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SOPA Provisions Being Introduced Piecemeal From Lamar Smith
bricko sends this disappointing but not unexpected news from Techdirt:
"While it didn't get nearly as much attention as other parts of SOPA, one section in the bill that greatly concerned us was the massive expansion of the diplomatic corp.'s 'IP attaches.' If you're unfamiliar with the program, basically IP attaches are 'diplomats' (and I use the term loosely) who go around the globe pushing a copyright maximalist position on pretty much every other country. Their role is not to support more effective or more reasonable IP policy. It is solely to increase expansion, and basically act as Hollywood's personal thugs pressuring other countries to do the will of the major studios and labels. The role is literally defined as pushing for 'aggressive support for enforcement action' throughout the world. ... In other words, these people are not neutral. They do not have the best interests of the public or the country in mind. Their job is solely to push the copyright maximalist views of the legacy entertainment industry around the globe, and position it as the will of the U.S. government. It was good that this was defeated as a part of SOPA... but now comes the news that Lamar Smith is introducing a new bill that not only brings back this part, but appears to expand it and make it an even bigger deal."
IP is a euphemism for bit slavery.
Fugue for Aaron Swartz
How could Lamar do this? I strongly suspect this to be a javelin to the heart of internet democracy, thrown by Lamar with his limp-wristed throwing style.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Money, it's a hit. Don't give me that do goody good bullshit.
Trying to sneak rejected legislation in under wraps should be grounds for public beheading.
Time to get serious with these fucks, or else they'll never learn.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
About 10 years ago I submitted a slashdot book review for the dark satire, KW Jeter's Noir.
When I first read it, I was convinced he intended it more as a satirical caricature than a cautionary tale.
Now I'm not so sure.
I can see the fnords!
Out of curiosity, what keeps Lamar in office? His vehement support for the content cartels presumably doesn't hurt his war chest; but I don't imagine the 'Decadent Hollywood types love cutting me checks!' gambit is what gets out the voters down in Texas. He does have the requisite enthusiasm for fetuses; but that's a dime a dozen, and can be had from people who lack the additional oddity of being a Christian Scientist who spends part of his time hanging out in Massachusetts...
Does anybody more familiar with the fellow's local style know what he does that keeps him in office, as opposed to some socially-identical baptist or something without a copyright maximalist fetish?
Why is this guy such a cunt?
You can't blame a guy for having a bit of a grudge against the world after his parents named him "Lamar".
I like how it says to "Elevate the playing field." What do they mean? Tearing up everything and then paving their own companies above it so nothing grows? Also, the fact that it got passed hastily has me a bit worried. Yes, that trick almost worked with SOPA, but what if this one actually makes it past? My God, this thing is a Cthulu holding a flower while holding a gun behind his back, ready to shoot every form of competition.
"Oh, No Mr congressman! We don't want that dildo!"
"Well, little voter, don't worry your little head off. We see you can't possibly handle that dildo legislation.. so, how about THIS one?"
"Oh gosh Mr Congressman! That one's even bigger than the last one!"
(Repeat ad nauseum until little voter gets so shocked about what Mr Congressman can pull out of his rape kit that he accepts a "smaller" dildo, but still gets fucked.)
...is a good offense. Offense usually has the advantage, especially when it can indefinitely pick ground away at the defense. Once that ground is taken through legislation or becomes a societal accepted practice among the masses, no matter how small, it's not so easily taken back.
The word is corps, pronounced /kor/ .
Slashdot could really use an editor or two who are actually *editors* who, you know, like, know correct English and stuff, dude.
Damn copyright-loving, Hollywood-supporting Democrats like Lamar Smith.
Oh, wait...
Looking at where the IP attaches are sent(http://www.uspto.gov/ip/global/attache/index.jsp), China, Thailand, India, mid-east, it's clear that it's not all about the RIAA-style intellectual property rampages. This has more to do with the counterfeiting of physical goods, and the stealing of actual, useful research. Given the US's unwise decision to jump into an IP economy, this makes sense, and isn't necessarily a bad thing. They're not worrying about software and music here, they're worrying about research and product design. No need to panic, this isn't so bad. Of course Smith will probably be back with some of the dangerous things letter, but this looks innocuous.
"Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to you because your government is scheduled to soon receive an 'IP Attache' from my country's Commerce Department. Please be aware that despite the departmental title, this person DOES NOT represent my will, nor the will of the American people as a whole. The position he or she occupies was created through corrupt means and despite our vocal protests. I and my fellow Americans ask that you treat this representative as the corporate thug they are. They are not a diplomat. They have neither your best interests, nor ours, as their goal, only their own. I humbly ask that you treat them as you would any other hostile entity.
Sincerely, (name)"
Everything is better with chainsaws.
I think someone should host a page listing politicians who vote yes to strip away freedoms, internet or otherwise.
A list of IP attaches wouldn't hurt either, then countries could put them on the "do not fly" list.
Australia is taken, but maybe we could ship them all off to Antarctica.
Am I the only one who's thinking headcrab when hearing about Lamar?
What they've decided to do is start attempting to pass the bills one a time, one leading directly into the other. This one is saying:
Lamar Smith says, "Hey, don't you think intellectual property is important?! "
The house replies, "Well... yes..."
Lamar Smith says, "Don't you want Americans with good ideas to make money off them?!"
The house replies, "Of course!"
Lamar Smith says, "Well, I have an idea! Let's create a couple positions who's jobs are to oversee __________, in order to ensure our Americans with intellectual property get their dues!"
The house replies, "Sounds harmless..."
Lamar Smith says, "Well, we must make sure we enforce the laws here, and abroad, so we're going to send out representatives to other countries to make sure they pay our Americans for their ideas."
So this is basically the bill. What happens next is the obvious black hole of, HOW DO WE ENFORCE THE LAW? That comes with SOPA 2.0 which this bill lines up quite nicely. Bend over boys, this ones getting passed because it mentions nothing of the internet at all, nor really anything technical at all. Just basically states: "Intellectual property, important?! Yes."
Can't you Texans just vote this stupid bastard out once and for all?
I think we need our own lobby with billions of dollars behind it that goes for the extreme opposite, getting rid of all copyright protections for all works.
That way we have some hope of making a realistic compromise.
A pre-emptive strike is needed.
Campaign Contributions should not only be public, but limited as being from citizen/residents of the level of office that is representing that district. Would-be representatives should only be allowed to accept funds coming from citizens from within that district and Senator from within the state. This will, in theory, make them more likely to honestly represent the area in question. I doubt Lamar Smith's own district in TX is clamoring for this shit.
Superpacs should not be allowed. I don't think anyone but citizens should be allowed in the campaign contribution. No groups like megacorps, superpacs, NRA, no unions, nothing. At best, special interest groups should be allowed to notify members in the specific area to give to candidate X or Y. That keeps freedom of association.
The way it works now, with the structure of the Congress, special interest groups like the MPAA/RIAA entertainment cartel just have to target a few special senators/representatives that head pertinent the committees and have seniority, like the Bidens/Lamars of the world for bribes campaign donations, and they can usually railroad what they want through unless the apathetic public makes a special effort to counter it.
The problem is that the general public has a life besides watching Congress like a hawk and protesting. These groups can just keep advancing their agendas patiently, like a person playing chess, despite any one-time setbacks.
The Democrat running against Lamar Smith is Candace Duval- http://www.candaceduval.com/ while John Henry-Liberty is running as a libertarian- http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/John-Henry_Liberty. I don't unfortunately see any website that Henry-Liberty has set up, but the Duval has a donation button on her website. So the best thing to do to make clear one isn't happy with Lamar Smith is to donate to Duval's campaign. I'm donating right now. Fuck Lamar Smith.
... doing what they always do... (and it isn't manual labour...)
Who does your Congress bow down to? Netenyahu. It's sickening.
I am a voter in Lamar's district (San Antonio, TX) and have been voting against him for the last 12+ years. He runs as a republican in a very "safe" republican district - no democrat will ever fill his spot.
The best way to vote against him is to vote in the republican primary for another republican, in this case Richard Morgan. Unfortunately, my vote + my families vote + my other friends that I almost have drag to the polling booth don't seem to make much of a dent.
It would seem, to me at least, that this fits the definition of Treason very well. Or is it the case that congresspeople are granted complete immunity and impunity to all laws?
If it were up to me, I'd go further. All US copyright material would require a special license to both sell and own along with huge fines for non compliance. This would be paid for by a levy on the material. Material from elsewhere would be treated as currently. Market forces can be a bitch.
There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics - Umberto Eco
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch
They establish such treaties and promote such laws, and then come to the sucker countries to promote "US culture" like funk, rap and mellow pop with so worthless lyrics which won't work even as class material. The usual local idiots swallow it, bait and all, only to be prosecuted afterwards. After certain transgenic seeds of late, I guess this is becoming a preferred way to shake down other countries -- with added political motivations, I fear.
n/t
I don't want to hear any more of this BS about conservatives getting government off of peoples' backs.
2. Why do they keep re-electing him?
Why do we keep re-electing any of them?
Are you a Muslim from the Middle East? I'm just sayin'. lol
This has absolutely nothing to do with SOPA. The IP attache program is a good thing. Here's why:
1. I know several IP attaches. I know the USPTO coordinator who runs the program. The job has a lot of functions, many of which involve helping US companies abroad understand local IP laws (mostly small and medium businesses, large multinationals already have their own in-house experts) and reporting on local developments.
2. As with any diplomatic job, part of it is pushing US govt interests. But the attaches are the ones on the ground working every day with foreign civil servants. Attaches are the ones most likely to understand the foreign point of view and communicate it back to the rest of the government. Taking them away only decreases understanding and leads to more armchair experts in the US mindlessly pushing their agenda overseas.
3. The Attaches' main concerns are patents and copyrights, or in some countries trade secrets. Copyright is a small part of what they do (hint: there's no C in USPTO). Yes there is an emphasis on enforcement issues - more than I would like. But the Attaches are honest people working to resolve legitimate differences. This isn't a Disney-RIAA cabal.
4. Removing the Attaches solves nothing - it only makes things worse. You remove the front line of communication with foreign civil servants. You think the Attaches set the IP agenda? It's bureaucrats in Washington who do that, and they won't slow down, Attaches or not.
The people who really deserve your ire are those like Victoria Espinel, the President's "IP Czar". Her office does nothing but draft shoddy reports shilling for industry, and worse, drafting countless IP provisions to slip into Congressional bills you never even hear of. That's the woman behind the curtain you should be afraid of. Where do you think SOPA came from? Attaches are nothing but a sideshow, all smoke and mirrors compared to her.
Knowing you have a psychopathic and strong enemy coming to kill you, just sit on your hands and wait for your death.
Or FIGHT, after all GOD gave you that right.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6580/135/
Do they still have the Congressional district that cuts the entire UT campus out of Austin and ties it via a long, skinny corridor to San Antonio? I always found that a particularly impressive bit of gerrymandering...
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
how these Republicans are working to shrink government and get it out of our lives?
See, the corps are coming. They persuade, they convert and they make mutually beneficial arrangements also called corruption. Then the issue escalates into a series of "indefinite police operations."
It's Hedley: http://www.hark.com/clips/vyrqyrqsbv-thank-you-hedy-its-not-hedy-its-hedley
On y va, qui mal y pense!