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US Copyright Czar Cozied Up To Content Industry
Nemesisghost writes "According to emails obtained via a Freedom of Information request, the U.S. Copyright Czar played an important role in brokering the deals between ISPs and copyright holders to punish subscribers whose IP addresses participated in copyright infringement. From the article: 'The records show the government clearly had a voice in the closed-door negotiations, though it was not a signatory to the historic accord, which isn’t an actual government policy. ... [T]he communications show that a wide range of officials — from Vice President Joe Biden’s deputy chief of staff Alan Hoffman, the Justice Department’s criminal chief Lanny Breuer to copyright czar Victoria Espinel — were in the loop well ahead of the accord’s unveiling. "These kind of backroom voluntary deals are quite scary, particularly because they are not subject to judicial review. I wanted to find out what role the White House has played in the negotiation, but unfortunately, the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) withheld key documents that would shed further light on it," Soghoian said when asked why he sought the documents.'"
Many government officials go on to become lobbyists. She's just laying the ground work for her next (and much better paying) job.
And you're surprised by this why...? Because it's BHO instead of GWB? Get real!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
And people wonder why we are currently protesting in the streets over corporate greed and its manipulation of our nation's ideals?
When this guy was appointed, was there any doubt in anyone's mind that his SOLE responsibility would be to act as a shill for the big media industry? It's not like anyone believed for a second that he was EVER going to represent consumer interests or the rights of the general citizenry.
Sadly, that doesn't make him any different than the Congress or President. Hell, even the Supreme Court is ruling that corporations have a *right* to bribe as many public officials as they like. If you want to find someone representing the unwashed-masses-without-lobbyists, you'll have to turn to the EFF. The U.S. government is just a corporate subsidiary now.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Well, we went from 8 years of "I can't believe this shit!" to "Change we could believe in." in much the same way like we believe in the tooth fairy or that hard work leads to wealth.
Time to expand the #occupy movement to Hollywood (actually, the RIAA and MPAA HQs are in Washington DC).
You're assuming that "we" can enact legislation. "We" cannot. We can only elect representatives that "we" hope will represent our interests.
But that's not the way it works anymore. Those guys that make legislation only seem to represent big corporate interests, because that's who's funding their re-election campaigns. Then they use that money to make TV commercials that lie to us, telling us to vote for him so he can represent us. Then, when we stupidly elect him, he goes and screws us, and enacts legislation for the interests that really got him re-elected, which is big money.
So "we" really have no voice in government at all. "We" cannot enact legislation, "we" are only subjects to the king and queen -- i.e. big companies.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
When? Never. The foxes will never vote themselves out of the job of guarding the chicken coop.
It's become quite clear int he last few decades that privilege has much more to do with wealth than hard work. Hard work may secure you a living on the upper end of the middle class. A class that is rapidly getting less and less of the pie due to the actions of the privileged.
Hard work gets you a job with absolutely no security. Hard work gets you raises, which makes you a target for downsize because you make too much.
Privilege gets you a job running a few companies in to the ground, then later on a governorship and a two term presidency.
Well, for me it is because:
1. The government is way over-invested in protecting copyrights. They have a role to play, but it should be limited to providing the venue for litigation and enforcement of rulings. I don't want to pay copyright-holder's cost-of-doing-business unless I've actually purchased their products - not with my tax dollars.
2. The ISPs previously had no involvement whatever in the copyright issue. That's how it should have stayed. I don't want to pay the copyright holder's cost-of-doing-business by paying my ISP more either.
3. The executive has completely forgotten that it represents ALL of us, not just its favorites. That includes the copyright czar. If she is involved, she should be representing *we the people*. I don't know how she can "broker a deal" between ISPs and major copyright holders (read: not even all of them...) and do a good job for the rest of us, too. I don't think that's possible.
4. This policy affects all of us, but we have no say because it's two multi-corporate interests meeting in secret with the executive branch (see #3 above) to form an agreement which will, in effect, be law.
Why is the executive involved at all? Because just like the copyright holders, it wants to shift the costs of enforcement (which it has taken upon itself, mind you) onto someone else. Hello, ISPs!
That's why the Wikileaks cables were so important; they showed us that the US embassies around the world spend 75% of their energy in brokering for US big corp, instead of representing the people that pay their salaries.
Hope and Change turned out to be a whole bunch of sitting around and not getting much done.
Since the previous situation was getting a fuck of a lot done but none of it any good , we can say that "Hope and Change" worked out just fine.
zero is greater than negative numbers, after all.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
And you are happy settling for that. Right?
I'm not.
"...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
What bugs me the most about this is the fact that the government is basically throwing its weight around in order to regulate without having to legislate.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Are you insane? How do you propose to look out for yourself against the whims of corporations if not through the government? If some banker decides to just straight up take all of your retirement savings for himself, what are you gonna do? If your insurance company decides that, after years of collecting premiums, they don't feel like paying out benefits when you're in trouble, what are you gonna do?
The Merciful God of the Market is a lie. Market forces won't stop $MEGACORP from screwing you over. You need to band together with your neighbors to defend yourself. And when you do, that is called "government".
Joe the moron Biden has been a copyright industry shill since his senate days. He as sponsored all kinds of draconian copyright bills with the likes of Berman, Dodd, and Hatch, but Biden is the ring leader. Its disgusting really. Then there is Orin Hatch this moron wanted to install software on our computers to monitor us for copyright infringement and destroy our computers if the software thought we were infringing.
The problem is that no one cares and copyright is not an election issue so we are all screwed.
I think this really tarnishes the dignity of his royal personage. A US Czar should not be personally involved in such shady deals. He should have sent one of his boyars to do it. Or at most a low level copyright Knyaz.