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."

Comments

Re:Fist Prose

[Krneki]

Caribbean Islands, hhaarrrr!

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[mcgrew]

This is offtoic and redundant (so mod me down), but you're saying two things here that I've been trying to get across to people for a long time.

How can someone who is for the drug laws call themselves "pro-choice?" How can someone who is for the death penalty and the war in Afghanistan (let alone Iraq) call themselves "pro-life?" It's a symptom of what is wrong with the US and maybe the whole world - liars run everything.

My smoking of weed while watching said movie also harms no one. It only harms me

I've seen no evidence of it harming anyone. I'm sure that smoking anything isn't good for you, but you can get high eating it. Meanwhile tobacco kills almost every one of its addicts, whether the addict ingests his drug through smoking, snuff, or chew, and it is the most addictive substance on earth. More people die from alcohol overdose than all other drugs combined, and it, too is physically addictive (to the point that withdrawal can kill its addicts).

Nobody ever died from pot, and it is non-addictive. There are no withdrawal symptoms (addiction is a physical component of a drug, anything can be habituating, even orange juice, and I found when I quit cigarettes that the habit was as strong as the addiction). I smoked a bowl Saturday night; someone brought it over, but it was the first I had in a month. I've been smoking pot since 1971 and never had a problem giving it up when I couldn't afford it or when it was otherwise unavailable.

Meanwhile even rehab doesn't seem to help my alcoholic friend Amy, who keeps falling off the wagon. Chris and Robyn, the last two girlfriends I had, are both dying of chirosis.

I know several people who became addicted to crack cocaine thanks to the "war on (some) drugs". Their employers started urine-testing, and since pot stays in your system for over a month while cocaine is washed out in a matter of days, they switched to crack with horrible consequences which included finally losing their jobs anyway and losing everything they owned; cocaine is one very nasty habit.

The drug laws (and prostitution laws) cause the very problems they purport to solve. You can buy pot in any high school in America, but try buying beer in high school!

I predict the same will come from copyright laws; they will cause the very problems they are designed to prevent.

I'll burn a doob for you tonight, electrictoy.