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The Behind-the-Scenes Campaign To Bring SOPA To Canada
An anonymous reader writes "SOPA may be dead (for now) in the U.S., but lobby groups are likely to intensify their efforts to export SOPA-like rules to other countries. With the Canadian DMCA back on the legislative agenda at the end of the month, Canada will be a prime target for SOPA style rules. In fact, Michael Geist reports that the recording industry wants language to similar to that found in SOPA on blocking access to websites, new termination policies for subscribers, and an expanded SOPA-style liability for sites that could include YouTube and cloud-based services."
Another reader points out that similar mischief is afoot in Ireland: "The Irish government's new 'statutory instrument' threatens to do some of the same things as SOPA, mainly introducing the power to force ISPs to block websites suspected of having copyrighted material on them."
I can probably get more bang for my buck by buying one of their politicians instead of buying one in the U.S. anyway.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Those danged Illuminatis, tryin to control my world!
Same answer applies every time abolish copyrights and patents.
Copyrights and patents prevent speech, prevent innovation, prevent progress.
The only real free market approach to protecting your ideas is a trade secret, that's all. Government must not be allowed to meddle with businesses and protect business models and practices.
When somebody uses his savings to start a woodshop, as an example, if they fail and business dies out and they are out of their investment, there won't be government standing there with a handout, and it shouldn't be - it's personal risk.
Same with copyrights and patents - these are government handouts at the expense of the larger free market economy and it makes no sense to protect one type of investment over any other type. Government shouldn't be subsidising any businesses at all ever (banks, insurance companies and Solyndra come to mind).
Abolish copyrights and patents and check out the link I posted in this comment, it leads to my other comment on the same topic, but it's not my comment that is of interest, it's the response to my comment, with /. readers being vehemently opposed to the idea.
Why are /. readers opposed to this? Because they think that their business model is more important than a woodshop founder's business model. So the woodshop or a restaurant founder can go eat shit if his business fails (and a woodshop and especially a restaurant is a very location based heavy business, if you are in the wrong location, your business will fail, while on the Internet, businesses have access to near global markets, so there is a huge advantage for the software/book/movie/audio, etc. types of businesses there).
It's hypocrisy, it's short-sightedness, it's hubris and it shows the true colours (as in character) of the crowd.
You can't handle the truth.
Politicians on the cheap 1 USD = 1.015 CAD
Any provisions that can be boiled down to
A Association Is Collaboration
B Accusation is Conviction
needs to result in the bill being killed.
Linking to %BadContent% should not be a crime per say (unless thats a majority of what you do). And Blunt killing of a server (or server farm) should not even be considered.
Also there should be a short waiting period (to send a takedown REQUEST to the site owner) before a whole server gets nuked.
The last thing that should be in any law is if it is found that the complainant acted "In Bad Faith" then he should receive 7/8ths of the punishment that was involved (and be open to CIVIL remedies).
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Government/ corporations, by and large, don't know how the Internet works, and what they know about it they don't like. And by "government/corporations" I mean almost any government (note the "almost": it is possible that there are exceptions. Notably, this is not limited to the U: the US just happens to be where many of the most powerful corporations, and the most powerful government, exist) and most non-tech corporations (a few do get it, mostly smaller ones or those who have made their living through the Internet). It is simple, really: government cannot control the Internet, which makes the people in power frightened. They don't realize it can't be controlled (at least not without some major reworking, reworking that at this point will only happen over many dead bodies), but they will damn well try. And corporations similarly fear a loss of control.
Obviously (to the techies) the solution isn't a stick, but a carrot: use the Internet to your advantage. But that would require those in power to change, and those people hate and despise change, since the present order (i.e. their own power) can so easily be destroyed by change.
What they haven't realized is they lost 10 years ago: we are just now coming to the point where that is becoming obvious to them. The real change just comes slowly. It remains to be seen, of course, whether the new order is better or worse than the old: but you can damn well bet the old will fight tooth and nail to stop it.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
Not on my watch.
It was amusing to see so many of my contacts (Canadian, American, and many from the other side of the globe) take an active interest in protesting SOPA. With some interesting changes in the Liberal party direction, we may see a lot of actively useful resistance in informing and combating such measures.
Direct lobbying like that is illegal in Canada.
Our (Canada's) politicians are less interested in bribes from outsiders than they are in enriching themselves and their friends. The present government are basically a bunch of stereotypical dumb jocks that treat our country like their own private frat house. Their boss, Stephen Harper, lets them all caper around, knowing that they are all to stupid to ever threaten his leadership, and only asks that they support his primary goal of destroying the liberal party.
Why does Tyranny always come back to societies over and over. Seems throughout history, humans just can't put an end to dictatorship rule! All these new laws are being put in place to control our lives until we all become puppets on a string.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
This is simply abuse on the opposite side of the spectrum of copyright law. Copyrights and patents have a real use to help foster the inventor but when it is abused in sue for profit schemes and the like, it is time for reform, not abolition. The patent and the copyright, as our forefathers envisioned, was not for the major, global corporation but for the small time inventor. Maybe patents should not be allowed to be granted to corporations and universities but individuals.
they just will NOT quit... remember folks... we have to be lucky ALL the time, they only have to get lucky once...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
we need decentralized dns,
and then sopa and pipa will be pretty hard to achieve
now with ipv6 knocking on the door (or rather busting it with a kick), the Internet can accept more dramatic changes
DNS should be the next thing that must be changed
If you want a bill to pass you write is with a few outrageous things added that people can get all upset about. Then you remove those additions and get it passed in the form you originally wanted anyway. Its a standard procedure.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
If you look at the global rankings, http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/, Canada's politicians are rated higher than US ones, which means less corrupt, and therefore, more expensive.
In Uzbekistan they are really cheap, but what would you do with your bought politicians there?
Those Scandinavians will cost you a bundle . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
No more sure sign of a Bought Government than one which acts against the best interests of its people.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
...just not as it is currently implemented.
Terms of 7/14/20/28 years may still be appropriate, as the rise of technology has made duplication of intellectual works easier to copy and disseminate. Those who create content are no longer concerned about a dozen possible sources of competition in duplication, but tens of millions. The ease of publishing and typical shelf life should, actually, serve to reduce - not extend - copyright and patent terms, as the ability to bring a product to mass market is on a significantly shorter timescale than 200 years ago.
Interestingly, there are methods in place which provide for (almost) easy compliance with copyright laws. but they apply to only the narrowest slice of content. I'm talking about mechanical licensing fees - 10c per physically recorded track or permanent digital download. Problem is, it only applies to the composer of music, and only to mechanical rights. Not to arrangement. Not to synchronization (video). Not to masters (people performing the work). Not to written or spoken work. Not to images. Not to video clips. Not to patents.
The biggest problem is not the existence of patents and copyright, but the byzantine implementation and licensing, and the one-sided legislation which is being written to perpetuate these institutions.
IP laws are a good thing; the way they are implemented is flawed.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
If it were to pass it (unlikely). I, and many others, would ignore, and help others to as well. Every single attempt to strangle people on the net has blown up in the PTB's faces.
It doesn't matter how much more expensive it is to buy politicians here, the Canadian government will without fail just follow along with what ever the US tell it to do. Why else would it sell oil lumber and power to the US at a loss?
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
for slashdot
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=%22imaging+radars%22&hl=en&btnG=Search&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=on
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en&q=%22imaging+sonars%22&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en&q=%22imaging+lidars%22&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=%22through+the+wall%22+%2B%22imaging%22&hl=en&btnG=Search&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=on
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en&q=%22through+wall%22+%2B%22imaging%22&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en&q=%22penetrating%22+%2B%22radar%22+%2B%22imaging%22&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0
http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?hl=en&q=%22penetration%22+%2B%22radar%22+%2B%22imaging%22&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0
http://www.cheniere.org/images/EMfndns1/EMwave2%20sm.jpg
http://www.cheniere.org/images/weapons/TPlznIntsm.jpg
http://www.math.washington.edu/~gunther/publications/Papers/siamreviewfinal.pdf
http://www.math.washington.edu/~gunther/publications/Papers/wormhole_cmp_final.pdf
http://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0607418.pdf
http://www.qudev.ethz.ch/content/courses/QSIT09/pdfs/Nielsen1998.pdf
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.17.9667
http://www.google.ca/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=%22optical+nuclear+magnetic+resonance%22&aq=f&aqi=g-v1&aql=&oq=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=38c10a09e68d8863&biw=800&bih=507
http://www.google.ca/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=%22optical+nmr%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=38c10a09e68d8863&biw=800&bih=507
And the war is being perpetuated by a certain very small minority in united states, against ALL the peoples of different nations, through the influence and usage of the intermediary groups that are also minority in their countries.
this is not democracy. this is, flat out class war. the only ones not acknowledging that there is a class war, are us, the majority.
Read radical news here
Positions of power must exist in order for humans to organize themselves. Civilization is logically dependent upon such positions.
People who desire positions of power tend to put effort into attaining them, whereas people who have no such desires tend not to expend such effort (or even to put effort into avoiding the responsibility).
Most motivations for desiring positions of power are either the maximization of personal profit, or the purely corrupt desire to control others. Not all, just most.
So, since power is mostly attained by people who desire it, and most people who desire it do so for harmful self-serving reasons, over time *all* positions of power wind up saturated with corruption.
The only attempts that have been made to prevent this boil down to:
1) divide the government out into multiple branches to avoid concentration of corruption
a) this fails because the branches can simply find ways to align their corrupt interests, and cooperate in their evil.
2) empower the people to hold their government accountable for their corruption (through voting and legal actions)
a) this fails because most people are both too stupid and too busy (working for a living + raising a family takes a LOT of time) to actually do this.
b) also fails because, over time, the powerful use their power to introduce ever more ways to keep their actions secret or otherwise avoid accountability.
3) regularly rotate non-power-hungry civilians into positions of power
a) this fails because said civilians do a piss-poor job of living up to the unwanted responsibility, resulting in chaos. e.g. athens.
So, to summarize:
those who remember history are doomed to watch it be repeated.
all it needs is one complaint about the lack of due process and the European Court of Human Rights will get involved.
That will tie the Dublin Gov up for 3-5 years at a minimum.
Oh, and the Court's judgement is binding. Eire can't afford the fines unless the likes of Microsoft, Oracle and Adobe who all use the Republic as a Tax Haven suddenly start paying their due taxes.
That is as likely as George W getting a 3rd term as US President.
Yes, bribery is "illegal" in the U.S. too--wink, wink.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/01/06/144737864/forget-stocks-or-bonds-invest-in-a-lobbyist
Lobbying in the US bring a return on investment of around 22 thousand percent. And you want a discount? Now you're just being greedy.
Sorry to taint a vitriolic stereotype-ridden debate with facts, but the fact is part of the reason lobbying isn't as effective in Canada is we enacted stringent campaign finance reform a number of years ago. ...something the USA woefully needs.
From http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/federal-campaign-finance-laws-canada:/
- Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents may make contributions to registered parties, registered electoral district associations, leadership and nomination contestants of registered parties, and all candidates.
- Individual contributions to these political participants are limited to a maximum of $1,000 annually (adjusted for inflation).
- Individuals may also make contributions that do not exceed $1,000 (adjusted for inflation) in total per contest to the leadership contestants of a registered political party. This is an aggregate cap applying to all the contributions given by one individual to all leadership contestants in the same leadership contest.
- Corporations, trade unions, and other unincorporated associations are prohibited from making contributions to registered parties, registered electoral district associations, leadership and nomination contestants of registered parties, and all candidates.
Yes, you read that right ONE THOUSAND BUCKS. Makes it pretty tricky to buy your MP.
In the US, you can campaign directly to an individual. In Canada, you can not.
While I agree with much of this, I don't think they had to put deliberate effort into destroying the Liberal party. The Liberals kind of imploded on themselves without the help of Stephen Harper and his gang.
Very true, that's why they resort to:
- Secret high-paying, low effort jobs available after they're done working at the government.
and
- Repeated "Discussion" times at expensive all-inclusive golf resorts, family and friends invited, of course.
Does this mean we need to organise more blackouts?
I'd like to see google actually blackout properly, like wikipedia did....
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
You're right of course, the Liberals largely destroyed themselves and the implosion really got started a long time ago. However, this didn't stop the Conservatives from doing everything they could to crush the Liberals into the ground. Infighting within the Liberal party, and taking for granted that their historical successes would continue into the future caused the party to implode. Harper wants to ensure that the now-crippled party will never re-emerge as anything more than a joke.
There was an international cooperation of people running websites all over the world protesting SOPA in the USA... how many will do likewise for Canada?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The Lawyers who are pushing this agenda should be put on the Big Red Boat and allowed to sink with it in the middle of the shark infested ocean. The Movie and Music Industry need to get a grip and embrace OPEN SOURCE ideas instead of their GREEDY quagmire of DOLLARS !
Have you seen what the US does to countries that don't?
Move in for 10 years, mess up the place and then give up?
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
May all their efforts be fruitful and all their lobbied laws come to pass, no matter how despicable themselves -- and the purchased politicians.
Maybe then Japan's animation, India's cinema and music from may countries will get the chance they deserve.
Good luck, dear *AAs!
Because we haven't had a PM that wasn't afraid to tell the US to sit and spin since Trudeau. shame. Every one since has been a train of US appeasers, of various levels.
Exactly. The US has much laxer standards for what's considered corrupt than other 1st world countries. It's pretty much expected that you can buy politicians with donations in the US.
+1 sad but true
God I've been hating this country more and more. It's trying so goddamn hard to be as bad as the USA, or even pushing to be worse. Voting for non-standard parties doesn't do anything (despite my best efforts), as can be seen by the fact that the Green party is all but irrelevant. Not that I'd expect them to be different on the large scale than the 'usual' anyway... but I wouldn't mind seeing the canadian government fail the public in a different way for once.
And the internet blackout has already done it's one run... it'll never happen again. Even lesser so in Canada, where basically all of the relevant companies that participated are in the USA.
No, this'll push through virtually unhindered. People will scream and yell about it, but that doesn't do sweet fuck all. Unless it's a large number of massive companies that decide to fight it, it'll go through. And there IS no large number of massive companies in Canada that would oppose it.
Just wait though. The second it passes in Canada, the USA will use that as a stepping stone to say "Canada has greater protection laws than the USA! We must follow their example and pass SOPA, for it is glorious! We can't let Canada be more technologically superior than us!"
So basically, this is going to pass no matter what, and the USA will follow shortly thereafter.
Yet another present from Canada to our neighbours to the South. Enjoy.
Oh c'mon, Harper has a mandate from 39% of the people to do whatever the hell he pleases.
So basically, this is going to pass no matter what, and the USA will follow shortly thereafter.
In a sense, the US has more checks and balances than the Canadian Parliamentary system. When it comes down to it, Parliament has almost no limit to its power, and can in principle pass whatever it chooses to. The only consolation is that Parliament is composed of a group of hopefully disinterested individuals (my tongue is planted gently in my cheek, but I think the idea is that the diversity of their individual interests will somewhat cancel out). Three hundred collective dictators are likely better than one.
So yes the bill will likely pass. And heaven help us. Sixty percent of voters voted against Harper, but the Canadian system still gives him power.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
Actually Jean Chrétien told the Bush to go to hell when he tried to get us activaly involved in the middle east back in 2003. We already had peace keepers there anyway. Then we had Paul Martin that took the fall for Chrétien and the liberals spending scandal. Then Harpper was elected 2006 and put Canada into an offiensive position to kiss up to Bush.
did you think i didnt know he was the founder and first president of patent office ? where do you think his ideas against patents are taken from ?
Read radical news here
Lobbying an MP in Canada is nowhere near as useful as lobbying one in the US. If an MP defies the party line in a vote of any consequence it becomes a major scandal. So, unless you make that cheque out to a certain Mr. Harper you're wasting your money.
Parliamentary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliment are more fluid in governance and leaders are subject to much more public exposure. Especially when the is a minority government and a third party tends to end up with control (the leading opposition party always tends oppose). The leader, the prime minister can be replaced in public opposition grows to strong, this provides the opportunity for the party to attempt to rebuild it's reputation with another leader. Overall it seems to function better than directly electing the executive and the legislative.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Oh that's a very good investment by the copyright trolls, none of the content available in the US is available in Canada (Hulu, some YouTube videos, Netflix titles, Kindle titles and collections, you name it). You couldn't get it by paying for it, even if you really wanted to, so it's a prime market for piracy. Also, Canadians pay a levy on recordable media, so it's legal for them to create "backups" of things for "personal use"... good place to try to make some money in lawsuits and seizures.
Bow before me, for I am root.
They put Stephan Dione and then Michael Ignatius in as leaders. To be honest, I don't even know who the liberal leader IS at the moment and I don't really care.
I'm voting NDP next election. The liberals can't get their act together, and anyone that isn't pants-on-head retarded is better than harper.
Its the harper government thats trying to get all of this various legislation pushed through for their corporate buddies.
The Chretien government said "No. We'll put a tax on blank media, because we agree that it will be primarily used to copy your works. We'll let you have control over the distribution of that tax to the artists whom you represent. We are not however installing any laws that would give you any kind of direct control over the Canadian people"
The Harper Government says "Wait, how big was the yacht you mentioned is under construction and will be done just in time for my planned retirement?"
Sigh, teach me not to proof read - Michael Ignatieff.
One of the most despised people in canadian politics. A lot of Ontario voted conservative simply because they hated Ignatieff so badly.
So they put cameras in each candidate's house to make sure nobody hands him any envelopes full of money?
So basically, this is going to pass no matter what, and the USA will follow shortly thereafter.
And your fucking defeated, negative attitude is helping things how?
You had a choice when you posted this comment--you could either post something that would urge people to not accept this bullshit infringement on their liberty, or like a coward you could just agree with your masters that the battle for freedom is already lost, and in the process influence others to agree and give up too...."they got us beat! everyone give up the fight now and things will go easier for us!"
How about next time thinking about the actual effect of your words before opening your mouth? Whose side are you on, exactly? If you don't have anything positive to say that in some way promotes freedom, then don't say anything.
excellent and factually correct incredibly short and to the point summary ! +42
Personally, I'm old and cynical and believed these threats would come as the internet [well, the web mainly] became more dominated by commercial forces. So I think the answer for 'us' is encryption everywhere and structures and tools like Tor: https://www.torproject.org/ and Freenet: http://freenetproject.org/ I know that many people on here know about these, but links for those that don't.
It's no accident that the USA tried and tries to place export limits on encryption methods and tools.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Jackboot your own people, and get the FUCK out of Canada!
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
"Those Scandinavians will cost you a bundle . . ."
That or they're just better at hiding it.
The US didn't seem to find cost prohibitive in buying the original pirate bay raid, the pirate bay show trial, the prosecutor in the Assange case, or even the Swedish PM judging by his public prejudgemental comments about the guilt of Assange. Perhaps Sweden is an anomally though and Norway, Iceland, and Finland just keep the average up?
Why is that, both names sounds like fellatio in Hungarian? Is this some inside joke?
This is the way "democracy" works in the UK too.
Under our FPTP system parties are often elected to be given effective 100% of power in parliament with sometimes as little as 30% of the public vote. Then, when parties are in power, they form a cabinet, which is basically 10 - 20 or so people with the PM at the top, the PM heavily influences the cabinet, but then what the rest of the part things is irrelevant as if they want to push something through they can use the whip, which largely forces MPs to vote along the lines the cabinet wants.
So basically, in the UK, 30% of the public vote is enough to give a small clique - the cabinet - effective 100% of control over how the country should go.
It's obviously not healthy, and is precisely why corruption is such a big problem (i.e. see the recent phone hacking stuff, the expenses scandal, and so on) - when you give a handful of people so much power, based on so little support, and leave no real counter to that power, then of course they'll get drunk on it and take bribes, because they know there's no one with the power to stand up to them. On some issues the Lords may intervene, but now that government has succeded in replacing the hereditary Lords with Lords chosen by MPs to a great extent then they've actually removed the semi-independance that hereditary peers even if not democratic, brought to the Lords. This is not to say I think hereditary peers are ideal of course, but simply that by allowing governments to install their own puppets in there instead, you remove the whole point of the Lords - a check and balance against bad government.
US lobbyists are absolute fucking cretins. At least the China and Iran stick their firewall on their side instead of buggering everyone else with it.
If you're referring to Iraq, that place was screwed up LONG before 2002. Nerve gas anyone?
And that's halfway to Roman_Mir's solution. Laws should be black and white, that's just another gray area.
We're in trouble, because traditionally, public outcry has never gotten any unpopular legislation changed here. It simply does not happen. Our representatives do not represent their constituencies, when in the governing party, but rather their party.. A vote of conscience , against the party line, will get you booted out of the party, and probably the cabinet. We all know who our current government works for, and here's a hint.. it's not the poor guy on the street corner, or the old pensioner in a dilapidated one room suite, for 900$ a month. I'd suggest checking in with Michel Geist's page, as he may have the most up to date info on how to keep draconian laws from being implemented.. We do not have an effective bill of rights to be worked around,.. the most oppressive legislation can easily be passed here.. Unless, of course,, all of you fellow Canadians *want* a SOPA like bill, passed here...
Don't be so hard on the Americans their cognitive capabilities are steched pretty thin these days: No more just watchin the corn grow and the sun set and rise.
I wrote a petition for this issue if anyone would like to sign.
You can search "Dont send SOPA to Canada" on the Care2 petition site if the link doesn't work.
If the rumors are true, and likely they are, it's shameful for the U.S. to go behind the scenes to try to sneak SOPA in on Canada's C-11.
If the music industry really needs protection, then there has to be a better way to do it. If a country has to try to sneak in a provision, then what does that tell you about it?
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/dont-send-SOPA-to-Canada/
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/What+SOPA+means+Canada/6019152/story.html#ixzz1t5Hk2MH9
You might try suggesting something like the following: If your motivation in the SOPA/PIPA legislation was to stem the tide of counterfeit goods by blocking the marketing of suspected counterfeit goods on the internet and the ability to order the suspected counterfeit goods via the internet, then I would like to suggest an alternative. In my view, preventing traffic in counterfeit goods is primarily a smuggling prevention problem. Assumptions: 1. It may be legal in some countries to make counterfeits of materials/works which are protected by copyright in other countries. 2. It is still illegal to smuggle the counterfeit works into the country where it is protected by copyright or other intellectual property laws. 3. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (http://www.cbp.gov/) has the task of regulating the flow of goods across the border. 4. The ports or entry which include internet-pipes-entering-the-country, airports, sea ports, and the border roads intersecting the border, are the natural place o interdict products ordered or smuggled via the internet. 5. Some items are for profit some are not for profit. 6. Some items are delivered over the internet others are not delivered over the internet. The copyright holder could give a vendor a unique digitally signed certificate for each copy of a electronic song or book for which a royalty had been paid. The U.S. Customs would provide one of the keys for the signature and the copyright holder would provide the other key. When a sale occurred over the internet and before the download could occur, it would have to pass U.S. Customs. To pass U.S. Customs the vendor would have to provide evidence (The certificate from the copyright holder.) that the royalties for the copy of the electronic song or book had been paid. The copyright holder would have to let U.S. Customs know when the certificates were issued or the U.S. Customs would have to verify the certificate with the copyright holders website as listed in the certificate. U.S. Customs and Border control could test vendors sites by placing an order and verifying the certificates. If the vendor did not supply the certificates the U.S. Customs would then have to notify the website/company that their products were held up in customs and post a banner across the internal-to-the-U.S. website stating that the website is not compliant with U.S. Customs and shipping of the product may be held up in customs pending proof of compliance with U.S. intellectual property laws. Possibly, new orders from within the U.S. could be disabled. Possibly, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer starting with https) sites related to the ordering of products could be blocked. Since purchasers don't want to send unencrypted credit card information over the internet, this would block new orders. Alternatively, once the banner is there, state that future orders through the website may make the buyer/downloader subject to payment of the royalties to the copyright holder. Perhaps, require that the buyer purchase the royalty certificate from the copyright holder independently of the download/purchase from the vendor. Perhaps hold up the credit card transactions at the border pending proof of intellectual property law compliance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Signature_Algorithm Similarly, the production and sale of drugs would require signed certificates of production and testing from the approved factory and labs, which tested the products, to be allowed entry into the U.S. I would also ban the practice of rebranding without verification of the product quality via an independent lab. I believe that newspaper marketing, magazine marketing, radio marketing, TV marketing, and physical stores are not required to verify the accuracy of statements in their advertisements. Why should the internet marketers have to do so? Often times, the internet marketers are intermediaries or rese
Sounds like a brother-in-law