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DOJ Opposes Extending DOJ Copyright Authority
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The White House has opposed the bipartisan bill that would create copyright cops on the grounds that it would cause the Department of Justice to end up 'serving as pro bono lawyers for private copyright holders.' And while they do occasionally prosecute criminal copyright infringement, they have no intention of dabbling with civil cases because, 'taxpayer-supported department lawyers would pursue lawsuits for copyright holders, with monetary recovery going to industry.' At this rate, the discovery of winged suiformes would appear to be imminent."
Finally, someone, somewhere - particularly in the Whitehouse, is thinking. I don't really care why, I just hope this bill never passes. The last thing we need are more enforcers of ignorance, taking advantage of those not in power.
Maybe with the possibility of having to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the financial sector, governmental offices are at long last waking up to the fact that they need to balance the books on behalf of the taxpayer. It's all very nice having campaign contributions from industry, but if there's no money in the coffers, winning the election will be a poisoned chalice. Already, there's no money in the coffers, but being seen to shell out more taxpayer money to support industry, with no return to the taxpayer, is pretty much political suicide in today's climate.
For the last god alone knows how many years, the basic taxpayer has been quiescent, going about the daily work, with the odd grumble or two, and the government has been able to get away with the odd outcry now and then. At the moment, a lot of people are looking long and hard at where every penny they pay goes. Not quite civil unrest, but certainly large scale discontent that could easily escalate.
"Hollywood, send more money to GOP."
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
This position is consistent with actual conservative beliefs, e.g., smaller government, less government interference. At least one apparently still exists in the administration.
The dems have been in the pocket of the trial lawyers and entertainment industry for years. That's why Pelosi, Reid, etc., shill for bills like this. Scary.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
"The Bush administration is opposing sweeping legislation granting it the ability to prosecute civil cases of copyright infringement" I mean, it's early so maybe I am sleep-hallucinating that the Bush Administration or DoJ actually refuses power.
They're not refusing power so much as refusing to take responsibility. And rightly so! Why should the taxpayers foot the legal bills for the **AA?
My blog
WOW.
So you are actually arguing in SUPPORT of government funded private lawsuits for big business.
I never thought I would see the day when an argument for the government footing the bill for RIAA suits on slashdot got modded "Insightful."
Yes the copyright cops would be competing for funding with real crimes. OK. So they only get 3 million a year to do copyright suits. There is NOTHING in the bill that stops private copyright suits also. RESULT: RIAA continues its current racket of suing the little guy, and now the government jumps in on the action too!
but I forgot, if the white house opposes something we must be in favor of it.
It's called "wu wei," action through inaction. If you prefer, knowing when inaction is the best action.
Maybe our government is going Taoist?
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
Most of what you classify as "stealing" should be in the
same category as trading copies of Beowulf or The Republic.
The state of the law when you were born is consistent with
this notion. It was changed to suit a small number of
corporations.
Don't let actual facts get in the way of feeling morally superior.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
The White House isn't brain-dead stupid. It just has different interests than the common citizen. That's why a lot of the things it does seem off.
WTF? The White House doing something that isn't brain-dead stupid? Someone please pinch me. No, wait, don't I like this dream!
I'll get flamed hard core for saying this but GWB actually seems to be getting more reasonable as his term winds down. He actually seems to realize the limitations of his office and of American power now. Makes me wonder where we would be if this man had been the one in the White House seven years ago. I guess being POTUS for seven years is a humbling experience.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Copyright is not a criminal matter, the record labels do not have their own police force or police powers. They bring a private prosecution to defend private "property". It is not the governments job to actively seek out and defend against infringements on private property.
Think about trespass. Yes it is illegal to trespass on anothers property, but you don't expect the police to actively seek out trespassers. That is the job of the landowner, to watch out for their own property, and call for help if and when the need arises.
Christ you don't want the police having even more responsibilities do you ? Look at the situation with emergency phone calls now. There are hundreds if not thousands of twats who expect the police to act as a free taxi service, a free search engine and all sorts of stupid things. Imagine the situation where you could phone the police and complain about copyright infringement. Most people don't understand copyright anyway and giving them an easy to use one stop shop for reporting "infringements" would be ludicrous.
I think the clue is in the name - Department of Justice. It's where you go to realise justice. They don't come to you unless you are a criminal.
With rights come responsibilities. In the case of copyrights, those responsibilities are being ignored. Copyright is a limited term right to be the sole entity that can copy a work. But that limited term is being extended instead of curtailed. That is what the DoJ should focus on, not doing the dirty work for the irresponsible rights holders.
I'll get flamed hard core for saying this but GWB actually seems to be getting more reasonable as his term winds down
The real deal is that you need to have the political party opposite of the President to be the one that holds Congress. Clinton of 1992 and 1993 was just terrible but once he lost the Congress and had to bend to the other side, partisanship went up, but the country was run far more effectively. Similarly, Bush being checked by the Democrats is actually more moderate because he has to be. When you have the other side of the aisle to contend with on a daily basis, you have to learn consensus to survive.
This is my sig.
OK, this is getting rediculous.
Redundancy is good And also good.
You people never cease to amaze me, the Bush administration defends your rights and you blast them with rhetorical bullshit.
Ease up for once with your nonsense and read their reasoning... it outlines constitutional reasoning.
The next batch of proposed laws will have to cut the DOJ in on a slice of the action. Maybe let them resell the confiscated servers or take the money found on/near the "criminals".
No good. They still wouldn't go for it. It's one thing to RICO seize the property of drug rings, because they have mansions, Ferraris, and hefty bags stuffed with cash. Copyright infringers have what, exactly? A $1200 Dell computer and a poster of Marilyn Manson? There's no money in copyright infringement.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
You people never cease to amaze me, the Bush administration defends your rights and you blast them with rhetorical bullshit.
You people?!?!? What do you mean by that?!? Just kidding.
Of course the rhetoric is important even if the outcome was good. It's good that Saddam is not ruling anything anymore, but the rhetoric was clearly bullshit and set up a bad precedent. (There were other mistakes too, notably what we did after invading, but let's keep focused here.)
Bush and Cheney have done everything to increase the power of the president short of claiming infallibility. If the administration had been opposing this because it's idiotic and would be spending taxpayer money to sue college kids for sharing songs with their friends, hey way to suddenly grow a brain bush! But it's not, they're saying "No, because you can't tell the president what to do."
It's important because if the RIAA comes back with "okay fine, same proposal, just without the requirement to make a new office," Bush is going to say "Okay, great!" So he's still a worthless sack o' crap.
Not more power, more responsibility.
Bark less. Wag more.
You people?!?!? What do you mean by that?!? Just kidding.
He means "you people," who refuse to give Bush an inch even when he makes the right decision for the right reasons. I suppose you could call them the Limbaughs and Hannitys of the left.
But it's not, they're saying "No, because you can't tell the president what to do."
And he's right, and they shouldn't be able to. It's the whole point behind the separation of powers in the US Constitution. Am I still angry at Bush for his earlier power grabs? Yes I am, and even right-wingers should be too. But this decision is a response to the unjustified meddling of Congress in the affairs of the executive branch, and that's just as important a consideration as "this requirement is a waste of time." You don't fix earlier bad precidents by setting more.
Others have mentioned this, but well-nested in other comment threads.
The Bush administration (in particular, Dick Cheney) has rejected this primarily because this is an "intrusion of the legislature" into the affairs of the executive. Cheney has resented any Congressional oversight or involvement in the White House ever since Nixon resigned, and after he failed to get Bush 41 to ditch Congress, he got Bush 43 to let him run the White House and thus ditch Congress directly. The (then) Republican majority went along with this, because they had a Republican in the White House to rubber-stamp their bills.
In this case, conflicting priorities have turned this very dangerous bill out for the better. Even if Congress passes and later overrides a veto, Cheney and/or Bush will simply starve it out of significance, if not existence. But be wary of the media industry cartels (RIAA, MPAA, BSA members-- others will likely list them up) lobbying the White House directly to get the President to appoint a copyright czar by executive order!
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
He runs into trouble with his deficit spending during times of economic expansion.
That's the American attitude of wanting to have our cake and eat it too. I think that over the long term we are going to pay dearly for that -- sooner or later the rest of the World is going to stop financing our deficits and we'll be looking at serious tax increases and/or spending cuts (likely both) to make the books balance.
Of course that doesn't excuse him. He has the biggest bully pulpit in the World and could have brought attention to this problem if it suited him.....
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.