one file coming from 'dubious origins,' e.g. downloaded from P2P. If passed into law, the bill would establish an Intellectual Property Enforcement Division within the office of the Deputy Attorney General. Rep. John Conyers says the goal is to 'prioritize intellectual property protection to the highest level of our government.'"
I cannot pretend to understand US politics... but I guess if something can sum up capatalism it's this story's summary.
hehehehehe,
I'm so glad I live in the UK! Oh wait....
"I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion! I want every man, woman and child to understand how close we are to chaos! I want everyone to remember why they need us!"
So if a computer has anything they got from p2p, then the cops can confiscate their computers? So if, say, a cop doesn't like someone's politics, ethnicity, race, sexuality or gender and that cop knows the person plays WoW, they can confiscate the person's computer with no possible recourse for the victim? Sure a charge won't come from it, but they get to make life annoying for that person.
"Specifically, federal civil law would be amended to: (1) provide a safe harbor for copyright registrations that contain inaccurate information so such technical errors would not prevent a judgment for infringement;" Excuse me? So if you lie when registering for copyright, the registration is still valid? Or does this imply that an inaccurate registration would not prevent a judgment for infringement that could have taken place if copyright was not explicitly registered at all (something that would already be the case, unless I am mistaken). The amendments to section 410 do not make it clear exactly how this will be any different.
It is true. IP is the most important issue facing us in America. We have solved all of our problems. The oil crisis is solved, healthcare rates are affordable and healthcare service is impeccable. Its so nice to see that we really do not need alternative energy and that our economy is providing everyone a comfortable life style where only a single parent can work while the other parent raises the children. Education is more solid than ever. We are raising a nation of math wizards capable of programming in asm on the spot. Our government is finally loyal to the American citizen and corruption has been eradicated.
NOW.. we can finally tackle the issue of downloading music and movies illegally, and impose death on those that do.
I'm proud to be an American today. So proud.
from http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/06/59305
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed.
But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.
The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software company based in the United Kingdom. The copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on Hatch's website.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
How do you verify that a file is or is not pirated, exactly? And whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?
For that matter, do those reps think that this will make law enforcement give one whit about people stealing albums? They already have enough to deal with in terms of real crime, and they're going to utterly ignore this anyway.
I want people to know how bad copyright really is and the only way to get it through their thick heads is for the law to be enforced to the letter.
Sooner or later the US will wake the fuck up.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Clearly America isn't a democracy, a republic, or any of those other pretty labels any more.
I move for the new designation of "Corporate Plutocracy".
Can I get a second for the motion?
It's interesting that all the moonbats screaming POLICE STATE!!! over in the Kucinich thread are all missing from this one. Consider that the bill is sponsored by a Democrat, and has passed a Democrat majority House.
If there's any law I've seen recently that qualifies as police state, this is one.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
Civil asset forfeiture laws are the antithesis of capitalism. They are a means by which the state can seize any property it wants simply by finding some nebulous connection to a crime. Did you know that YOU don't even have to be the one accused of the crime? They can do all sorts of fun things like seize your car if your friend borrowed it, while you thought he was going to the store to buy a case of beer, and he really used to it to drive to a drug user's house to sell drugs. This sort of thing is entirely Fascist in its economics (you did know that Fascism is a collectivist economic system as well as a political one, right?)
Everybody get in here! Your senators know that every person who actually writes represents thousands of voters.
Only a lawyer could follow the logic that was used to uphold them. The judges, aka lawyers with power to determine the law's enforcement, ruled that since YOU aren't the one being accused (your property is) YOU have no due process right except to claim your property IFF you can prove that the property really wasn't used in the crime that the government is alleging. Doesn't matter if someone else hijacked your property to do it!
Any normal human being can look at the logic of civil asset forfeiture laws and realize that it is literally a legitimization of armed robbery by the government.
If IP is ideas, which are thoughts.... this would make them thought police?
This is not the funny you're looking for.
Don't get me started on Hatch. I am so tired of him as our elected official. The guy's been there for over 30 year, and that instantly puts him on my hate list because of how much I am against the principle of "Career-politicians." But he's never going to leave, because we just love our incumbents here. The guy doesn't even live in our state! He has a house in Virginia, and only comes to Utah to raise funds for re-election. What an asshole. /rant
"Thank you for using Stop-n-Drop, America's favorite suicide booth since 2008"
"prioritize intellectual property protection to the highest level of our government"
Yep, we have our priorities right. With all the famine, high energy prices, wars, natural disasters, etc, we know that IP rights must be the highest priority, to keep that money flowing into congress. Getting that pocket lined is more important then feeding people.
Kick them all out, they are no longer serving the citizens as they are mandated to do by the constitution. Its a breech of contract of their oath of office.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The knock-on effect on the rest of the first world cannot be denied. When the U.S. comes up with a ding-bat solution to IP like this, then we are all doomed together because it will filter down through international treaties and trade agreements.
Freeing up IP is essential for making health, education and the energy market cheaper and more universal. In the last 5 to 10 years, first world governments have been 'pulling up the ladder' in this regard rather than opening up to the people. It's almost as though they are anticipating something.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
From now on, I'm leasing my hardware.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Move to Norway :-)
1) Oil-crisis ? What crisis ? We export shitload of oil and are steeenking rich as a result.
2) Healthcare costs money ? Guess so, never saw a bill (see 1) (universal healthcare)
3) Energy ? We get 95% of our electric power from hydroelectric already, planning to be completely carbon-neutral as a country in a decade or two.
4) Comfortable lifestyle ? Flipping burgers earns you $12/hour or thereabouts here, and unemployment is like 2% perhaps, so got that pretty much covered. (the main unemployed are -unemployabe- more than unemployed; if you are incapable of showing up at work, the problem ain't with the economy: it's with you!)
Did I mention we've got hot girls yet ?
Is this not a blatant transgression of the 4th Amendment?? Back to the dark days of the writs of assistance..
Copyright infringement as a criminal act - that's just wrong. And scary. Too long has this corporate fellatio been going on..
And as an additional WTF: Britney Spears/Justin Timberlake/Beyonce/Dude, Where's My Car?/Gigli are the USA's most important economic engines? Or at least, the engine's constituents??Goddamn. Just, goddamn.
p.s: TFA's dated May 6th. Isn't this coming a tad late on[Slashdot Comments We Liked]
"The USA is a nation of laws, poorly written and randomly enforced" - Frank Zappa
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
The question is: who doesn't have something on their computer that infringes copyright in some manner? It's not just the P2P crowd -- they might well share some of their booty with others, maybe even providing tracks on a CD-R to friends who have slow connections, or not enough savvy to use or desire to risk torrents. If you've ripped tracks from someone else's CD, technically you're violating a copyright. (Hell, the RIAA thinks that ripping your own CDs is infringement). How many people have software of dubious origin on their machines, either by design or ignorance? (All those grey market Windows and Photoshop CDs that are ubiquitous on eBay, for example.) For that matter, what about the mass of infringing material on YouTube? Download a clip from last night's American Idol before Fox has it pulled, and now your computer is ours....mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha. Even more damning is that there is hardly a website in existence that doesn't have SOMETHING on it -- a graphic, photo, quote, musical background -- that is, by the strictest standard of the law, an infringement of someone's copyright. Just viewing the website puts those items in your cache -- voila, you are now guilty...please hand over the computer quietly and there won't be any trouble.
Maybe this is a plot to help balance the budget. Instead of spending money on computers for all the federal agencies, they just seize as many as they need from all us hardened criminals.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
no band could possibly hope to make any money by giving away its music for free and making it back playing live shows. And having songs broadcast over FM radio without royalties being paid will destroy the music industry.
A book would be impossible to sell without some sort of protection. could you imagine if the #1 best selling book of all time had no sort of copy protection?
imagine if there was free software. not just free to have, but free to use and modify and re-distribute yourself. That would completly destroy the entire software industry. I predict that if there ever was some sort of free operating system that could be an alternative to windows, it would completly eradicate microsoft's entire business in less than a year.
The movie industry would be in far better shape if no one moved out west to escape Edison's patents that prevented them from making movies. Disney would be a stronger company if they had to secure permission to use the Brothers Grim stories that their classics are founded on.
you are right. stealing and sharing ideas can not possibly lead to any sort of good, and it certainly is not profitable in any way shape or form.
-I only code in BASIC.-
Shouldn't they be prioritizing protecting the constitution (which forbids unreasonable search and seizure) to the "highest level of our government"
Sunwalker Dezco for Warchief in 2016
[...]
Did I mention we've got hot girls yet ? But you don't have lions and tigers. Only in Kenya...
Maybe you missed this part:
So just like in drug cases, you don't even have to be convicted of a crime - you lose your property based on an accusation. Think of it as a DMCA notice that not only takes down your site, but also has a bunch of jack-booted thugs coming and seizing all your stuff.
Maybe they will pursue a conviction and maybe not. If you want your stuff back, you have to put up a bond equal to the value of the stuff that was taken, sue the federal government, and prove your innocence. Good luck with that.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Seriously, I'm tired of hearing "Lesser Evil", "Throwing your vote away" etc.
At this point it doesn't matter in the slightest which party gets in, things will continue much the same way with minor differences in soundbite.
You can "throw your vote away" because a republican or democrat will get in, and it doesn't matter which. the more people that do this, the more those scared of "wasting their vote" will realise it's not a waste at all, and that all it takes is for more people to realise what's going on.
"I bought a 15 GBP stake. It was a terrible stake; dry and no flavor."
Pointed pieces of wood tend to be that way.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
AND IT ALREADY IS. Why do we need MORE laws? We DO NOT. This is just another attempt to crminalize a CIVIL MATTER.
:)
Seizing property suspected of infringing? Are you NUTS?
The copyright holder has all the resources at his disposal to stop the redistribution of his work without consent, etc. This law does nothing but create a secret police force whose sole purpose is to rough up those who exist outside the "established" copyright kingdom.
Read up on the history of US copyright and you'll see that infringing is what we're good at, particularly when it came to books and the like.
WE were the rebels opposing the draconian English/European copyrights. I'm frankly tired of the perpetual extensions, lax registration, and overbearing unconstitutional power given copyright holders. (And artist != copyright holders these days...)
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Is it really the best use of gov't resources and tax dollars to protect profit margins of industries that fail to innovate and develop new revenue streams? I am all for protecting the property of the content creators but we all know that if it was about that then this would not even be on the table. It is being driven... pushed ... shoved by corporate interests not individual content creators.
I of course have absolutely no factual research to back my statements so someone, someone credible, please prove me wrong.
Coreigh
"Waitress I need two more boat-drinks..."
Write your senators, please--this is akin to the police closing a library for six months to two years because they found a novel on the floor and they can't positively determine that it's a legal copy.
Only, because of the internet, someone who's never even been to the library can drop it there. Furthermore, it doesn't even have to be there--if a cop says he thinks he saw one, that counts. *and*, because it's computer hardware as well as software, the overall value and lifetime expectancy of the library decreases tremendously over the time it's not usable.
(ranged by freedom)
(I mean here socialism as practiced in most european countries between 1950-2000, if you mean the EU's overwhelming philosophy, then perhaps yes, you're right that it's closer to communism than fascism) In many ways the Socialist Europeans are much more free than the average American. Since education is often free to the individual (and you even get a small stipend by the government to go to school) people get to study for the career they really want, rather than being burdened by massive student loans. The state gets paid back through the higher taxes from the greater income, and the individual gets to pursue the career they really want rather than the one that they can afford to pay for (in terms of education).
In terms of medical care the Europeans are also much freer, since they get free medical care. Therefore Europeans are not screwed by getting sick when they can't afford health insurance, have had prior diseases like cancer, or their insurance company decides to screw them somehow.
The much-touted "freedom" of America is more for large corporations and the few people that can write a check for their college tuition. In fact, this article is about large corporations getting their own police force. Do you think this means greater or lesser freedom for the average individual? (Hint: you may soon have federal police knocking on your door for sharing the wrong file) We still haven't even gotten to drug use (legalized in Holland) or sex and nudity (much freer laws in Europe). Sure, they pay alot in taxes, but when you count the cost of health care and education, the tax burden comes out similarly. Americans just get to pay for hugely expensive ($500 billion+) annual defense budgets or hugely expensive ($750 billion+) unnecessary wars or the hugely expensive "War on Drugs" rather than things they actually can use in daily life.