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President Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "President Bush has signed the EIPRA (AKA the PRO-IP Act) and created a cabinet-level post of 'Copyright Czar,' on par with the current 'Drug Czar,' in spite of prior misgivings about the bill. They did at least get rid of provisions that would have had the DOJ take over the RIAA's unpopular litigation campaign. Still, the final legislation (PDF) creates new classes of felony criminal copyright infringement, adds civil forfeiture provisions that incorporate by reference parts of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, and directs the Copyright Czar to lobby foreign governments to adopt stronger IP laws. At this point, our best hope would appear to be to hope that someone sensible like Laurence Lessig or William Patry gets appointed."
Caribbean Islands, hhaarrrr!
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
1. Countries without extradition treaties to the US, as the act makes pirating a criminal offense - one that you can be extradited for.
2. Countries without friendly relations with the US, as part of this act involves convincing other nations to join.
That's about it on requirements, I think...
On a serious note, it's nice to know that with the economy in the crapper, rather than trying to correct problems with the US banking system, they've instead decided that the US's biggest concern is people downloading MP3s.
Uh, no. The US probably wants to forget that the industrial revolution started in the US thanks to one massive effort in corporate espionage. Cracking down heavily on IP actually harms the economy.
The US has signed its death warrant, again. This act can only hurt the economy, and it really doesn't need to be kicked while its down.
Don't worry, look how successful the Drugs Czar is. Money well spent.
Your government is out of control. Perfect timing. This will get zero media attention.
Area51 - We are watching...
Ones that don't have extradition agreements with the United States.
Keep your eyes to the sky.
I don't really have time to do a proper investigation on my own, so I'll just ask: What does one have to do to get a felony charge under this, and what does it take to get your computer seized?
Possibly optimistic assumption that Sally Ipod ripping a Flo-Rida album won't get charged with a felony, but might get her computer siezed.
I'll bet he thinks so while he's driving around in his car(s).
-- arstchnca
--
is your neighbor a pirateist? call the department of copyright infringement today!
This is excellent news. As the law drifts farther and farther from practice, it brings the entire dysfunctional system closer to collapse.
Ok, outside the copyright debate, am I the only one that is extremely skeptical when someone is the "czar" of something? What the hell does that actually mean, and what can they actually do?
If it doesn't sound like an utterly useless, powerless post, it sounds like we should be running for our lives from this all powerful czar - neither is particularly good, from my perspective.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
They are successful. So long as you remember that the goal is to make the police force so big that a dictator can rely on them to keep the population in check.
BTW, if we weren't all criminals yesterday, and we're aren't all criminals now, you can be sure we will all be criminals soon.
How we know is more important than what we know.
All those who have already spent the large amounts of money placed conveniently on their doorsteps from an "Anonymous DonoRIAA" last week, say "Aye" -- any opposed? The Ayes have it. Send it to the president!
It's easy to start a grassroots campaign to get a new bill instated that will have this one eclipsed or overturned. We just need everyone we know to write letters to their congressmen -- Letters written on hundred dollar bills.
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
I thought the goal of the police force was to make money?
Does that mean copyrights will now be available on every street corner?
Whaddaya mean the wasn't the goal?
They are successful. So long as you remember that the goal is to make the police force so big that a dictator can rely on them to keep the population in check.
BTW, if we weren't all criminals yesterday, and we're aren't all criminals now, you can be sure we will all be criminals soon.
We've all been criminals for a long, long time. It's just that nobody has bothered to prosecute us yet.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
any country you moved to that they could extradite you from is going to be more of a hell hole than just staying in the USA.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Sorry, but I have a copyright on all combinations and permutations of both Hand and Fist Prose.
I suggest that you find another country soon because the Czar is coming after you.
McCain, the perpetual war, Bush Lite? OR Obama, who has the **AA polesmoker as his running mate? We're fucked.
... DMCA, pro-IP and others american bullshits laws means nothing on my country
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Said the geek who has rarely left his mother's basement, let alone the USA.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
Damn I hate my government so much.
How many copyright cases are at criminal court standards?
jury trial.
Just having a ip is weak evidence as they are many was for the ISP mess it up and tieing it people who don't have HSI but do have cable / digital cable and the CO may of some how tied to some one who was on the same node just like how you can see / pay for other people VOD / PPV.
As of a few weeks ago my country's future is tied to China and India, not the USA. Been nice knowing you guys. Have fun with the copyright stuff.
Curiously, I think this includes Norway. As far as I remember we don't extradite to countries with a death penalty, even when it's not a possible punishment for the crime in question.
We're also considering a flat fee and making file sharing legal, but until that happens it's still not very risky here - you'll be safe unless you run a FTP ring or something.
http://fear.org/
Assets should only be forfeited when the owner of said assets has lost a case (civil or preferably criminal).
Cases such as "County of X against $10,000" are just wrong and evil, and should be in violation of the 4th Amendment.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
Great. Now they'll be able to seize your house for copyright infringement. Keep in mind that there are much lower thresholds in place now thanks to the drug laws put in place since the 80s.
Ya know, if this were Friday, this would make the second Czar appointed this week.
The Bailout Bill (AKA Death of Capitalism, Comrad) created a man, the Treasury Secretary with more power than the president: the power to, and I quote "Ensure the prosperity" of the American people.
I don't know what to tell ya; voting Republican doesn't stop this anymore, and voting democrat only makes it 100 times worse. MAN, I wish the media hadn't picked our candidate.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
No it's just that GW Bush wants to be the last president in history.
The USA will implode in upon it's self Dec 31'st. We will be a giant swirling sink hole between Canada and Mexico.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"Bite the pillow, kids - it's goin' in dry."
With the war on drugs, the war on sex, the war on common sense, and now the war on "IP theft", the risk of raising a child in the US skyrocketing. :(
Young people often fundamentally don't understand the economic incentives, implications and justifications for copyright (regardless of whether or not they are still valid today). Couple that with very low purchasing power, and this new war-on-sharing is a disaster waiting to happen.
Mark my words. A lot of families will suffer terribly because of this.
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
Why, do a single P2P transfer of even part of a movie that is copyright by a member of the MPAA OR a song that is copyrihgt by a member of the RIAA.
You are still free to trade the movies or songs of small, independent labels.
This czar ONLY deals with IP of company's with a market cap of over $500 million.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
In criminal cases they send the police to kick down the door of the accused, and they present such evidence as "we caught him red handed".
They get the name and address of the accused, not by an absentee discovery order, but by a search warrant. Or, with new legislation that is likely to follow, by just looking up the data that ISPs are required to retain without even the need for a warrant.
This is what happens when you appoint a Czar.. a fuckin' WAR is declared and any allusions that people have about their rights go quickly out the window.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Hello mr. Constitution, my name was Paul. However, I was sued by the RIAA for infringing on their copyright of the letter "P" and now I'm known as inmate 5675. Unfortunately, God-King Bush said I also violated his copyright on free speech with my first letter so they took my Kidneys since I don't have anything left after my legs were taken for speaking against the media's word.
Posting to remove accidental mis-mod.
"Bah!" - Dogbert
Jeez, you mean Perot was right? There really is a giant sucking sound?
Now you're really scaring me.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
I think the OP got the words mixed up, but he's probably right either way.
Most of the countries that don't extradite to the US aren't that great. We're talking about countries like Rwanda, Botswana, Sudan, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, etc. Mostly countries that have median incomes a fraction of the United States', have rampant wars, or are ultra-religious theocracies. Have fun. I'll stick with the US for now.
On the other hand, countries that will extradite to the US are likely headed the same way as the US anyway, so might as well stay here because at least we're wealthy from when we were a super power. That's probably going to be changing soon, but for the time being you're probably better off just hoping you don't get caught.
Leave the bill in place, much as the amendment for Abolition was left in place, but supersede it. We already have an Internet Czar position (currently vacant). If said Czar were to regulate those who do the monitoring (the RIAA/MPAA and lackeys thereof), say by banning their access to the Internet, the bill can remain in place and harm no-one.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
As the USA continues its bi-polar swing between Fascism and Marxism, I'm wondering if a country exists whose governments better balances the rights of the individual with the need of the population? I think I might need to move before they start setting up internment camps here.
How much worse can it be than this, where an artist was detained for her pen and ink drawings? It's like they trained up the border patrol for the inevitable rubber stamp.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Why, do a single P2P transfer of even part of a movie that is copyright by a member of the MPAA OR a song that is copyrihgt by a member of the RIAA.
I'm not sure I understand. Was the comma supposed to be there?
You're asking why I would download a movie that was MPAA or song that was RIAA? Well, I don't download music or movies, that's for people who have personal time. So we're not talking about me.
If I did have time, I wouldn't be interested in indie movies or songs mostly because I wouldn't know of them unless I went searching for them, which sounds like a lot of work to go through to be entertained. Even then, I would hear songs or hear about movies I would like that are owned by the MPAA or RIAA. I can't change my tastes based on who owns what, that's ridiculous.
look what the (RI|MP)AA got! Money well spent.
The intention: Since very little is manufactured in the USA any more, one of the few things we have to sell to the outside world is our IP, so we have to protect it.
The Unintended Consequences: As Lawrence Lessig has pointed out, draconian copyright and patent laws are a strong disincentive to building on the works of others, so there will be less IP to sell.
I guess we're sunk.
The Russian czar was eventually replaced by communists who believed in free stuff for all.
Open source advocates believe in free software for all, and will likely try to destroy the position of Copyright Czar.
This isn't just money wasting legislation, someone has actually set up a very elaborate experiment to test if history repeats itself under controlled conditions.
For it to be considered "criminal", they would most likely have to show you are making a profit on your pirating, such as selling burned copies of IronMan at a streetcorner stand or something like that on a larger scale.
Most IP infringement occurs between groups such as those on piratebay, none of which make any money (profit) from the infringement. I wonder where we can find some actual real numbers that tell what percentage of copyright violation is for profit or not, or honest numbers as to what the cost of 'casual piracy' is? (specifically, numbers that don't automatically assume every copy made costs the artists 100% of the retail cost of the item)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Are they going to make a fast food czar?
How about an SUV czar?
I mean, people are buying less SUVs than ever before, so we must have a cabinet level position to figure out how to get people to buy more SUVs right?
And people need to buy more fast food too. Let's create a cabinet position for that.
This is not unprecented. I mean, there's already a banking czar who is taking over the banks now.
Next will come the porn czar. "Sir, put your hands up and your penis back in your pants!"
Bush certainly is tying up the loose ends in the fascism loop ins't he?
They're using their grammar skills there.
Young people often fundamentally don't understand the economic incentives
A public hanging of Santa Claus will teach the little bastards a thing or tw0.
It means anything George the 2nd wants it to. You can't tell b/c that's how they want it, the subject, amongst all the 'whereas not withstandings' and 'subsection A redesignated as subsection b', 'striking x/whatever/whoever and inserting y/whoever' so that you don't know what it means unless you read ALL it's predecessors, the word 'felony' seems to be the active change in wording from 'offense' to 'is a felony offense', aka anything they decide to pursue will be a felony. (a) IN GENERAL.--Section 503(a) of title 17, United 15 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 16 ''(a)(1) At any time while an action under this title 17 is pending, the court may order the impounding, on such 18 terms as it may deem reasonable-- 19 ''(A) of all copies or phonorecords claimed to 20 have been made or used in violation of the exclusive 21 right of the copyright owner; 22 ''(B) of all plates, molds, matrices, masters, 23 tapes, film negatives, or other articles by means of 24 which such copies of phonorecords may be repro25 duced; and 6 O:\GRA\GRA08B64.xml S.L.C. 1 ''(C) of records documenting the manufacture, 2 sale, or receipt of things involved in any such viola3 tion, provided that any records seized under this 4 subparagraph shall be taken into the custody of the 5 court." Which means they can impound your computer AND all your discs anytime the MPAA and RIAA feel like coming after you, though it'll prolly only be if you attract major attention to yourself by putting your entire music & video library on YouTube for everyone to download, or more likely Only If the label in question is targeting copies of specific albums or movies, they don't have time to chase down every Joe & Jane mp3er that rips a cd (Notice, for example, how WB DRM encodes every DVD & CD it presses, while most others don't even bother. Though, with WMP 11's spyware, that could change....) "For purposes of this title, the term ''intellectual prop11 erty enforcement'' means matters relating to the enforce12 ment of laws protecting copyrights, patents, trademarks, 13 other forms of intellectual property, and trade secrets, 14 both in the United States and abroad, including in par15 ticular matters relating to combating counterfeit and in16 fringed goods." Which, especially while it's so new a thing to the beaureaucracy, it can mean what whomever is making the decisions wants it to mean. Just as it always has. Lawyers wrote it, and lawyers will decide who gets gone after. Though, except for changing 'offense' to 'felony offense' and adding the undefined 'intellectual property' to the general category of more substantial (aka actual material goods), it doesn't seem to do anything except satisfy the lawyers so that they can go and satisfy their clients that they're on top of things. The only substantial section in this refers to: " ''The Secretary of Homeland Security shall issue regula23 tions by which any performer may, upon payment of a 24 specified fee, be entitled to notification by United States 25 Customs and Border Protection of the importation of cop14 O:\GRA\GRA08B64.xml S.L.C. 1 ies or phonorecords that appear to consist of unauthorized 2 fixations of the sounds or sounds and images of a live mu3 sical performance.''. Importation? That would be difficult to apply, at best. And Customs has bigger fish to fry than GI Joe coming home with bootleg tapes (or now CDs) he bought from a music store in Dubai or Qatar while on liberty during a deployment overseas; back when cassettes were the preferred media, EVERY copy you could lay your hands on over there was an illegal copy. I don't know of any occurrence where Customs officials actually went through the belongings of an entire troop or ship's company and confiscated every tape or disc that was clearly not pressed by the label. In sum, it's just more legalese to make conditions mean whatever they want when the time is right. Cuz there are far too many little fish in the sea to even begin to take them all on and deprive everyone of our PCs, MP3 players, and all our files and copies.
.
The production budget for WALL-E was $180 million.
If you know a congressman who doesn't like to see hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in clean industry, skilled labor and high-paying jobs in his home district, I would very much like to meet him.
I doubt you are going to find him in California, New York, or Florida - not in this election and not in an economy where every export dollar matters.
This is what happens when you appoint a Czar.. a fuckin' WAR is declared and any allusions that people have about their rights go quickly out the window.
Well, the only saving grace here is that the Justice Department (who, after all will be responsible for prosecuting these "cases") is dead set against it. As they said in their rather concise letter to Congress, they have better things to do with their time and our money.
... music lovers?! Huh. Just wait until all the voting public using P2P realize that they're now subject to criminal prosecution. It's gonna get ugly: they're making yet another run at Prohibition, and it didn't work the first time.
... but this is going to be different. It will have to be higher profile if it is going to have the desired effect: keeping it out of the public's eye won't do any good at all.
All in all, I have the feeling this probably won't go anywhere. If they start successfully screwing over too many people it's going to be political dynamite. Most likely this is just a step up in the RIAA's terror campaign, "Okay, so maybe you weren't afraid of us, but we're betting that you're just terrified of the United States Federal Government, so there!" This is one of those things for which you're not going to find much popular support. Drug dealers? Sure, why not: nobody likes them (even if they are supposed to have the same civil liberties as everyone else.) But
So, they'd better play this very carefully. Not too many people are aware of the DMCA, or it's implications
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
At this point, our best hope would appear to be to hope that someone sensible like Laurence Lessig or William Patry gets appointed
I hope you're kidding. In case you've been asleep for 8 years, the US has gone further and further towards Big Brother to the point where having our rights suspended in a city where there's a Republican National Convention is no longer shocking. Whoever is appointed to this post will be as dumb, vicious, and bloodthirsty as possible. I mean, really, do you think for a second that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are going to appoint someone like Lessig?
No, they'll pick someone who is about law enforcement and headlines. Somebody who probably works or worked as a lawyer for the MPAA or RIAA. It's going to be a real shitstorm. Expect to see new, harsher mandatory sentence laws passed soon. There's money in prisons and fines!
I don't respond to AC's.
I think it's time we all go to our local Congressman's house, ring the doorbell ... and piss on his foot.
They've sure been dumping on us lately.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I thought the same thing! But look at how much of our taxes go to fund that absolutely unwinable stupid war on drugs. It's supply and demand, and we've got so much demand that there is no way it'll ever be stopped. Now, if you let some farmers grow it, and taxed the hell out of it, the farmers and the government would be making the cash, instead of some more nefarious groups.
Several years back, when there seemed like a groundswell to legalize marijuana, I told my wife it'd never happen. If you grow/sell marijuana and make many millions of dollars off essentially a weed, wouldn't you be tempted to spend a few millions on "anti-drug" ads on American TV to ensure your profits? If everyone could grow pot in their yards...the cost would be about $1 a pound, so a few million donated to antidrug campaigns is well spent by the growers and dealers.
Man that's a lot of trouble to go through just because I downloaded Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On".
Can I bum a sig?
btw, all, sorry about the format, just copied and pasted the pertinent sections w/o editing.
Don't worry, look how successful the Drugs Czar is. Money well spent.
The lesson I've learned is to become a Copyright Blackwater - aka overpriced civilian contractor raking in taxpayer bucks in a fashion that just perpetuates the conflict and guarantees me a steady income.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
There is no damage.
In what jurisdiction? This article is about the United States, whose copyright statute assumes damages of at least $750 for even unwillful infringement. See 17 USC 504(c), even the version in effect before this act was signed.
>a fuckin' WAR is declared and any allusions that people have
I think you should be alluding to illusions, not allusions :)
HTH. HAND.
Or are we going to keep complaining that copyright law gets worse each passing year?
Nerds are going to have to start running for office to get this fixed. I'd rather not have to do it myself, but as my sig indicates, I've got the spare time.
Well, Abe, this shows that our government is clearly now of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.
The lovely bill was signed by what is likely the most corrupt president since Andrew Jackson. Ironically, he is from your party, the Republicans (you were the first elected Republican president). And the republicans were formed by former members of the Whig party, which existed to fight the tyranny of Jackson.
What would you say if you were here today, Abe? Is this what America has been fighting for?
Did you just tell us to think of the children?
I can't change my tastes based on who owns what
You've just described one reason why Linux has failed to gain wide deployment on home PCs.
Open source advocates believe in free software for all
But who believes in free works other than software for all? Entertainment works under Creative Commons licenses haven't got nearly the publicity that computer programs under a free software license have.
It ALSO rests with Bush.
This has been the pattern: One party (President or Congress) proposes something controversial. The other party says "No". The first party modifies the proposal to include even more garbage, as a stipulation to the other party. Second party relents and passes it.
It is a recipe for disaster, and I have been saying that for 12 years now.
Will schools start having Copyright people come to schools and talk to students about the wrongs of copyright violation?
Can I bum a sig?
We've all been criminals for a long, long time. It's just that nobody has bothered to prosecute us yet.
Oh, yeah, way to go! You just go right ahead and give them a reason to put the hammer down!
My blog
Extradition is not a magic teleportation to another country, it must be justified.
Two standards must be met before someone may be extradited.
There must be enough evidence against the accused so that its likely a conviction could be reached, and most importantly in this case;
Condition number two.
It must be shown that extraditing the accused serves justice.
This one is most notably brought up for people being extradited for capital crimes. If its likely you will receive the death penalty if extradited and the country your currently in does not have one. They will not extradite you, because it does not serve justice.
The same applies for any crime, but becomes harder to demonstrate by the defence as the crimes become lesser.
But it's important here because while the EU is slowly reforming its IP laws to more sane standards in this age, the US seems to be regressing them. And if the country your in doesn't think its a crime you ain't going anywhere.
Whats going to happen now is that the US and the EU will move further and further apart on this and sooner or later US patents won't automatically be valid anywhere, the country will get a reputation for foolhardy IP laws and they'll make coporations go through local application processes before they recognize their copyright/patent.
> I mean, really, do you think for a second that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are going to appoint someone like Lessig?
Of course not! But as the article says, Bush probably won't have time to appoint anyone, anyhow (he only has about 3 months left). And even if Bush appointed someone, it's a cabinet position, so they'll get replaced in January. In other words, the next president will appoint someone, and there's a 95% chance that the next president will be Obama. Who has been known to consult with Laurence Lessig, BTW. And anyone who wouldn't consider William Patry for the job is probably crazy, given how much he knows (whether Patry would accept is a completely different matter...).
Honestly, at this point we're BONED as far as law goes. The best we can do is hope we get a non-crazy person as the Czar to buy a 4-year reprieve and hope that budget cuts cause them to axe some of this nonsense, because government has a tendency to grow in order to justify its own existence and I don't even want to think about what kind of empire building they'd do.
We could do far, far worse than Patry & Lessig if the MAFIAA were to lobby and get someone cut from the same cloth as Hillary Rosen or Jack Valenti in there. The best move I can find is to rally behind someone so that WE get to choose the IP Czar, rather than Hollywood.
- I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
See this post, defending Obama's vote for telecom immunity: http://www.lessig.org/blog/2008/07/the_immunity_hysteria.html Furthermore, he supports enforcement of copyright law (always has, although is concerned about its reach and absolutely against its retroactive extension).
Just think of how powerful the prison guards' union will be...
"How long are you in for, comrade?"
"Eight years."
"What are you in for?"
"Nothing, nothing at all."
"Lies. The penalty for nothing is ten years!"
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
...to abolish "civil forfeiture". It's bad enough when it happens to someone falsely accused in a drug case, or even acquitted. Expansion of CF? Absolute oppression. No other way to put it. I understand that you probably need to have *some* civil law apart from criminal law; but I think that if the founders knew that impoverishment was being used as "the next best thing" to imprisonment, they'd be turning in their graves.
At a time when the decline of property values has caused so much trouble; expansion of CF makes no sense at all. I know that as I've considered investing in property, the possibility of CF has given me serious pause. I don't do drugs; but what if my tenant does? And then they come along and, without the stricter standards of a criminal case, they deprive me of the property. Now I have to worry if the tenant is a warez guy? Maybe there's a way to insure against CF, but then that's just one more thing that cuts into the bottom line for an investor.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
.
The criminal trial won't be based on a single download.
It will be based on behavior that exposed a lot of traffic in movies and music that could be traced to your account.
Traffic that could - let us say - be monitored more closely and with more sophisticated tools under a warrant.
The standard for conviction is guilt beyond a "reasonable" doubt.
The danger for the geek lies in over-confidence and a tendency to spin out theories that are increasingly implausible - as if every argument had equal value.
I think at this point I only read /. to depress myself thinking about the affairs of government.
Well, President Bush did sign it into law....BUT remember, the President makes NO laws whatsoever. He only signs them in.
If you really don't like this, and I don't either...look to your state's representatives and senators in congress up there.
They came up with the law...debated it and still passed it on to the president to sign.
I'm guessing BOTH of our lovely parties had people voting for this.
Any idea which way our presidential candidates voted? If I had to take a guess...I'd guess both McCain and Obama voted yea.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
You know what? I'm actually happy now. The government did something for me, for once.
They listened when I said we need to mass-educate the population about the DMCA and just how bad it is; now they're implementing a program to do it.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
In case there are any more Pollyannas out there...
Reading all of the gloom and doom in the comments, I began to think that there's no way this act could be so bad. I mean, wouldn't this provide the government with more knowledge and power to defend my fair use if I referenced a Disney movie on Slashdot and big brother wanted to sue the everloving snot out of me for it? If it's my tax money paying for this, shouldn't I get some protection out of it? IANAL, but a quick search of the act for 'fair use', 'public domain', and 'commons' soundly tells me no.
I would like to remind everyone that EFF donations are tax deductible.
reasonable doubt just link to the list of mess ups of where they got the wrong guy. Some times the cable can't even get the right channels that you are paying to work on your cable box. Some you get channels that you are not paying for and some times you don't get the ones you are paying for.
Cable boxes have build cable modems and they do get a IP as well.
That, and to remind myself that there are other people out there who are as depressed as me about the affairs of government.
Police make money by busting criminals. If the laws are such that everyone is a criminal, the police have an easy job.
Ca Ching!
What? ®
You know what? I'm actually happy now. The government did something for me, for once.
They listened when I said we need to mass-educate the population about the DMCA and just how bad it is; now they're implementing a program to do it.
That they have. Of course, it's going to be one expensive damn program, and like your sig says ... I hope we survive the experience.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
It's all the property they have left, so they defend it to the teeth.
We've all been criminals for a long, long time. It's just that nobody has bothered to prosecute us yet.
Sure they did. Our British government tried its best to prosecute us. We shot at them. That used to be feasible.
I think that our only hope now is to fission into "Jesusland" and "The United States of Canada" (aka the 13th province).
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
"unfortunately, we're talking about an unelected bureaucrat, not a real Czar."
The real Czars weren't elected either...
Cue the "In (pre) soviet Russia " jokes..
I believe the term Czar (later spelt Tsar) comes from the name Caesar - which orriginally was the given name of the first Roman emperor (Gaius Julius), and only became a 'Title' when adopted by his Nephew (Gaius Octavius - AKA Augustus)
"Mark my words. A lot of families will suffer terribly because of this."
But somehow, not enough to cause an uproar. They learned a valuable lesson from Prohibition: Don't have too many high-profile raids.
And a corollary: People who think they can "buy" other people's stuff for way less than it's worth probably won't protest reason too much.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
We've all been criminals for a long, long time. It's just that nobody has bothered to prosecute us yet.
Sure they did. Our British government tried its best to prosecute us. We shot at them. That used to be feasible.
I think that our only hope now is to fission into "Jesusland" and "The United States of Canada" (aka the 13th province).
Hm ... Jesusland sounds like a Bible-belt amusement park (which isn't, perhaps, so far from the truth.)
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Hmm. The fact that you seem to think that getting informed about things that you do not know is "too much work to go through" to be entertained makes a rather painful image of you... :/
As much as I dislike Chimpy McDictator, Bush did no such thing and you know that very well. That article is, to put it bluntly, crap.
You're just karma whoring and desperately hoping that people will forget what you do around here. And you're not exactly helping yourself anyway.
Sorry, I just got finished reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and am feeling overly paranoid. I used to laugh at the idea of having copyright cops who would go around and arrest kids who had pirated music on their iPods, but it seems that day is growing ever nearer. Am I the only one who feels helpless against this growing insanity of the *AA controlled congress?
Ones that don't have extradition agreements with the United States.
And good highspeed internet!
You fool! x is anti-somethingyoulove and pro-somethingyouhate! Vote y!
Prohibition I: Alcohol. Failed.
Prohibition II: Every other drug not already immensely profitable, like cigarettes. Civil law suspended, Constitution suspended permanently.
Prohibition III: Possessing imaginary property. Direct takeover of Federal and local law enforcement by corporations. Now government directly monitors home activity of the citizenry for the corporations. You know, all those processor ID's and MAC addresses that people laughed at the paranoid for going on about? The future is here.
And a "-1, bashing twitter for no good reason" moderation. I'm all for nuking his karma further into oblivion, but it simply adds nothing for ACs to troll him... especially when he doesn't actually say anything particularly stupid or abusive (like the post above).
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
Ask yourself if he wasn't right: Does your local department store not stock blank DVD's and CD's in bare pallets of 100 packs because they move too fast to put on the shelves? Do you know anybody who doesn't have an MP3 player large enough to store more music than they can afford to buy? Is there not a vast network of servers from which any copyrighted work extant can be received without compensation for the creator, available in nearly every home?
By making stupid laws that should not and will not be obeyed and cannot be enforced we train the citizen from his youth to scoff at the law. That is far more damage than even the most egregious piracy can cause - it's promotion of anarchy. It would be better to do away with copyright entirely than to do further damage to social order.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Saint Nick has to be the biggest damn infringer of all. Where does he get the IP rights to make all those cool toys without license fees? I wonder when Disney will do a flick to "fix" this perceptions... and Disney does do stuff like this quite a bit.
Man that's a lot of trouble to go through just because I downloaded Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On".
There can be no punishment that is worse than the crime itself. Surely you must be allowed to go free.
I nominate RMS... the payback would be a bitch!
Oh yeah, it's a living hell here in Australia.
Can't stop to talk more, the weather's heating up and we're all off to the beach now, then maybe a barbeque later. We'll throw a prawn on for you.
I hope your analogy is wrong .... do you remember what happened to the communists?
I wonder how many people will have their computers stolen by the RIAA before someone tapes a cellphone bomb inside one. Maybe they would think twice when a van full of "copyright enforcement agents" was exploded in a public place :\
A lot of countries do that sort of thing. Ireland for example rarely extradites to the US, and Brazil won't extradite criminals to the US unless the death penalty is off the table.
That's all well and good for citizens of those nations, but when we're talking about our citizens it's our prerogative to punish them however we see fit. It's bad when we interfere in the justice system in other countries, but somehow when the situation is reversed suddenly it becomes OK to meddle.
Your post is harder to read than the damn law.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
Which of course won't stop the Alphabet Agencies from kidnapping you from said non-extradition treaty country if they deem it a Good Thing. Remember Panama? Sure, Noriega was a scumbag that the United States put in power, but sending armed men across borders to forcibly remove him at gunpoint wasn't the height of diplomacy, it was outright invasion.
Outside of the UK, Afghanistan ('friendly' government installed at gunpoint by the US), and Iraq (see 'Afghanistan'), that's just about everywhere on the planet.
No, this is just a bait and switch from the Powers That Be to draw attention away from the fact that we're in a depression. It gives said Powers That Be the excuse to squeeze yet more taxes, spend more money, and do nothing but make examples of people who do not have the means to fight back without the ancillary effect of making a certain class of criminals ('drug dealers') rich in the process.
And of course, it has the Seal of Approval from the Senator from Disney.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
well its obvious that you sir are a liar! the only thing in Australia is evil 27 foot kangaroos and wombats that are very fond of eating babies! everyone knows that
I'm old enough to remember when this would have been assumed to be a Russian joke. Now it's an American joke.
/.is against patents.
An abuse of presumed legal power.
This should be abolished in the first month
of the Obama Administration.
Wait a minute........
FTFB: "Copyright infringement is a felony"
If I steal a CD from a store that is a misdemeanor....
If I download a song...THAT IS A FELONY?!?!?!?!?
WTF?!!?!?!?!?
Don't worry. They are already have massive surveillance in place. It won't be hard to pick out the offenders. I think we need to start looking at the RIAA under RICO statutes.
Aren't the jails already full of non-violent drug offenders???
Disgusting. How much longer before we can convince the nation to pick up some rifles and march to DC?
zosxavius photography
So by making copyright infringement a felony they can remove the right to vote (and own guns) from any one who is convicted of copyright infringement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
There is an easy way to bring about a revolution in IP laws.
Make every copyright holder enforce their IP rights through the courts for
EVERY infringement that they become aware of, otherwise their claim to that
IP is null and void.
In essense, this would force the RIAA and MPAA etc, to sue for every breach
of copyright they know about (eg. the Senators daughter, the Fortune 500 CEOs son etc)
- to the point where the general public is forced to wake up to the faults of the
system and demand change.
At the moment, these bodies can selectively sue whoever they want as a show of
strength, but by and large leave the masses alone. As a result, they pick and
choose which infringements they want to fight for to ram home the message.
A case in point - under Australian law, it is still technically illegal to make a
copy of copyright content YOU OWN. As such EVERY iPod and MP3 player in Australia
(and probably every PC and laptop) contains illegal music. But are the music companies
enforcing this ?? No. Its not in their best interests to highlight the fact that you
can't legally copy a CD that you legally bought, to your MP3 player or a backup.
Well if your concerns are about being able to download stuff without worry, then China is great. It's funny that I feel safer here than in a western country at the moment. Sure China has many problems, but I don't feel that I'm at risk of being imprisoned for downloading a video.
Fine, twittter has made some enemies because he plays the multiple accounts game and is paranoid/delusional. But, his post was on-topic and original. Yours was off-topic and redundant.
twitter +1
GigaplexNZ -1
I think this is why in other countries you have publicly funded elections and laws that control how the media handles the elections.
....just like when the drug czar was appointed over the War On Drugs and now illegal drugs are impossible to find...
FreeBSD for the impatient.
So yes ths bill is awful. The Civil Forfeture provisions alone are foul let alone the Czar. While it may not roll things back overnight here is something simple that you can each do.
1) Find your senator/representative on the list of supporters (see below)
2) Call their office or contact them via the Senate and House websites.
3) Ask them why they voted for the bill. If their response does not convince you politely explain that this is an awful bill and one that has cost them your vote. Inform them politely that you will not vote for them or donate money to their campaigns again.
4) Repeat.
I would be shocked if any of them read this bill or have a reason for voting other than that they were in favor of good stuff. But the act of informing them that you will not support them because of it makes the point.
For those of you not in the U.S. I would recommend contacting your representatives with the message that you will not back them if they consider a stunt like this.
Now the Senators who voted in favor are here.
The house members in favor of the PRORIP act which became this are here
Anyone remember this..?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dont_copy_that_floppy
The video was produced by the S.P.A. and distributed to schools as part of a propaganda campaign!
Of course, nowadays the kids would just ask, "WTF is a floppy??"
It is a sad day for the freedom of information.
So leaving aside the existence of the Libertarian and green parties lets focus on who we are talking about. Yes it is a two-party system. Where I live it is just the Machine.
But that does not mean that there isn't choice. While the two parties have locked down the presidential race and most congressional races to a pathetic joke many many local positions, many of the positions that govern day-to-day things like taxes and education (most of which are due to state and local activities) are far more open.
And, in many states the presence or absence of third parties on larger races is based upon or at least influenced by the presence of third-party individuals in local positions.
Thus while you may not get a wide choice for president you can choose to vote for the green party candidate for school board or mayor or county official, etc. Supporting outsiders at this level is both tangible and a tractable motion towards wider choice at higher levels.
While you are at it you might push for wider ballot access laws in your area. Maryland's law is a nice model. My point being that while you are right about the corporate asskissers simply sitting back and noting that it is a two party system does not change it, making your votes contingent on changing things does.
I've done some research and it appears that out of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain and Sarah Palin none of them bothered to vote on it.
OK... Palin's my least favorite from that list. But blaming her for not voting on that bill is more than a little unfair.
You do realize that she's neither a senator nor a representative, right?
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
I'm pretty sure that's from Solzenitzen's The First Circle. I'm reading it now - a great work that is very relevant for our authoritarian/socialist times.
Whatever "lobbying" was being done previously, it seems to have been completely effective. Many countries have signed, without dispute, so-called "free" trade agreements which essentially codify every US-corporate-friendly dream that could be devised by the Bushites - including DMCA-ish and software patent provisions, to speak of 2 issues in the IT area. In non-IT areas, similar capitulations are even worse. Pharmaceuticals, agriculture, all get twisted into poisonous American corporatised pretzels, to pave the way for overpriced patent drugs and monstrosities such as GM products (which should be flat-out illegal anywhere). It's as if the "sovereign" countries didn't even read the agreements, let alone take heed of the public outry that always accompanies them.
It must be so easy for them, when the signatories are Bush-puppet governments such as the Howard government in Australia (thankfully rejected at last) and Harper (which malignancy we should pray is thrown out tomorrow, or at least held safely to a minority).
Let's be honest. "Globalisation" never meant anything more or less than "America buys your stuff cheap, you buy America's stuff dear". The world does not need Wal-Mart, Microsoft, McDonald's, or any other substandard, exploitative American brand. The height of absurdity is Wal-Mart selling rice to Indians. What do the Wal-Marts in China sell? Crappy plastic Chinese crap back to the Chinese? The whole concept is absurd. What is Wal-Mart even doing in Canada?
The ultimate irony is that those tilting the playing field towards the USA, and who would most vehemently deny the insuperable insult to sovereignty that these agreements represent, also claim to believe in a "free market" - the Bushites, the Reaganites, the Friedmanites, the corrupt fuckwads, the ignorant lying Sarah and Todd Palins, the criminal Cons and neo-Cons whose chickens, we hope, are coming home to roost at last. If you're wondering why you're having trouble competing - maybe it's because you're not competitive! Top example - Microsoft can't compete on merit. They have to be anti-competitive; and you betcha they love them some FTA help. Pity they got caught at it.
But perhaps as the world wises the hell up, we finally see some logic in Bush's response: More lobbying. "Bring it on", in the Texan moron's famous catchphrase: Just expect more pushback!
But we'd prefer if you'd just Bugger off.
you had me at #!
People need to think logically, and vote their hearts.
Impossible. They are usually at odds. For an example, try to fall in love with someone based on a rational argument of what positive qualities they possess. You will not succeed. You will instead fall in love with a total nutcase, nine times out of ten.
Them's the breaks. The heart does not submit to reason. Politicians know this, too. They're actors first and foremost. Each and every one.
And this means eliminating someone as a possible voting choice when they see them do something foolish.
Also impossible. It's been Red vs. Blue now for decades. Nobody thinks anymore. Politics has become a sporting match. Doesn't matter what anyone says or does - you just want your side to win.
Besides, you aren't allowed politically to pick and choose good ideas from either "side". If you're for gun control it's assumed you also think global warming is man-made. They are two entirely unrelated ideas, but the left-side claims them both, so someone from the right-side cannot claim either. They must say they are against gun control and they think global warming is nonsense.
A candidate that came along and actually spoke their mind rather than quote the party line would probably at this point make people's heads explode. They would see it as impossible. Like saying it's day and night at the same time.
In short, they have us trained. Pick a side and line up. And for God's sake don't reach any of your own conclusions. If you're on this side, your position on topic X is Y. If you're on the other side, your position on topic X must therefore be !Y.
It's hideous, really. Both major parties don't do jack for the people. Remember when everyone got all happy that the Democrats won Congress, and finally something would put a stop to W's free ride? What happened? First thing Congress did was roll over and take it up the tailpipe about warrentless wiretapping. "Oh sure, that's ok, especially since it was just this once. No problem W, carry on."
Same horseshit, different crew. Doesn't matter who gets voted in anymore. Big business lobbies to get what it wants, and both Red and Blue will bow before Green.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
In Soviet America, Russian joke become American joke.
Criminalization of common activities just makes beautiful pretense for the ostracism/incarceration of political/social enemies. Piracy is now more popular than ever. Piracy is now more illegal than ever. How many freedoms has the war on drugs taken?
Well, that's pretty stupid: I just said I didn't have much free time. I used to download indie music, doing so involves sorting through a lot of crap that is indie only because it was too bad to get signed. Why subject myself to that?
I'd say donate to the EFF, but it's only a matter of time before you get your assets frozen for funding a terrorist organization.
So... with the Drug Czar we have a "War on Drugs". Does it mean we can safely label this new campaign a "War on Intellect"?
While you may have a point, the American people general get to choose between Satan and the Devil. Gore was the last legitimate presidential candidate the country had available to them and the bitch of that was that he was too young and too arrogant. I personally blame him and his damn pride for much of what's happened over the past 8 years. If he could have just treated the average American (in other words frigging idiots) with a little more respect instead of insinuating that they were all morons, he would have taken office.
Then we had Kerry. Let's face it, Dukakis is the only person happy he ran since now the jokes about "Worst Presidential Candidate Ever" are no focused on Kerry instead of Dukakis.
The biggest problem is, for an intelligent candidate with morals to make it to the presidential ballad, they have to first be a vice president. The reason for this is that you have to be a pretty slimy kind of person to weasle your way up the political ladder and make it into a position of power strong enough to get on the ballad without having been carried up on someone elses coat tails.
People can say the two party system is flawed, but in reality, in a country the size of the US, the alternative systems would be just as bad if not considered ENTIRELY scandalous. In some countries, a candidate can win 45% of all the votes with the next runner up winning only 20%, but after the win, if enough competing parties can ally themselves to add up to 46% of the vote, then they can choose a new president or prime minister without consulting the people.
If the Americans had a system where this would work, it would probably result in constant presidential assassination attempts. Especially when you find the party you voted for grouping with the party you were in fact voting against and allowing that party to provide the executive leadership.
The world's full of presidents. And lots of /. readers aren't in the US, believe it or not. So can i suggest an improved title for this post?
How about
"US President Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar"
Since a lack of a vote is equivalent to a "No" vote, this makes Obama, McCain, and Biden about the only senators who don't deserve to get run out of office on a rail. I, for one, will not be voting for any Senator or Representative who voted for this bill come November, and I urge you all to do the same. Since our voices were not heard when we urged our reps and senators to vote against this bill, the only way remaining for our voices to be heard is via the ballot box.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Quoth TFS: Still, the final legislation [CC] (PDF) creates new classes of felony criminal copyright infringement, adds civil forfeiture provisions that incorporate by reference parts of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, and directs the Copyright Czar to lobby foreign governments to adopt stronger IP laws.
Sorry guys, but it's getting far enough for me to really hope that the USA as an economic superpower collapse on themselves, even if that means 300 million people end up in relative poverty. I don't see why the rest of the world should suffer from the broken American democracy any longer.
I mean, it's not like your politicians only ruin your own country, they use trade agreements to push their bullshit legislation onto other countries as well. I don't want legislation without representation. Give Europe a couple dozen seats in Congress and we can talk about a little legal exchange, but I'm not keen about you buying laws over here with nothing but the promise of worthless US$.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
http://www.fff.org/comment/ed0900e.asp "When Congress enacted a law in 1982 that created a drug czar, President Reagan scorned the provision: "The creation of another layer of bureaucracy within the Executive Branch would produce friction, disrupt effective law enforcement, and could threaten the integrity of criminal investigations and prosecutions.⦠The so-called "drug Czar" provision was enacted hastily without thoughtful debate and without benefit of any hearings." and... "In recent years, Americans have also been blessed with a "health-care czar" (Ira Magaziner in 1993), an "AIDS czar" (various political appointees since 1993), and endless local "zoning czars" and "land-use czars." But no matter how many czars are appointed, it is never enough. A government advisory panel in 1998 called for the appointment of a "food czar" to "oversee the patchwork of food safety regulations." Technology overpowered another corrupt industry. Give it up already.
controlled conditions
so, noone is getting shot, right?
"The United States maintains diplomatic relations, but does not have extradition treaties with the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Chad, China (People's Republic of China), the Union of the Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Cote d' Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mali, the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, the Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Oman, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé & PrÃncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe... The countries which have neither diplomatic relations nor extradition treaties with the U.S. are: Bhutan, Iran, North Korea, and Taiwan (which the United States does not consider a country under the One-China policy)."
There are several exceptions, true, but for the most part he's right. Would you seriously prefer to live in Ethiopia than the USA? Bosnia-Herzegovenia? Lebanon? Maybe you could move to Iran to make sure there's even less of a chance. Oh wait...
It's pretty hard to escape the clutches of the USA when those are your only options.
We've all been criminals for a long, long time. It's just that nobody has bothered to prosecute us yet.
Thanks so much for ruining my hobby.
Nominate Richard Stallman as copyright czar! Let EFF win!
Facts:
1. Downloading copyrighted music is now a felony
2. Most citizens in California have downloaded 3+ mp3s.
3. The RIAA (and by extension the justice department) considers downloading music to be a serious crime.
Therefore it stands to reason that most Californians now fall under California's notorious Three Strikes Law.
Don't drop the soap!
Damn, andorra is gonna get full fast ;)
Make a man a fire and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life
In fact, we're all criminals, If you have a bank account, own a car, ever used a water toilet, swatted a bug, picked your nose, looked at someone else's wife or imagined how cool it would be to be someone else you are a criminal in some sense. Everyone has done something that offends people. It always depends on what kind of dimwit makes the laws. What's legal here might be a crime somewhere else. Unfortunately the Americans have spend a huge portion of their country's history figuring out the most effective way of fucking each other out of money over pretentious unimportant bullshit. That's why they don't know smack about foreign relations or social stability because they're too busy screwing each other over. And yes, you did some great things for the world, but then you kept bragging about it until everybody hated you again.
Sure they're only about 250 years old but one still could assume that they would learn from their mistakes.
And what will you be saying a year from now after this program is in full swing and absolutely nothing has changed except perhaps a more apathetic population that go about saying "Fair Use was stealing anyway. That's all I can say or they'll drag me away now please leave."
In the years I've been reading slashdot and all the BS the american population has swallowed has pretty much convinced me that NOTHING will save you, least of all yourselves. :/
But you'll not be allowed to talk about it since it's copyrighted ...
The reason they are doing all this to us with respect to copyrights, jails, etc, is money.
They want money, we need a better system, so how about combining those into a solution.
If we change the system so its profitable to change it, then
everybody can benefit.
How?
The land can be divided into independently operated economic regions.
All regions compete to offer you higher pay rates and the best lifestyle.
If a region doesnt keep up, then it goes out of business and the land becomes part of one of the more popular regions.
This kind of competition will quickly result in all regions
having to improve conditions for all of us people.
Some regions can be run by companies like JCPenney or Google,
because companies know how to compete and improve themselves
and offer you better service.
Companies would invest a lot of money into these regions, knowing they would get a return on their investment,
so we could get sustainable regions that use
only renewable nonpolluting energy.
Private companies are much more efficient at doing things
like this, compared with the bureaucracy we are suffering with today.
We are in a "race to the bottom" now,
where jobs often go to the third world where labor is cheaper.
Todays system doesnt seem to care much about human rights or lifestyle.
Regions could start a "race to the top", because regions must make living conditions as good as possible so the region can stay popular and stay in business.
Regions are primarily for the people,
since people choose which regions win.
Competition has already been proven to work, where it is used,
such as in stores.
Now we need to apply competition to all aspects of our lives,
so everything will work better.
There are a lot of important details that are left out of this
brief summary. Before you think this plan wont work, please read the details at the group listed below, that show how this will work.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/end_world_suffering
... to finally emigrate to Sweden. The writing is so clearly on the wall, with both this and the Wall Street Bailout getting rammed through even an allegedly Democratic-controlled Congress. McCain is likely to be worse than Bush, and Obama isn't messianic and nowhere close to revolutionary enough to kick the money changers out of the damned temple. Kucinich would have done it, though. Hell, he's risked his career trying to drive stakes through the hearts of a couple of them (impeachment). Who else had the balls to do that?
This country is irrecoverably ruled by greed and dominated by stupidity now. We The People are too stupid to revolt again as they once did.
That's what she said.
One of the problem for European countries is that the ECHR views assisting in the death penalty (for instance, by extraditing somebody to face it), to be the same as if the country itself killed them.
This doesn't strike me as being a bad thing personally. And what if somebody renounces or surrenders their citizenship, does the US keep its prerogative to punish them however they see fit?
It's a great movie about how insane the drug-war is (And how to make a grow-up and marijuana in general). The police, the criminals and the prison-industry working together to steal common people's money, so that there can be drug-dealers in every corner and enormous amounts of people in prison.
Why should we? Europe has had a couple thousand years to learn from its mistakes, and it's still making them.
The reason people in other countries (and, I might add, not all of them) are irritated with us has little to do with "bragging". Unlike a lot of people who brag, at least we had something to back it up ... no, it comes from half a century of bad foreign policy set by Congress since World War II. People like to blame Presidents, and there's some truth to that, but the reality is that Congress makes laws and treaties, and sets the tone of our interaction with other governments and peoples. So it would be best if you didn't try to simplify the situation by saying, "Oh, it's just cause Americans brag too much." That's irrelevant and serves no purpose.
It would be amazing if Sarah Palin voted for it, seeing as shes only a state governor and not a member of congress or the senate.
I feel like Johnny one-note this month, but this comes from the fact that the government is a couple decades behind in their grasp of copyright and patent law.
Having been sold the notion that what these laws protect is "property" rather than a government-originated monopoly, their critical thinking stops.
If you could convince 'em that abortion was a form of stealing, Roe v Wade would be overturned in a week.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Well, no, not exactly. They know it's a problem. They don't know what they're doing, but they know it's a problem. They also know people downloading MP3s that could have been bought and paid for is also a problem, a problem not entirely disconnected from the US economy.
How exactly do you figure that? If the overhead costs are kept low enough, then increased sales should make up the cost.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
On any bill, I count the lack of a vote as a vote on the side I disagree with the most. It shows a decision to allow a 'pass' on a controversial bill with the resulting effect of allowing them to be on both sides at once. I don't like it, so I count their abstaining vote as the worst case vote unless they have a very good excuse.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Which of course won't stop the Alphabet Agencies from kidnapping you
Um ... I think they're a bit too busy installing dictators to worry about your P2P network.
Back in the 70s the FBI stated that 99.8% of the US population has committed some crime that is worthy of jail time....
With this new IP Czar, the powers that be apparently wanted to nab that last .2%.
"Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain
> 269 comments, and nobody has noticed that Lawrence Lessig's name is misspelled.
Who is John Galt?
oh, wait, we have a clear case of prior usage by the Romans...
never mind...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
n/t.
In Soviet Russia, copyright benefits you!
So what you're saying is "In Soviet America the joke's on you"?
When you have reps stating "I know this will probably hose my chances of re-election, but I'm doing it anyways," and stats/polls showing that citizen opposition was well over half, and yet it got rammed through anyways.
Do you still really think that they're listening to you up on capitol hill?
By I own the copyright on "Fuck this government."
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
Well... Hmmm... Don't ask exactly *how* I know but assuming a 1 lb yield per plant, soil, with tending, peat, fish oil, blood worms, and done in "bulk" it works out to about $14 per plant. Some of those expenses could be lowered if it were to be on your lawn though. You wouldn't need the blood worms to keep the deer out of it and such, the soil might be better and not out in the middle of the woods in a clearing, but I don't think it'd get down to $1/plant unless you were growing on a very large (farm) scale. This, of course, assumes you're doing your own germination process and growth strain and not buying clones but, again, I don't know nuffin' about nuffin'.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
.
I can find no evidence that WALL-E was anything other than 100% American in casting and production. WALL-E
Pixar partners with Maximus to provide RenderMan Training in India [October 5, 2008]
While RenderMan is used in Asia this is the first certified Asian training program in RenderMan.
Roadside Romeo, the first big budget 3D feature in India from Disney/Yashraj has been entirely rendered on RenderMan at VCL. Many other studios are on the verge of adopting RenderMan as their rendering solution.
It's slashdot.org. Not slashdot.co.uk (or whoever).
i'll tell the girl at the campus bookstore that you were being culturally sensitive. But otherwise, it's a given that a site based in America referring to a president is referring to PotUS. The only time we should specify is if it WASN'T our president. If i say to my friend "add me on Facebook" and my friend is also American, i don't have to specify despite their being other national TLDs. i don't have "i'm going to our mailbox in front of our house", i say "i'm going to check the mail".
Don't take yourself so seriously.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
where its either get pissed off or bend over. Take your choice.
The war is brewing.
Unless Obama wins, and appoints Lessig to the position of "Coyright Czar".
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
Man that's a lot of trouble to go through just because I downloaded Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On".
There can be no punishment that is worse than the crime itself. Surely you must be allowed to go free.
Only if he used headphones otherwise if even one other person was forced to that song he deserves the chair.
Paychecks from Microsoft?
I'm not fan of Palin, but how is she supposed to vote on this, being as she is neither Senator nor Representative?
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
If the overhead costs are kept low enough, then increased sales should make up the cost.
How exactly do you figure that?
I'd like to see some numbers- even out-of-your-ass estimates, that suggest a few more CDs sold will help the economy more than the administrative cost of a crackdown will hurt.
Then show me something you didn't pull out of your ass that suggests sales will increase at all. No matter how loudly the *AA shouts otherwise, history hasn't exactly supported that viewpoint.
"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
By arresting and confiscating the property of people suspected of actual copyright violation without the need for actual evidence, you scare honest people away from legal fair use and creative reuse. And the more rebellious sort will figure they're screwed no matter what, and ignore copyright law completely.
Everybody knows that it's the Dingos that eat babies.
"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
Let's see here - a few more CD's means a few more purchases, with little effort involved. Net gain for the economy. On the other hand, paying salaries to the Copyright Cops and the Copyright Czar to bust a woman in a wheelchair and her 10 year old daughter living on a meager income with little property... equals a net loss for the economy. If a net gain is a positive number, and a net loss is a negative number, isn't a positive number always larger than a negative number?
I didn't even pull this out of my ass... It's just simple Economics 101 and Math 101 for you... In fact, in a basic Macro Economics course, you are taught about the curves that represent the amount of goods sold for a given price, the cost of making a certain number of goods, etc. I don't recall these curves taking into account pirated copies of the copyrighted goods. In fact, those should ALWAYS be ignored except for the purposes of devising a way to turn the infringers into paying customers without the political spin.
Face it, if there's no profit in publishing songs, movies, tv shows, software, or books, then why are they in the business of doing so, and why do they need increased taxpayer subsidized "protection"?
Drug Czar Toppled By Drug Bolsheviks
Thanks to the provision making copyright violations a felony, we won't have too many people left to vote for foolish shit like this.
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
Time to stock up on ammunition.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
1. Countries without extradition treaties to the US, as the act makes pirating a criminal offense - one that you can be extradited for.
2. Countries without friendly relations with the US, as part of this act involves convincing other nations to join.
That's about it on requirements, I think...
On a serious note, it's nice to know that with the economy in the crapper, rather than trying to correct problems with the US banking system, they've instead decided that the US's biggest concern is people downloading MP3s.
Uh, no. The US probably wants to forget that the industrial revolution started in the US thanks to one massive effort in corporate espionage. Cracking down heavily on IP actually harms the economy.
The US has signed its death warrant, again. This act can only hurt the economy, and it really doesn't need to be kicked while its down.
Doesn't need to be kicked while it's down? In whose opinion?
When you're in a position of power where you control the money supply (such as through the fraction reserve system in the United States (which, behind all the smoke and mirrors basically means you have infinite credit, which then in turn means you have an infinite money supply)), what must you do to further your position of power?
It's not like the rest of us, where we work harder in order to get a raise or promotion, or perhaps even pick up a second or third job. As they have a virtually infinite money supply, more money won't help them. So what must you do in that position to further yourself?
Answer?: Hurt people. Cripple people. Stupefy them, fill them with addictions, or in any other way fill them with problems. Problems create a demand for services to said problems, which not only could be argued bolsters the economy, but also significantly increases the currency dependence of the citizenry, as they will need to âoetradeâ to receive said services.
You see, once you have an infinite credit supply, your lowest common denominator is no longer money itself, but peoples' dependence upon money. The last thing you need in a position like that is a free and independent people. So looking at it from another way, how do you make people dependent? The answer is to hurt people, generally speaking. How you do it specifically is up to you; you may be creative about that.
This in mind, take a look around you. Consider everything, and you'll start to see that just about everything is one step forward, two steps back, particularly in regards to freedom and independence (and of course, real freedom cannot exist without independence. Or in other words, real freedom depends upon independence:) When was the last time you spoke to someone who produced their own power, grew their own food, manufactured their own goods, et cera, all at the same time? Probably never.
That should relatively tidily explain all the bad news of the past 4,000-some years.
Ignoring the snide remark for the moment, perhaps there's more at stake here than just "a few CDs". Maybe there are actually hundreds of millions of CD and DVD sales that never happened, because people could subsist on pirated media? Perhaps even much, much more overseas? Perhaps there's enough to offset the costs. Think about it. If the vast array of entertainment were never to fall into the hands of avid pirates, imagine how much they would buy in order to fill the gap. Certain people can't afford to buy too much, but others can. If half the people in the US pirated, and they would have bought, on average, 2 CDs/DVDs over the course of the year, that's 350 million CDs. At about $15-20 a pop, well, you're looking at up to 7 billion per year from the US alone! All numbers directly from my ass, of course.
That makes sense. The unique problems of piracy are relatively new, so your education may not be up to date with present times.
Y'know, for all your inflammatory questions, either they don't make sense in the context, or they have an easy, direct answer. This is a case of the latter. Let me break it down for you: no protection = no profit, protection = profit. It's not normally profitable, which is unusual for something in such high demand, but thanks to protection, profits and incentives can actually more or less match demand and contribution to society.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Need another plan for Idaho. Larry Craig is probably used to his foot getting pissed on.
I've seen a few posts knocking Bush, Cheney, Rove and Republicans in general because we seem to think that government control and fascism is just that, Republican. I take this moment to remind everyone that laws are made by the Legislative branch, not the Executive branch or the Judicial branch. Right now, the Democrats control half that and there is an even split in the other half (unless you consider the two independents ex-Democrats).
I say this not to point fingers at one party or the other but in hope that we might not put too much faith in either party to fix our problems. Right now I am not aware of anyone having a great track record on that front. Sooner or later we are going to have to recognize the problems for what they are and determine a way to fix them that goes beyond voting for our party or griping on slashdot.
Sometimes laws aren't passed to completely outlaw the thing named. Sometimes they're merely looking to slow it down, so the *symptoms* of an epidemic will be mitigated.
Prohibition, in large part, wasn't designed (other than in the lip service and evangalism that got it passed) to outlaw liquor. It was to countermine abuse and rape of women, the lethargy and depression of working people, and overall sluggishness that threatened the long-term economy.
Sure, it didn't *stop* drinking. But it quelled it. It made anyone who did it take it a little slower, since they had to maintain some composure. It steered it into a handful of manageable, back-alley gin joints. The only problem was the organized crime that rose, but since this isn't for-profit, we won't have that issue.
People don't seem to realize, the government isn't trying to *end* file sharing. They're setting up a framework to force workplaces and college campuses to do the enforcement for blocking it, and to make it a lot less obvious. Basically, the equivalent of some speakeasy torrents here and there, but no mp3 drunks laying in the street.
That said, it really sucks that we have an "imaginary property" Czar.
Now everyone's screwed.
In Soviet America, Russia laughs at you!
I just wonder when there will be a +5 Depressing mod for posts like this.
Can't stop to talk more, the weather's heating up and we're all off to the beach now, then maybe a barbeque later
Don't forget to check your shoes with a stick first.
Also, apart from that list, and as others have pointed out, there are countries with extradition treaties that still wouldn't extradite you due to the terms of their extradition treaties.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
And, contrary to what two representatives of Mitsubishi told me in Tokyo in Dec 2004, my drawings are not a problem (at least in 2002/2003) with the US Navy. I don't design in-service, in-commission USN ships, nor do i care to. I design what i hope would in some aspects be BETTER than them.
Having served on a two and toured many more than that before, during and after service, and not as any bonafide naval architect (i hold NO degrees nor credible experience in officially designing modern naval (war)ships, though some people thought i *was* a naval architect, and one of the two men at Mitsubishi seemed to regard me as an industrial spy or someone trying to set them up for copyright law suit...), i set about to create fictional but nearly realistic ships for purposes of story telling. I need realistic equipment locations, fuel capacities, and berthing compartment dispersal, the way ***i*** would build a ship if ***i*** had $1B per copy. The USN's designs hardly interested me after the DDG-51, and i found it offensive that the CG-47 program was so sexy that political decisions were made to deprive the DDG-51 class of the twin hangar bays the FFG-7 class had from the start. Worse, today the DDG-51's hangars look more like an afterthought given the helos straddle the missile launcher aft.
But, i've incorporated into my drawings some features i NOW see are patented by marine engineering/ship construction firms. But, i don't play by those rules. I designed parts of my ideas without reference to some things that popped up after (but not related to my act of showing my works) i did things. Besides, patent all they want. I will just make sure that any detail drawings i make don't mimic the gantries or specific small parts.
But, at least the USN public affairs officer told me i was pretty much in the clear since the US TAXPAYER paid for the design and construction of the ships. But, nowadays, such a statement *might* be called into question, since marine designs sometimes are wholly outsourced and owners only give initial input, with some designers keeping total copyright in the design.
But, there are ONLY so many arrangements that can be conceived that make sense, and if foreign governments and designers are limited by physics or by space limitations, then so am i limited, and therefore, some aspects of copyright law will simply have to yield to common sense and simultaneous invention/design. As long as i'm not designing crypto, nuclear devices, targeting/delivery systems, they better (continue to) leave me alone. Especially since they've for all these years said nothing. Which is what i said in writing when i sold some copies: the USN can either say something or say nothing, and if they say something, they may validate some or many aspects of my work, and if they say nothing, then who knows what they think...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I call it "Digital Prohibition". I expect it to fail in a similar manner.
How? He hasn't even found any.
Well, would you like a list? [Canvassing, yard signs, marching in some parade, cash]
What should I have done to put that list into action when my preferred candidate was mathematically eliminated from the race several weeks before my state held its primary election?
> I mean, really, do you think for a second that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are going to appoint someone like Lessig?
Bush, Cheney & Rove vanish next January. Even if they have time to appoint someone, that person would get replaced by the next administration. There's a virtual guarantee that the next President will be Obama and he's thinking about how to put together his cabinet right now.
So this would be a good time to suggest reasonable people to head this thing. It's going to pump out all sorts of piracy studies. The industry wants it to create more BS economic damage numbers that it can spin. That's why it's VERY important that it have an honest and competent leader, whoever it might be.
I second this, which is why you only ever see me dismantling his posts when he either:
a) Says something abnormally stupid, or
b) Shills himself to oblivion.
Accusing random people of being twitter and flaming him when he actually has a point are not kosher.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
Fair enough, but IMHO, being out on the campaign trail and unable to go back to D.C. to cast your vote would also be a good excuse.... :-)
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Noriega tortured and decapitated people.
The Taliban killed girls for going to school and supported Osama bin Laden.
In Iraq the #2 man for Al-Qaeda was killed by US bombs - if Iraq had nothing to do with terror what the fuck was the #2 man of Al-Qaeda doing there? Huh?!
Other than that - I do agree, IP laws are bullshit, and the US needs to make real goods again. That has already started due to the declining dollar, more things say made in the USA lately.
You are wrong about not making others rich. Piracy rings will get rich, they welcome this if they are high-level enough, because laws like this hurt their competition more than them, and their higher market share more than compensates for the increased risk of doing business.
So long as it doesn't devolve into The OSS socialist union
I mean, stalMin's purges could be much worse.. for malware.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
The bill was quite clear.
he has no access to any government enforcement branches in his "enforcement efforts"
He is only allowed to formulate and suggest policy.
In other words, his department is a redundant second US copyright office.
Additionally, I believe it was wired who looked at the fine print and noted it would be just as much a threat to use the forfeiture clauses on this bill to seize a P2P user's computer as it was under previous law.
All we have here is yet another tax payer funded lobbying firm, which may or may not listen only to the alphabet orgs, just like the US copyright office, or (as a worst case) the USTR.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
All in favor of a campaign of terror against the **AA? Seriously, blow their offices the fuck up.
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
The intention: Since very little is manufactured in the USA any more, one of the few things we have to sell to the outside world is our IP, so we have to protect it.
The Unintended Consequences: As Lawrence Lessig has pointed out, draconian copyright and patent laws are a strong disincentive to building on the works of others, so there will be less IP to sell.
I guess we're sunk.
Watch doctorow's talk on youtube.
Basically, the US is the final dot-com company.
They adopted this strategy during the "irrational exuberance" in the mid-90's when some morons kept saying the "information age" is about "selling bits".
They went about signing FTA's to push our copyright laws overseas while selling out our industrial/manufacturing sectors and opening us up to massive offshoring.
Now we are hemorrhaging wealth at an alarming rate, and we are depending on our already over-extended military budgets to keep a standing army large and advanced enough to invade most nations who scoff at IP.
Of course, this doesn't deter the larger ones unfriendly to us, and we have yet to go to war over this. I predict our bluff will be called in the near future, and IP value over seas will drop significantly.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Without civil forfeiture, the few lawsuits which do go forward against the obscenely wealthy and corporations will yield no damages.
They will simply place all their assets into (insert whatever possession is easy liquidated later on here).
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
to start chanting "Ray Beckerman for Copyright Czar!"?
Laws don't emerge from nothing. Most human behavior is regulated by norms, not laws. When norms are insufficient, we create formal laws. To be legitimate, a law must be supported by norms. The two must evolve together. If the law accords with norms, little enforcement will be needed because people will regulate themselves. We don't need to enforce anti-theft laws against most people because most people are not thieves. We seldom need to enforce laws against murder because most people are not murderers.
If the law is detached from social norms and it cannot be enforced, then it is an unjust law. A few scapegoats are punished while the vast majority get off scott-free. The few who obey the law may be effectively disadvantaged because everyone else is breaking it. Worse, the injustice brings into question the rule of law. The result is an atmosphere of fear, of lawlessness, a breakdown of norms.
That is the situation we have with the attempt to apply copyright to the private activities of individuals. Many (I suspect most) of those who believe they respect a reasonable law in fact break it - and would in fact be astonished to learn its true scope. Think of the politicians who use news clips without permission, or the contractors who listen to the radio while working on a house, or an entire generation who made mix tapes for their friends.
The fact that the penalties for copyright infringement are now so far out of line with the harm done is proof that enforcement is failing. What we have is an attempt by a narrow sector of interests to forcibly overturn existing social norms by crafting unjust laws and applying unreasonable penalties to a few scapegoats. It isn't working. It didn't work when 17th-century France tortured and executed upwards of 1600 people to prevent the import of machine-printed fabric. It didn't work when laborers were declared outlaws for asking for higher wages following the Black Death. It didn't work for Prohibition in the 1920s. It's not working now.
Passed and enforced by whom? If the people don't want them, then pray tell who gets to decide we're going to get them anyway? If we really want these luxuries, then we can decide what we're willing to do to ensure the supply. We can adjust our norms and craft laws so the two are in agreement. The supply we get will be the result of the choices we make. It is absurd dictatorial logic to suggest that people's desires should be paramount, and then turn around and use that as a justification for forcing them to accept what they don't want. (Yes, sometimes we solve collective action problems by passing a law obliging individuals to make a sacrifice. Knowing others will do the same and all will benefit, we accept such laws as reasonable and we obey them. They are supported by norms. Paying taxes, for example. That is clearly not the case here.)
Incidentally, we don't know if or how well copyright works. It seems reasonable that some level of copyright would be encourage creativity, but amazingly we have little or no research to tell us what that level might be (though we do know there's such a thing as too much). I submit this is because those pushing for the law don't care: if they wanted to know, they would find out. They don't want to know. They don't care about promoting creativity or serving consumers. And in fact they aren't.
Yet, this of course assumes that your country is one the US is friendly with, and thay the Czar does his job, and convinces your country to pass a similar law.
Score: 4, Infomative. Lol informative. I didn't realize common sense qualified as informative around here.
Paychecks from Microsoft?
The money helps but its also alot of fun... oh wait... you did that on purpose didn't you ;)
As the AC that started all this I am impressed. It was intentionally as a joke, look at what I wrote
I am supprised twitter that you haven't started refering to America as "U$"
A joke... you get that? Damn you americans can be so thick sometimes... it was a J-O-K-E. And somehow it turned into a flame orgy.
Noriega was a scumbag as are the Taliban and Osama
bin Laden but the US has seen fit for a very long time to support scumbags when it suited their purposes.
Capitol Hill is full of bible thumpers who apparently never bothered to read the Book of Hosea - "For they have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind"
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Palin's vote would not have mattered as she is not part of Congress, but the others didn't vote so they can say they had nothing to do with it/can't take the blame for it.
Thanks for telling me about Little Brother. I'm glued to my monitor reading it. It's so real it makes me nervous. I love it.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
You stock up on ammunition if you want to ... as for me, I'm stocking up on soapboxes.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
The senate bill is S3325.
Posted the wrong links to the votes.
The final house vote as I read it is this one: Number 664.
While with the senate the result is reported by the Thomas.loc.gov history as:
The cosponsors are:
IOf you're offended by this consider this. There are a number of other issues they do not address, vis education, taxation, etc. But somehow in two months the House and Senate went from introducing this bill to passing it.
Incidentally, according to the CBO this bill is estimated to lead to spending up to $429 million over the next four years. So much to budget control.
Oh yeah, it's a living hell here in Australia.
Can't stop to talk more, the weather's heating up and we're all off to the beach now, then maybe a barbeque later. We'll throw a prawn on for you.
We have beaches and nice weather here in the States, too. Surely you can come up with a more substantive reason than that. (I mean, please do - I think some folks around here might appreciate a detailed list of reasons to move out of the US, and where to move to instead...)
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!