Slashdot Mirror
New Bill Ups Punishment For Hosts of Infringing Video Streams
halfEvilTech writes
"Two months ago, the Obama administration asked Congress to make illicit online streaming of copyrighted movies and TV shows a felony. Such a bill has now been introduced by two senators. 'Online streamers can now face up to five years in prison and a fine in cases where: They show 10 or more "public performances" by electronic means in any 180-day period; and the total retail value of those performances tops $2,500 or the cost of licensing such performances is greater than $5,000.'"
If every-time a major corporation leaked my personal data (HI Sony!) they were faced with this same penalty. Per record leaked.
Simple. They have the money to buy politicians. We don't.
And lets face it, in a 2-party system, there is no way in hell activists like us are going to get big 2 party nominations without taking the money from the lobbyists that we would thereby be bound to serve their corporate overlord interests.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I don't think civil v. criminal is as cut-and-dried as you think. If it was, people would not be thrown into prison for smoking a naturally-growing green plant.
The US Constitution (unfortunately) gives the US power to grant monopolies to artists and inventors. Wouldn't infringement on that monopoly be a criminal offense against the US Government?
I think Jefferson had the right idea with his version of the Bill of Rights. He limited the monopoly to ___ years which he suggested should be 14. I agree. If you can't make money off your product during its first 14 years of existence, then too bad. Time to put it in the public domain for the benefit of ALL the people.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Not downloading does not solve the problems of intrusive laws, required record keeping, and misdirected lawsuits.
> not even artificial life-support by governments can buy much more than a temporary stay of execution
> I suspect, in twenty years, RIAA, the MPAA and all these ever-increasingly harsh laws will be history
You are half right. In twenty years the RIAA and MPAA may be history... but those laws giving large corporations and the government the power to monitor everything we do and punish any individual or small business that gets in their way... they will never give up those laws.
And THAT is why Congress is letting the RIAA and MPAA push them around. It's an excuse for both parties to get what they want.
The same thing is going on with the "terrorism" industry.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
I know the Democrats are screwing up here. As a card carrying Dem I'll apologize for my people. Something that would help us help you though is if we could get a more solid base. The Dems are running scared, and they're pandering to Hollywood just to get enough money to fight the good fight.
So we should vote for a party that is willing to compromise its ideals on the vague promise that once they have enough power they will suddenly grow morals?
This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
Why can't that beacon of democracy, the USA, manage to do it?
USA is a "beacon of democracy" due to complete subversion of democracy in it.
I would go further with that, and say that democracy is now completely worthless and its implementation should not be attempted or supported anywhere on its own, because US politicians demonstrated to the whole world how to effectively defeat it and build what amounts to a feudal society while keeping all attributes of democratic institutions and process. It's has an unfixable security bug with known exploit.
At best, "democracy" is now a minor, and optional, part that can be used to implement all kinds of societies -- oppressive or otherwise -- and people should stop sheepishly repeat US propaganda that promotes it as a cure for all social and economic ills.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.