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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."
A victory caused by laziness is still a victory, right?
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
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.
Oh my gawd. This ... came from the White House?
I guess a broken clock is still right twice a day. Either that, or the absurdity of the proposal was glaringly obvious, even to them.
"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. Then again, it could just be the typical arrogance of either of those groups that if they want it, they will just take it. Or, maybe the LHC did cause a time-space continuum rip before it went kaput and were just now seeing the effects.
"Hollywood, send more money to GOP."
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
"immanent" is a (correctly spelled) word, just not the right one. They meant "imminent" (impending), not "immanent" (indwelling). Chalk it up as you would lose/loose then/than or (my personal favorite) "should of" for "should've".
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
This seems to stop the DOJ from prosecution these cases with tax money. That is NOT a-typical of the Bush administration. What they would rather see is that the record labels have their own private police force that the record labels pay for. Small goverment, big business. Makes perfect sense.
Remember that if it is the DOJ that prosecutes these cases AND the only one who can do this, that would put copyright infringement up against all other crimes for attention. Plus there would be far more oversight of the cases.
Remember what happened in germany? There these cases belong firmly in the hands of the justice department and then justice department told the record industry that they can't be arsed. Case closed.
That is NOT what happened in the US so far. In the US, the justice department can't be arsed BUT the record labels are given more and more powers (or not being stopped) from investigating and prosecuting these cases themselves. If you are worried about to much police power, you should be even more worried about police power in private hands.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The post above is correct. They're version of the word is not correct. There pretty stupid at the DOJ. Their, I said it.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Here here!!
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
The answer is really very simple. You just missed the other news report with the headline: 'RIAA Refuses to Cough Up USD700 billion in "Campaign Funds"'
The movie industry in particular wonders why it's having a tough time, well, have you looked at the cost of most movies lately? How about Blu-Ray? Gee, I wonder why $30 disks aren't flying off the shelves, and the technology being generally adopted, in an economy that is going sour. Couldn't possibly be because if you walked into a typical retailer, the movies are priced as though nothing has changed in the economy since 1998-1999, could it?
When these cartels start pricing toward a more realistic economy of scale, and still have no luck selling stuff, I'll gain an ounce of pity for them. Not enough to support this sort of handout, but enough to actually consider them victims of the economy, rather than their own ivory tower mentality ("the law says we have these rights, fuck the real world, fuck the economy, our rights, rights rights, all say that we can charge this much and there's nothing anyone can do about it!")
If Imaginary Property is real, where are the Imaginary Laws to protect it? Can't I just imagine someone breaking down my door and hauling me off to court to be slapped with a hundred thousand dollar fine? If that's the case, can I just pretend I sent them the money? Seriously, I love music, and the concept of imaginary property is plausible...but if it all sounds the same, whose imagination did it come from? Who really owns it? We need new styles and fresh sounds. Why doesn't someone invent a new instrument to replace the Electric Guitar? THAT would be innovation. Peace Out.
Your doing it wrong.
If you can read this, it means that I bothered to log in.
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.
I agree with the Bush Administration on something? Quick! Everyone duck! There are aviating porcine about!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
No body likes an spelling/grammer not see.
I would like to propose that we adopt a new word in the English language:
Buypartisan: A bill sponsored by politicians from both parties who are both being paid off.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
A government agency not jumping on a chance to expand its authority and funding?
Perhaps the Mayans ware right and the world is about to end after all.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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.
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.
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."