PROTECT IP Renamed To the E-PARASITE Act

bs0d3 writes "The U.S. House has drafted their version of Protect IP today. They have renamed the bill to 'the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act' or the E-PARASITE Act. The new house version of Protect IP is far worse than the Senate bill s.968 and it massively expands the sites that will be covered by the law. While the Senate bill limited its focus to sites that were 'dedicated to infringing activities,' the house bill targets 'foreign infringing sites' and 'has only limited purpose or use other than infringement.' They're also including an 'inducement' claim, any foreign site declared by the Attorney General to be 'inducing' infringement, can now be censored by the US. With no adversarial hearing. The bill can be read here."

Comments

American rights?

[Bucky24]

I guess they're really going all the way with "Corporations are people".

Re:American rights?

[elashish14]

The only people, from the sound of it. Copyright harms far more real people than it helps.

Re:American rights?

[the linux geek]

Corporations have been considered legal persons for hundreds of years in jurisdictions based on British law. I don't understand why there's this meme that the Citizens United decision created that...

Re:American rights?

[Nimey]

That's not even wrong. Nobody said that CU caused that.

They're saying that CU gave corporations more rights to pour money into politics, thereby giving them more "speech" than natural people. This happens to be true.

Re:American rights?

[andresa]

It's a good sign of a failing country. US fucked up their economy and many Asian countries took advantage of that by providing real, actual goods to people. The only thing US still has is entertainment industry, so it's not a surprise they're trying to protect that. But eventually it's a lost game, just because people got lazy and spend a lot more than they can, while other people (banks) tried to sell sell sell all those people loans. In the process many people got really rich, but it's not something you can do endlessly.

Re:American rights?

[Catbeller]

No. They have not. The Supreme Court decision happened in 1892, IIANM, when a former railroad lobbyist turned clerk of a Supreme Court Justice inserted it into an unrelated decision. The corporate lawyers ran with it, and it became impossible to call back. The trusts and tycoons had been try, without success, for decades to have the SCOTUS declare corporations people. One pro-corp lobbyist in a powerful position did the trick when law and reason wouldn't.

In 1992, the SCOTUS declared money to be speech.

In 2010, the SCOTUS removed all limits to corporate spending on lobbying, citing 1992.

Result: corps, government licensed creatures, now have become the government, cuckoo-like, replacing the substance while the shell remains.

Re:American rights?

[Catbeller]

Fine, if the copyright expires. That was the deal, back in the 1780's. But the deal was unilaterally reneged on when copyrights became eternal. You want copyrights? Put a limit on them. Right now, the art and stories of the world are set to be owned by corporations until the end of time. And we are building a world-wide surveillance state to enforce that "property". There will be nowhere you can go, electronically, without the government, thru corporate proxies, looking over your shoulder and logging what you are looking at, what you are reading, what you are copying. Forever.

Re:American rights?

[Anonymous Coward]

And why can't we pay authors to write, instead of paying them after they write for copies? There's no reason we should have to stick with the current system, which involves telling everyone exactly what they are permitted and not permitted to do, backed up by the force of the government. Getting rid of the current model doesn't mean books can't be funded, and eliminates the need for huge bureaucracies and legal battles.

Re:American rights?

[Anonymous Coward]

Corporations have been considered legal persons for hundreds of years in jurisdictions based on British law. I don't understand why there's this meme that the Citizens United decision created that...

Read up on the case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad to see how the modern concept of corporate personhood got started. Prior to that, there was a long standing concept of "natural person" and "artificial person".

Re:American rights?

[click2005]

I propose changing it's name again, this time to the

Worldwide Enforcing and Restrictively Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft, Exploitation and Solicitation Act

WE-R-PARASITES Act

Re:American rights?

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to the corporatocracy. It looks a lot like the oligarchies that were thrown out in revolutions in the 1700s and 1800s in the Americas and in Europe (like the French Revolution). The only difference is that the "official government" is a sham, while the "real government" - the corporate plutocrats - are holding on to power by telling a bunch of deluded fucking rednecks called "tea partiers" that anyone wise to the corporatocracy is a "socialist" or a "communist."

Re:American rights?

[WorBlux]

There are very though and well supported analysises that contradict your assertion if you care to look for them (Against Intellectual Monopoly) http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm is one

95% of rents for 95% of the works are extracted within the first 5 years. Also the vast majority of authors don't see a penny for their work unless sponsored by the publisher (and only the mega-authors are). Royalties are first applied to cover production setup costs. Most publishers require authors to transfer copyright to them, which prevents the authors from making derivatives of their own works without permission. In addition there are alternative models for such authors. If anyone can copy the work the value of the first goes up considerably and the main competition comes from being able to publish first. In addition there are alternative publishing and revenue models that have been successfully used. One such alternative is the maker endorsed mark

Lastly the historical examples do not show that literature languished without copyrights. At the very least copyright should be reduced to a term less than ten years.

Re:American rights?

[inviolet]

No. They have not. The Supreme Court decision happened in 1892, IIANM, when a former railroad lobbyist turned clerk of a Supreme Court Justice inserted it into an unrelated decision. The corporate lawyers ran with it, and it became impossible to call back. The trusts and tycoons had been try, without success, for decades to have the SCOTUS declare corporations people. One pro-corp lobbyist in a powerful position did the trick when law and reason wouldn't.

Looks like it happened in 1886, in Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific. The skullduggery occurred in the case's headnote as published in subsequent law journals. It was perpetrated by former president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company, J.C. Bancroft Davis.

Re:American rights?

[istartedi]

A copyright system based on the number of copies encourages popular works. A patronage system where authors seek a wealthy sponsor tends to be more elitist. With a copyright system, works that are popular but not appealing to the elites at least have a chance. The patronage system has benefits too; but by its very nature it can coexist with a copyright system (there will always be wealthy patrons), whereas a patronage-only system would make it difficult to produce works that didn't comport with the values of the elites.

Most people (even on Slashdot) probably don't want to abolish the copyright system entirely since things like the GPL are actually based on copyright law. Most of us would probably rather just see shorter terms, and less severe penalties for infringement.

Re:American rights?

[moj0joj0]

Please allow me to expand upon this a little bit:

As early as the mid-1800's the trusts and tycoons had been trying, without success, for decades to have the SCOTUS declare corporations people. In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394 (1886), the Supreme Court recognized corporations as persons for the purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In 2003, the SCOTUS declared corporate funding cannot be limited under the First Amendment, in 2010 SCOTUS declared money to be speech and removed all limits to corporate spending on lobbying.

The corporate person-hood aspect of the campaign finance debate turns on Buckley v. Valeo (1976) and Citizens United (2010): Buckley ruled that political spending is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech, while Citizens United ruled that corporate political spending is protected, holding that corporations have a First Amendment right to free speech.

Result: corporations, government licensed creatures, now have become the government, by using their wealth to "unfairly influence elections." This lead to the first stirrings of unrest in the civil populous, most notably the 'Occupy Wall Street' demonstrations, citing no faith in their elected officials because of the undue power wielded by corporations and special interest groups to influence law makers.

Now, protected by the very institutions that had been in place to protect people, citizens of the United States are denied at least two of the traditional corner stones of a democracy. Those foundations stones being the Ballot and Jury box.

Timeline: -Tillman Act of 1907, banned corporate political contributions to national campaigns. -Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, landmark campaign financing legislation. -Buckley v. Valeo (1976) upheld limits on campaign contributions, but held that spending money to influence elections is protected speech as in the first amendment. -First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978) upheld the rights of corporations to spend money in non-candidate elections (i.e. ballot initiatives and referendums). -Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) upheld the right of the state of Michigan to prohibit corporations from using money from their corporate treasuries to support or oppose candidates in elections, noting that "[c]orporate wealth can unfairly influence elections." -Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain–Feingold), banned corporate funding of issue advocacy ads that mentioned candidates close to an election. -McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003), substantially upheld McCain–Feingold. -Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007) weakened McCain–Feingold, but upheld core of McConnell. -Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) the Supreme Court of the United States held that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited under the First Amendment, overruling Austin (1990) and partly overruling McConnell (2003).

Re:American rights?

[Grishnakh]

There's a little more to it than that. The corporate plutocrats have effectively used the old maxim "divide and conquer", by having a system where there's only two parties, and there's really no difference between them (when you look at their actions, not their words). They get popular support by pandering to different groups; one panders to religious extremists and "deluded fucking rednecks" as you call them, the other panders to "liberals", "progressives", etc. They tell their target groups what they want to hear, whether it's "hope and change!", or "we need to ban contraception", or "we need to eliminate income taxes" or whatever. Then when they get elected, they simply continue the same policies with little or no change, while distracting the voters with "terrorists", or "the other party is being obstructionist", or "we can't allow this big corporations to fail or else the economy will be destroyed, so we're going to give them a no-strings bailout package", or any other excuse they can come up with.

Re:American rights?

[hjf]

technically

And that, my friend, is the problem with the US justice system. Stupid technicalities AND judges that rule based on the absolute literal meaning of the words on paper. And of course, lawyers exploiting that.

Let me give you an example:

If you have a shop and put a sign that says "CAUTION: Wet Floor. We won't be responsible if you get hurt while walking on the wet floor". Sooner or later, you'll get someone RUNNING on the wet floor, falling, and suing you. And a judge is going to rule in his favor, because a lawyer will say "then the sign also means WE WILL be responsible if you get hurt while NOT WALKING on the wet floor", and since "the guy was running, which, TECHNICALLY is not walking, then you are responsible". Or if he falls while walking on the DRY floor...

Re:American rights?

[lexsird]

I have been pondering how to remove the SCOTUS without just putting a noose around their necks and giving them a good stretch. I think a Constitutional Amendment would do the trick just fine. Is there any other way to eject these seriously deluded people out of these positions of demigods of our State? There has to be a way to remove one if they go bad. If not then our founding fathers seriously dropped the ball on this one.

Those two acts, one of of declaring money speech and removing all limits to corporate spending to lobbying, are blatant acts of treason against the State. Our founding fathers are spinning in their graves like gyroscopes on that. Hasn't it been said, that once the law becomes unlawful, the people themselves will become a law of their own? Or something like that?

Effectively with the SCOTUS declaring this, has effectively removed all voice from the people in their government. Only the corporations will be served, and our country as we known it has been rendered extinct. You no longer have representation, because those elected will serve those who can dump mountains of cash in their pockets. Because it's free speech and corporations are free to speak because they are people.

Wow, that is so fucked in the head it's surreal. If you look at the history of corporations, you will see how they were only allowed with control, but they have been struggling to gain more and more power until at last they have it all. Sweet Jesus, we are seriously fucked. Someone tell the OWS people to pack it in and go home, the SCOTUS has sold us out, we can't change the laws now even if we wanted to.

Lets consider this big shit sandwich for a second before we all have to take a bite. Corporations are multinational entities. This means that we now have unknown foreign entities with unlimited influence upon our State. Do you think we will now have a prayer of stopping our labor/industry from being exported to whatever third world country that works for next to nothing? Nope, so give a big kiss and a wave goodbye to American jobs. Without American jobs, the 99% become quickly vagrants, no home, no vote.

This is now the land of the corporations. They will thin the herd. They don't need us any more. They are setting on their money, just waiting for us to starve out, die off, while their political lackeys will cut off any help to the bottom end. They will then proceed to shove everyone not in their service down through the meat grinder, no safety nets, just whirling blades of homelessness, no medical, no food, no voice. Say hello to the American Gulags, the concentration camps, and if you are lucky prison. If you are extra special, you can have the treat to serve in their jackbooted enforcement corps or as a thug putting their thumbscrews on the last of the free world.

The sad thing is, we deserve it. We have been stupid enough to just let them get by with creeping up on us. We watch "sports" when we should be watching these criminals against humanity and beating their asses down when they stick they heads out of whatever hole from Hell they crawl out of. We have fucked around with our own indulgences, while our slavery chains have been forged loudly right on our hands and feet. Forget "Bread and Circuses", we are mesmerized by Hollywood, fast food, cable TV, all the indulgences of the Internet. We have been reduced to gutless, spineless cowards who will just bow down and take whatever our Overlords decide for us.

Watch now as these foolish protestors who are a decade too late, are made examples of. They will be crushed, and you will set on your fat asses and make excuses for those who destroy them or why "you can't get involved". That sickly feeling you will experience in your gut, that is the soul of your once great nation dying, and the shame will be overbearing. How ironic! The great American, taken down, not with an epic fight or struggle, but handed over by a bunch of simpering, ignorant pussies, not worthy of being the descendents of the forefathers who bled and sacrificed, only so that their heirs could just piss their freedoms away.

R.I.P America

You deserved going out a more glorious and dignified way.

Re:American rights?

[WorBlux]

" we moved to copyright because it did a much better job at encouraging writers" That's entirely false. Such was the hope, but there never was any through cost-benefit analysis given to copyright, and it originated as a method of censorship. Less than 1% of titles published ever become popular. 99% get one production run and that's it. Yes, there are a few books with a long tail, but it's very unusual on a per-title basis, though not on a per-sale basis (a large chunk (> 1/4 of book-sales are for books without copyright). Don't you think copyright should be adjusted for the norm, rather than the exception?

BTW cheap publishing + distribution is an argument against long copyright. If the cost of publishing is lower, you need less of a reward to get someone to risk publishing a work.

Re:American rights?

[Archangel Michael]

Copyright is a right of a citizen, not a corporation. The legal definition of "legal entity", not withstanding, corporations should NEVER have rights of a citizen, because that diminishes the natural rights of people.

The problem is, that a Corporation has usurped rights of the people, and applied them to themselves, and are sponsoring laws to revoke those rights completely from the people.

The ONLY recourse we have is to revoke Copyright charter completely, as it no longer serves the will of the people.

Re:American rights?

[westlake]

No. They have not. The Supreme Court decision happened in 1892, IIANM, when a former railroad lobbyist turned clerk of a Supreme Court Justice inserted it into an unrelated decision. The corporate lawyers ran with it, and it became impossible to call back.

American law has treated the corporation as a person from the beginning.

Seven years after the Dartmouth College opinion the Supreme Court decided Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts v. Town of Pawlet, (1823) ...Justice Joseph Story, writing for the court, explicitly extended the same protections to corporate-owned property as it would have to property owned by natural persons. Seven years later, Chief Justice Marshall stated that, "The great object of an incorporation is to bestow the character and properties of individuality on a collective and changing body of men."

Corporate personhood.

Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886) is of interest only for its headnote:

The court reporter, former president of the Newburgh and New York Railway Company, J.C. Bancroft Davis, wrote the following as part of the headnote for the case:

"The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does."

In other words, the headnote indicated that corporations enjoyed the same rights under the Fourteenth Amendment as did natural persons. However, this issue was not decided by the Court.

Before publication in United States Reports, Davis wrote a letter to Chief Justice Morrison Waite, dated May 26, 1886, to make sure his headnote was correct:

Dear Chief Justice, I have a memorandum in the California Cases Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific &c As follows. In opening the Court stated that it did not wish to hear argument on the question whether the Fourteenth Amendment applies to such corporations as are parties in these suits. All the Judges were of the opinion that it does.

Waite replied:

I think your mem. in the California Railroad Tax cases expresses with sufficient accuracy what was said before the argument began. I leave it with you to determine whether anything need be said about it in the report in as much as we avoided meeting the constitutional question in the decision.

And that is that.

Davis was 64 years old in 1886, a retired judge and career diplomat. He was not a clerk and he was not a lobbyist.

It is dishonest to try to demonize him.

The Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States is the official charged with editing and publishing the Court's opinions both when announced and when they are published in permanent bound volumes of the United States Reports.

Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States

Newburgh is on the Hudson River 60 miles north of New York City.

Population 17,000 in 1870.

The rail line was surveyed around 1866 and there is really nothing more to say about it.

Davis was twice Assistant Secretary of State and perhaps best known for having presented the US case against the Confederate commerce raider Alabama at Geneva in 1871.

Land of the free?

[Anonymous Coward]

Enjoy your police state.

Re:Land of the free?

[kbg]

It seems USA is becoming more and more a police state with total disregard for human rights and law. People are being tortured and locked up indefinitely with no trial or jury and no one seems to think there is anything wrong with that, including the president or congress.

inducement?

[click2005]

Wouldn't that cover any site that ever mentions copyright infringement in a non-negative light?

Copy movies, games & music!!!!!

bye slashdot!

House v Senate

[damn_registrars]

The conservative democrats in charge of the senate drafted a scary but not terrifying bill. The conservative republicans in charge of the house responded by making a terrifying bill to rectify it with. That is what we get when we keep pushing all of our politicians further to the right. Next, President Lawnchair will proclaim this bill to be a great victory for the American people and sign it into law to show how he can work with his fellow conservative politicians in Washington DC.

Re:House v Senate

[Charliemopps]

This has nothing to do with left and right. It has to do with the inevitable road to subservience that government control of social policy always leads to.

Re:House v Senate

[damn_registrars]

This has nothing to do with left and right. It has to do with the inevitable road to subservience that government control of social policy always leads to.

Sure looks like another case of government selling out to corporate interests to me. The government has shown for some time that they care very little what the people have to say, as long as their sponsors are happy. This bill is yet another act aimed at pleasing the sponsors.

If we elected politicians from more than one party in this country we might have less of this and more governance of substance.

Re:House v Senate

[7-Vodka]

Government ALWAYS turns into a tool of oppression for those with power, be they corporatti, clergy, royalty, gangsters or ambitious politicians.

This is why the american constitution was written explicitly to make sure that the government is granted limited powers by the people; not that the people are granted rights by the government.

chill out, guys

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a House bill. The President can always veto it, and that's assuming it gets past the Senate. Call your Congressman, call your Senators, write the White House. There's still a chance for the people to lobby against this.

Re:chill out, guys

[Nimey]

Yes, but Obama's a moderate Republican and the Senate Dems are either useless, in the corps' pockets themselves, or both.

There's always a chance, but in this case it's probably not a good one.

Re:chill out, guys

[malilo]

BZZZ! You would be wrong, but thanks for playing. Turn off talk-radio for a minute and listen. Obama is center-right, and no socialist unless you could the "socialism for the elites" that is wall-street bailouts (including the unauthorized stealth bailouts going on through the Fed). He is practically aligned with the republicans when it comes to fiscal policy (which is to continue the taxes != expenses that both parties have been running for a while), and has proved himself the opposite of a progressive in social policy as well, up to and including MURDERING an American citizen without trial (or did you miss that?). He has not done anything to overturn the civil-liberties murdering patriot act, nor has he called back the illegal wire-tapping program. His administration has prosecuted more people for "treason" in revealing secret information than ever before. He has not increased taxes (talking about it doesn't count), and he has essentially held back prosecutors from going after the massive fraud on wall street.

All this is immaterial, because the real truth is he's a massive sell-out, in the pockets of the monied interests, and full of lies and rhetoric like 99% of pliticians out there... and now we know.

-- Love, a pinko commie liberal that WISHES we had a real progressive, or any, left candidate for president

You know you've given up on the government when...

[orphiuchus]

When you're response to garbage like this changes from outrage, and a motivation to act, to a sigh and a slump of the shoulders.

You know what? Fuck it. The majority in this country doesn't understand or care whats going on in Washington, and the corporations now run both political parties, but at least I get to keep my guns. Well, I cant use them in self defense anymore, but they sure do look neat.

regulation regardless of neutrality

[ejtttje]

For all those who argued against net neutrality as promoting "regulation", see how little help that was, they will try to regulate anyway. We might as well get the useful consumer protections against corporate manipulations while they are/were available, otherwise we'll just get stuck with regulation at both gov't and corporate levels.

Re:You know you've given up on the government when

[Nimey]

We sure manage to make western Europe look good, don't we?

We Salute Our New Media Overlords

[Anonymous Coward]

Infringing on (RIAA's) Copyright & Profitability - Pirate Bay
Infringing on (RIAA's) Copyright & Profitability - Weird Al, cover tunes on YouTube, fair use, time shifting (all unlicensed DVRs)
Infringing on (Microsoft's) Patents & Profitability - Ubuntu & Android (and All Linux)
Infringing on (Apple's) Patents & Profitability - RIM (darned Canadians Eh?)
Infringing on (Fox New's) 'Truth' & Profitability - BBC, CBC, Al Jezeera
Infringing on (Catholic Church's) 'Truth' & Profitability - Scientific Publications, Tax-Free Status (and, well, reality)
Infringing on (Corporate 1%) 'Truth' & Profitability - Government Regulation, Democrats, 'Occupy Everywhere'
Infringing on (Government & Corporate) 'Truth' & Profitability - Anonymous, Occupy Everywhere, 'Free Thinkers'
Infringing on (Corporate) 'Truth' & Profitability - Google (by providing access to views that challenge 'Everything is fine')

Expect some harsh censorship in this 'Land of Free' (copyright used without permission)

Bring it on

[nurb432]

The internet will go darknet so fast it will make their heads spin.

Re:Bring it on

[countertrolling]

Yeah? How well do you think that's gonna work with deep packet inspection? And please, save your breath about encryption. That too, will be restricted...

Re:Time machine.

[mikerubin]

the only thing Orwell had wrong was the year

I fucking hate...

[hipp5]

E-PARASITE? Really? I fucking hate forced acronyms. At my undergrad university there was a group called DREAM - Discovering the Reality of Educating All Minds. Their goal was good (building schools in developing countries) but I refused to ever donate to them because I hated their acronym.

Re:I fucking hate...

[mattventura]

I think its a great acronym. The RIAA, MPAA, and the other groups behind this bill are complete parasites, and I think they deserve to have a bill named after them.

Re:I fucking hate...

[MysteriousPreacher]

"Clever" acronyms and overly dramatic names are what I like about American bills. It's like they're being named by over-excited twelve year old kids. Patriot Act and The Defence of Marriage Act are among the best.

Re:As a foreigner...

[evil_aaronm]

Not "redundant", but ignored.

A veto doesn't help

[tepples]

A veto doesn't help when a bipartisan bill clears both houses by unanimous consent; they'll just go right ahead and unanimously override the veto.

E-parasite, e-crime, e-jail, e-conomy

[gale the simple]

I sometimes wonder if there is any sense of irony in those who name those bills. For second I figured it cannot possibly be real. Back to earth..

I skimmed through the text and found a nice little nugget stating search engines have to make sure the offending sites cannot be found. That will be fun.

I also find it especially heart warming that our leaders have time to draft this while the country is literally falling apart. Sigh, time for another letter to my, supposed, representative.

On Piracy...

[Sasayaki]

I'm in the process of writing a book, called Lacuna: Demons of the Void, seen here. I'm just in the final review and cleanup pass now.

The first three chapters are available for free, and are CC-BY-SA-NC; this means that you can legally and safely write whatever fanfiction you want, or pass the sample chapters around, or change and remix them or do whatever you want basically as long as you don't sell it, don't change the licence and credit me appropriately.

I did this because if the book (and subsequent sequels if any) gets popular, I didn't want to get old and fat and retarded and turn into the next George Lucas, grabbing hold of my precious precious IP and never letting go.

Anyway. This law is basically insane.

I've never understood musicians, writers and artists who get all messed up about digital piracy. It just strikes me as entirely retarded, especially if they're not in full compliance with every piece of software, hardware, music and movies they've ever seen or owned. I'm sure their $2,000 copy of Adobe Photoshop is fully legitimate now and was when they were 14, and I'm sure they've never downloaded an MP3 in their life.

I see this crap everywhere. I see rap artists thumbing their nose at society, waxing lyrical about sticking it to the man, pimping hoes, glorifying robbery, murder and pushing drugs, while at the same time appearing bereaved that their latest forgettable album appeared on The Pirate Bay the day after it appeared in iTunes. I see armies of cocaine huffing, hooker bashing, Harvard educated RIAA trust-fund babies who've never wanted for anything in their life but a full head of hair, going on about how Limewire costs them the GDP of the entire world ($75,000,000,000,000 dollars) in lost revenue and also, simultaneously, claiming to have had one of their most profitable years ever. How do you even rationalize that kind of blatant, intrinsic wrongness?

Fuck those guys.

Re:On Piracy...

[microbox]

Fuck those guys.

Hypocrites indeed. Happiness doesn't come from their crap anyway. Not being able to download something is nothing to get bent out of shape about. If this law is ever enforced, then we'll just see a sharp contraction in MAFIAA profits, and it will serve them right. Nothing of real value will have been lost.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[inviolet]

Welcome to world where you do what's good for you at the moment. It's not like this is a new concept for US either. China practically owns US now, and in 10-20 years it will start to really show. In the end, they will probably fall again, but it will be China who controls the world soon (again). It's the cycle of life.

It's hard to 'own' a country by holding its currency, when you don't also control its printing presses. In the past decade, the US has doubled its money supply (M2), which via inflation has pulled about 40% of the rug out from under the US currency holdings in China's central bank. And there is no let-up in sight. In terms of money, China has been royally screwed.

Of course they weren't after money; what they wanted was to industrialize and modernize, getting their hands on our IP. They did, but you are mistaken if you think that such a thing is a net loss for the US. When the world contains many new manufacturers of the goods we desire, the real cost of those goods goes down. Have you noticed that even though your money has been inflating like crazy over the past decade, manufactured goods have nevertheless cost fewer dollars? A microwave oven these days costs $35!

Not to mention new R&D. China is beginning to invent new things, and make new discoveries. While these things have temporary effects on the movements of money, in the long run we benefit from having other people making discoveries alongside us, rather than continuing to scrabble in rice paddies.

Re:China copies U.S. Intellectual Property...

[jd]

Indeed. Didn't the US do this for a longish while, signing up to the International treaties after they'd got the good stuff?

I'm not saying that China is "faultless" or the US is "all bad", but let's face facts - America would not have made the progress it has if it had respected European patent laws and European property rights. If it wants to claim China is in the wrong, then I have nothing against that provided it is NOT for the purpose of maintaining a hegemony obtained solely through the same practices. If China is guilty, then American corporations and the American government owe Europe a percentage of the profits secured through IP theft.

Sure, that might push the US into recession. Isolating China and closing down all counterfeit goods plus genuine goods based on stolen IP would not merely put China into recession, it would bankrupt it. If you're willing to do the latter, you should be man enough to accept the former.

The good news is that 100+ years of compound interest for some of the products and 60+ years of accumulated value in the case of property illegally confiscated from British and other Allied nations during WW2 should cover the combined debts of Italy, Greece, Spain and Ireland, and leave enough left over for the heads of State to put in advance orders for GTA 5.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[ackthpt]

Welcome to world where you do what's good for you at the moment. It's not like this is a new concept for US either. China practically owns US now, and in 10-20 years it will start to really show. In the end, they will probably fall again, but it will be China who controls the world soon (again). It's the cycle of life.

Back in the eighteenth century Lord Macartney approached the Emperor with the finest goods of Britain - which paled in comparison to the riches of the asian court. There's a saying, "China already has everything, would could you possibly offer China", ultimately the answer was Opium.

China is returning to glory days, where China will have everything everyone else has and the question will be, "What can you possibly offer to the Chinese?" Tough question to answer.

So bye-bye these American rights

[jpapon]

A long, long time ago...

I can still remember

How that music used to make me smile.

And I knew if I had my chance

That I could make those people dance

And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But legislation made me shiver

With every takedown I’d deliver.

Bad news on the doorstep;

I couldn’t take one more step.

I can’t remember if I cried

When I read about their lawless crime

But something touched me deep inside

The day the freedom died.

Re:You know you've given up on the government when

[Carewolf]

They even name the act PARASITE now, just to mock you. They know IP is parasitic, and they are telling you they know, and they will still pass it while laughing at you at the same time.

Actually that some pretty high-class douche-baggery.. I am both impressed and slightly scared.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[Anonymous Coward]

Step 1. The Chinese have everything.
Step 2. Offer them opium.
Step 3. PROFIT!!
Step 4. Repeat

Re:You know you've given up on the government when

[Sipper]

You can either scorn apathy, or become apathetic yourself, but somehow you've done both. Interesting dichotomy.

I think the acronym "E-PARASITE" makes it clear that the bill is a big "fuck you". This is good, because it gives us something obvious to hate, rather than calling the bill something like "PROTECT " and making it seem as if we're supposed to like the shit sandwich that it is. However my concern is that with all of this trying to "protect IP", there doesn't seem to be any recognition within government that all of the protected "IP" is greatly slowing down innovation. Yet the U.S. in general wants it both ways -- to be leading innovators, and yet also be leading in IP protection which slows down innovation. Yet another interesting dichotomy.

Presumption of guilt

[Adrian Lopez]

In the United States, people accused of a crime are guaranteed a trial and presumed innocent until proved guilty. Under the E-PARASITE Act, a website is presumed to be infringing unless and until the affected party can, if allowed to do so by the government, prove to the government that the website is perfectly legal. What a shameful perversion of a justice system that prides itself in being a model of justice.

Re:Presumption of guilt

[Anonymous Coward]

In the United States, people accused of a crime are guaranteed a trial and presumed innocent until proved guilty.

Tell that to the people in Guantanamo Bay...

Re:Presumption of guilt

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not novel. Just ask the many people who've had their possessions seized by the police because of simple suspicion of illegal activity -- even those possessions that have absolutely no evidentiary value, such as money, cars, boats, etc. Most Americans really don't give a shit about it because the goernment wouldn't seize your shit unless you're guilty of dealing or hacking or whatever, right?

Re:Presumption of guilt

[bwcbwc]

And the 4th amendment comes into play for unreasonable search and seizure. I can see the seizure up to a point, but a lot of times the assets are disposed of at auction before there is a trial, which is just plain conversion.

Re:China is looking good....

[GameboyRMH]

What ever happened to free speech and the land of the free?

It was lacking some profit optimization.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[slick7]

The main sign of failure in pre-WW1 and pre-WW2 Europe has been copyright crackdown, while New World has been blatantly copying and pirating everything.

Look at how that story ended up. Truly history keeps repeating itself, and every time we do not learn.

The true parasites are the corporate banksters and their bought dog lackeys in government. It is said of the mafia that it is like an artichoke, attack any part and the whole will continue to grow. However, salt the whole ground and the plant will die.
The time to make the environment between corporate and state so toxic that it can no longer flourish is fast approaching.The 99% have a voice, yet, the ears that need to listen only hear the jingling of thirty pieces of silver.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[Anonymous Coward]

A microwave oven these days costs $35!

Yes, and it costs $35 because corners have been cut in its production. Microwave ovens today are far simpler and more fragile than their counterparts from 20 or even 10 years ago.

A side effect of this: because new ones are so cheap, a broken one will be thrown away instead of repaired. More waste. More consumption. Is the world any better off because of it?

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[Fluffeh]

China is returning to glory days, where China will have everything everyone else has and the question will be, "What can you possibly offer to the Chinese?" Tough question to answer.

Markets for the stuff they want to get rid of.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[turing_m]

World of Warcraft?

Classic engineering problem

[Fned]

1. Political Party
2. Cares about liberty
3. Isn't Nut-Jobs

Pick any two.

What E-PARASITE really stands for...

[gstrickler]

Egregiously Purloining Anyone's Rights by Arbitrarily Stifling Information Transfer for Enterprises.

Re:China copies U.S. Intellectual Property...

[Nimey]

I think you could make a strong argument that we paid Europe back with our involvement in the world wars and the Marshall Plan.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[DigiShaman]

You need some historical perspective here. Except for the political/wealthy elite, China has never in its epic long history ever had "Glory days". The concept has never existed for over 99.9% of its population. It has always been ruled by dynasties in one form or another. Even this current government made up of the CCP and PLA is just another dynasty. I don't discount periods of innovation and prosperity. They were there. But again, they might as well have never existed for many Chinese as almost everyone was a poor farmer.

These past few years have been the zenith of Chinese civilization. The modern world may not be glamorous or romantic as portrayed in historical literature, but it still their zenith none the less. Even the sweatshop laborers choose this work over farming just to improve their standard of living and that of their family. Hard, very hard labor. The kind of slave and self-sacrifice dedication long gone in western civilization whom would rather milk the titty of the Federal Gov than do that kind of work. But it's not over yet. China may become democratic at some point or something else entirely that *will* listen to the demands of the people. They will get their equality, justice, and freedom. And from it, their civilized growth and prosperity will go completely vertical at warp speed. That, or it breaks down into civil war and destroys everything they've known and taken for granted. Either is a possibility.

So to answer your question. "What can you possibly offer to the Chinese?". How about continued support for their people to have and maintain inalienable rights.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[waddleman]

For example most microwaves are missing the ability to have constant output with variable power level. Now microwaves duty cycle unless you by the higher end Panasonic with "Inverter Technology". What was once standard component is now a differentiating feature for higher price models.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[ansak]

inviolet wrote:

"... While these things have temporary effects on the movements of money, in the long run we benefit from having other people making discoveries alongside us, rather than continuing to scrabble in rice paddies."

I think you're somewhat right but I get the feeling that this model is wrong when one side is nobbling currency rates and locally incentivising the newly arrived industries to the point where, for instance, nearly all Vitamin C worldwide is produced in the country that gave us melanine-laced milk and automotive-exhaust-dried tea. Is that smart for any of us? The only safeguard is that QA for export-bound products are stricter because other countries' regulators are more transparent, therefore more accountable and reliable. But market forces only work well when there are no well-established bullies (especially not 147 colluding ones) or even determined alternative rule-set writers.

And lest anyone think I'm fear-mongering, what about solar panels? The markets are only fair when the rules are all becoming more stringent on all players regardless of source and buyer and where the measures used for exchange are equitable. My hope is that greater public wealth will lead to greater openness and accountability, but it hasn't always panned out very well.

Still, I also look forward to the day when some kind of abundance is available to everyone, when we all get much better at use and re-use as opposed to use and using up. Science and technology can get us there if the greed of the few doesn't prevent it. I think our vision as a race tends not to be big enough (worrying about our own rice bowls, all too often, all too appropriately) and we're way too short-sighted and too prone to getting into shouting matches over individual issues in the larger overall programs available to our imagination.

cheers...ank

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[mirix]

Well, part of it is the move to switch-mode power supplies. In old microwaves the big transformer alone was probably $35 to make.

Your computer PS would be a lot more than $20 if it was a linear PS as opposed to switching. Bigger and heavier too.

I'm with you on the shittier construction, shorter life, more waste aspect though.
I'd gladly pay more for something made here, by people paid a living wage... but the population has spoken, cheapest wins.
A nice side effect of more expensive, serviceable equipment is that it employs people in repair, too... but that ship has sailed.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[Curunir_wolf]

Could you please at least try to refrain from running your mouth before you check your facts? The largest owner of American debt is not China- Over 40% of US debt is owned domestically. China owns about 10%. These figures are about a year old, but they've changed significantly.

China is, for all intents and purposes, a single creditor. While domestically held debt is a much larger share of the total debt, that is spread out among millions of individual creditors. So, Chiner is still holds the largest share of US debt than any other creditor.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[DigiShaman]

No, I wasn't talking about universal healthcare. Though the entire concept is a symptom of a much bigger problem. But whatever. What I did mean by my comment however was this. With unemployment as high as it is, most would rather collect on benefits (based off their previous income bracket) that payout more than actually working a manual labor job for less or even going so far as to *gasp*, learn an entirely new job. Say, plumbing or automotive work instead of being another real estate agent. Maybe Houston, TX is an exception, but I still see a few "Now Hiring" signs posted now and then. Why haven't those jobs been filled yet? I don't see why not.

Re:china copys us stuff and pass it off as there o

[justforgetme]

because new ones are so cheap, a broken one will be thrown away instead of repaired. More waste. More consumption

Good finally we can stop buying microwaves and spend our money on pans; where you can cook real food in :-)

Re:China copies U.S. Intellectual Property...

[Hazel Bergeron]

WW2 was on the western front in the long term an industrial war between Britain and America, and America won.

The US remained neutral with tacit support toward the Nazis (in the usual US way - ever onward, IBM!), entered the war once Europe was sufficiently weakened, and used loan conditions and the Marshall plan to cripple Britain's already damaged industry. When the last repayment had been made by Thatcher (when was a bank last a charity?), she followed Reagan's bidding, inevitably finishing the job of destroying what was left of it.

Similarly, the Eurozone is Germany's fourth economic Reich. Following US practice, by encouaraging one sort of behaviour while acting far more sensibly herself, she has crippled the majority of the continent and made it dependent on her. Greece should do as Iceland: default and recover as an independent, responsible unit rather than enduring prolonged debt slavery. Remind the continent that things were moving along fine before the Euro experiment, when everyone didn't put all their eggs in the basket of a few well-to-do guys up north. But it won't because it's scared - like much of Europe has been scared for the past 70 years.