Congress Creates Copyright Cops 533
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Not satisfied with pitiful potential penalties of $150,000 for infringing upon a $0.99 song, Congress is proposing new copyright cops in the "'PRO IP' Act of 2007, specifically the creation of the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER). They also feel that the authorities need the authority to seize any computers used for infringement and to send copyright cops abroad to help other countries enforce US laws. MPAA boss Dan Glickman praised the bill saying that, 'films left costs foreign and domestic distributors, retailers and others $18 billion a year,' though Ars points out that it allegedly costs the studios only $6 billion."
I've always wondered... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:As a none resident of the USA (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:As a none resident of the USA (Score:5, Interesting)
People *WILL* stop watching and listening (Score:3, Interesting)
Before long, people will stop watching TV and movies because it LEADS to wanting to record from TV or buying a DVD which leads to wanting to make backups which leads to being a felon! But if you don't know what you're missing, you won't be tempted by the 'drug' that is the entertainment industry.
So now I am imagining an entire future where people are afraid to hum a tune or even create their own entertainment for fear that it is similar enough to something they never heard or saw but is currently controlled by the perpetual copyright holdings of "big media" which officially merged a couple of years ago.
Should this thing pass, darker times will be upon us... not that things aren't pretty dark now.
Re:WTF (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides, I'll bet the federal courts strike this law down as being unconstitutional.
Especially scary (Score:5, Interesting)
This mean that these copyright cops will have the ability to go into a foriegn country, stomp all over the local legal system and then escape back to the US before they can be forced to account for their actions. These are not the actions of a country that wants to earn the respect of the world community.
This will not help the US cause in the long run as it will just cause even greater resentment in the countries on the receiving end of such treatment.
The obvious example is the pirate bay. If they really want to close the pirate bay they need to convince Sweden to pass tighter copyright laws, not go in and bust it illegally like they did. The problem now is that after that stunt it has made it much harder for them to convince the swedish people that such a change in law is neccessary. It has also made many european politicians scared on enacting said laws for fear of being accused of being a lapdog of a deeply unpopular president (Bush).
Maybe some of this situation will change when he leaves office but at the moment no other politician wants to appear to cosy with someone who has made some very questionable decisions and is going to be out of office soon anyway.
If the US really wants to try and encourage europe to adopt their laws, a much better start would be make some sort of concession to the european community. A good start would be allowing US troops to be prosecuted by a european criminal court for crimes they commit in Europe. We are not really that bad in Europe, we are also democratic nations who have very similar outlooks in a great many ways. If the US trusted us a little more that would most likely be reciprocated.
Re:what happend to state soverignty (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:WTF (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as the destruction of evidence by the CIA, I'm starting to think that there must be a dedicated corps of decent public servants left in government, our military and in our intelligence services, otherwise, we'd never even hear about these things. Somehow, we've learned about the illegal surveillance, the secret prisons, renditions, torture, about the NIE report that Iran hasn't had a nuclear weapons program since 2003, etc etc etc. So at least we have a chance, albeit small, to do something about it.
Now if only there was some dedicated corps of decent people in the entertainment industry, we might be able to stop or at least slow down the RIAA/MPAA and their rampant criminal activities.
Re:what happend to state soverignty (Score:5, Interesting)
NATO is more interesting, but as I understand it individual countries supply forces to NATO on an ongoing or as required basis, as opposed to NATO commanders simply choosing and using NATO members troops at will.
In any case I would suggest that sovereignty can only be lost if a country enters an agreement it cannot later unilaterally remove itself from, I would suggest that the individual states of the USA have lost much of their sovereignty but not all (they can still leave?) and EU member states are reducing their own sovereignty but are no where near having lost it. A loss of sovereignty can really only come about by losing a war and being put in a position where you no longer hold any powers of ther region that was your country.
Re:Cool. Another War (Score:5, Interesting)
EU citizenship? they'll still come for you (Score:5, Interesting)
So even staying at home won't make you safe
Re:Remember! (Score:3, Interesting)
To answer that question, cost. It would cost to much to help enforce "protection" of the small guys.
And I agree with you... the system needs to be (a) reformed, and (b) enforced. I disagree that writing to Congress-critters will have much of an effect. Instead, my recommendation it to support bands who publish their music on Jamendo [jamendo.com] and other "distribution-friendly" sites. There is nothing better for fans than an artist who WANTS you to listen to his music without greedily trying to grab a couple pennies every time you hear a new song.
A valid question (Score:2, Interesting)
Do we wait until they have us in lockdown during curfew with UAV's patrolling for dissenters, whose information is meticulously stored in a worldwide database?
Do we wait until the people that are disappearing to foreign countries are people we care about?
When do we, as not the people of a country, but humans with a sincere desire to be free, have the moral right to be able to revolt against this regime?
Re:"It costs $X billion per year" (Score:3, Interesting)
2 GB of Bandwidth: $2. (Ranging from some $.10 volume datacentre pricing to way more; $2 seems realistic)
DVD-R: $.50
Movie on a selfmade DVD: $2.50
If your quality requirement for both products is equal, I'd happily trade a used Daewoo of mine for a new Porsche of yours </car_analogy>
(The price comparison is somewhat inaccurate because of the difficulties of factoring in any time consumed. Assuming you'd typically buy some 2-3 retail DVDs at once but 25-50 DVD-Rs should somewhat make up for the time spent starting the download and burning the DVD. The time spent watching the film was deliberately omitted because most people tend to enjoy this process.)
Fascist imperialism, pure and simple. (Score:5, Interesting)
Uuuuh, right Wally.
So, let's see, some multibillionaire shitbag in Hollywood wants the US .gov to send agents overseas to persecute people in other countries for dealing with objects according to their own local laws and customs.
And this isn't imperialist fascism?
JH Kunstler noted that when local architecture of the commons is reduced to cartoon houses in the burbs and megamalls, you no longer have places worth caring about. Who ever wept at the demolition of a WalMart? Ad when you get enough places in one country that are not worth caring about, you end up with a nation not worth defending.
There's another kind of architecture, and its the architecture of the mind, and it's called "Media". And when enough of it is such crap that no one cares about it, and it is seen as more of a utility than a creation, then it ceases to be a culture worth defending.
With preposterous laws like this, the USA is working very hard at becoming a nation no longer worth defending. People will simply "Walk Away" from this catastrophe of a country, or, as William S Burroughs put it:
"(Thank you America) for being the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams."
RS
If you have ANY SENSE at all, you will get out of the USA as soon as possible. The second wave of mortgage failures will come in March. Once the USA sinks, things will get tough, and legislation like the above will become commonplace, even under a Democratic Administration.
Run. Now. And when you get out, you will see what the rest of the world sees: Those people are fucking crazy.
HW
Re:what happend to state soverignty (Score:3, Interesting)
More broadly, the entire idea of state sovereignty (i.e. enumerated powers) has been emasculated. The federal government has the powers it says it has. In the good old days, they used to use the Interstate Commerce Clause to justify Federal intervention in matters Constitutionally delegated to the states; now, they rarely even bother.