Dept. of Homeland Security Enforces Expired Patent 1006
Fouquet writes "Apparently the Department of Homeland Security does not have enough to do in keeping the US safe, and now is enforcing copyright law as well. The AP reports that a toy store owner in Oregon was requested by Homeland Security officials to remove a potentially copyright-infringing Rubik's cube-like toy from her shelves. The patent for Rubik's cube was issued in 1980, and so it is expired."
Fear of powers (Score:5, Interesting)
However with all the terrorism and patriotism nowdays, peasants can't afford to not cooperate, "just in case" you got blamed for being terrorist or unpatriotic.
Next thing we know, IRS burst into a kindergarten arresting several 5-year-old's for not calculating and paying proper tax while playing Monopoly, just to protect the integrity of the economy and nation's financial systems. "If they can't do tax at age of 5, will you trust them to pay tax 20 years later?!"
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Informative)
The Customs Service is now part of Homeland Security. Ergo, DHS agents were the ones who investigated this incident.
(This is cut and pasted from below. It should be near the top... or in the summary)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:4, Informative)
responsibility of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a part of the Department of Homeland Security. They received a trademark infringement complaint, and they followed up on the complaint. That's their job. Why are you getting your knickers in a bunch because some federal agents are doing their job? Nowhere does the inflammatory and poorly written article suggest that they accused the store owner of being a terrorist. Get a grip.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they weren't doing their job. Their job was to determine the validity of the complaint, which they utterly failed to do. Hence, they failed to do their job.
If anything, the infringer was the manufacturer -- not the retailer. They did not go after the manufacturer, they went after a retailer. Again, they failed in their duties.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Funny)
Your job is to read the article. You didn't do so, because if you did you'd know that no trademark was infringed, and the patent's already expired.
Being /. though, this still earns you kudos, or at least karma.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Informative)
Which article did you read?
The article said, "...Agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint...." So, this is a trademark issue -- the patent expiration is irrelevant. It also said, "A representative [of Magic Cube's manufacturer] told her that
Please U[understand]TFA before you tell me to RTFA.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Informative)
The only evidence the article presents that no trademark was infringed is "a representative" of the manufacturer, via hearsay testimony from the owner of the store, both of whom presumably have some interest in claiming not to be breaking the trademark.
Unfortunately, the only evidence the article presents that a trademark was infringed was a spokesperson for DHS stating there was a complaint. There is a lot we don't know - it's quite possible the Magic Cube does infringe on Rubik's trademark. Contrary to the title of the
But, beyond that, nowhere in the article does it say Rubik was the one complaining. People just jumped to that conclusion. There is a live trademark on "Magic Cube" [uspto.gov] for a "manipulative puzzle" filed in December, 2001 by Atico, International. It would seem reasonable to me that Toysmith's product violates this trademark. There is no information in the AP article to conclude "no trademark was infringed," in fact the reporter seems to have done no research at all but calling DHS and the toy store operator. It's a terribly done article that is mostly about how weird it is that the people who enforce trademarks now work for DHS. But that's hardly new or news.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:4, Insightful)
Cached Copy of the toystore page showing the item. [216.239.41.104] That doesn't look to me as though it's infringing anything I associate with the Rubik's Cube, other than the now unprotected puzzle itself.
My own personal impression, based on the story and the press release you cited, is that the trademark holder is seeking to use the law to harass others for the purpose of stifling competition in the marketing of an item no longer covered by an expired patent.
It would be interesting to know what the basis for the complaint was. Knowing that might cause me to change my current personal opinion.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Funny)
So they've trademarked my girlfriend's personality?
Re:Fear of powers (Score:4, Insightful)
It's perceived that Homeland Security's job is to protect the nation from terrorists. That's how the administration billed the agency when it was created. Whether they have additional (or even completely different) duties or not is lost on about 99% of your audience.
In any event, I think the government has too much time on its hands in some respects, and this incident highlights that.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Informative)
I think you are the one who needs to do some cursory research before jumping to inaccurate conclusions and flaming professionals who are competently performing their jobs.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Informative)
Of course, what else would you expect from the likes of an Associated Press reporter?
A little research turns up the fact that not only has Seven Towns Limited trademarked Rubik and Rubik's Cube, they have trademarked its appearance. You might want to check out this [rubiks.com], this [rubiks.com], and this [brinkshofer.com] before continuing your sophistry. Realizing that one might actually have to search a bit on the last referenced page to find the relevant commentary, I'll post it here:
So it turns out that the Customs agents knew their job and were doing their job, just as I stated. I'm sorry if you don't like the facts.Re:Fear of powers (Score:4, Insightful)
This is the same thing as arresting a person, then going through due process. You don't wait to have a trial before arresting somebody in a shooting. You arrest the person, arrange bond (to secure the person's appearance at trial) then go through the trial process.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Insightful)
First, the title says "expired TRADEMARK", the article takes about the DHS enforcing COPYRIGHTS, then lastly it mentions that the PATENT for the rubik's cube is already expired.
So, like... did anyone bother to go over this and at least make sure that the article was at least talking consistantly about the specific IP protection being applied here?
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:4, Insightful)
The Yahoo news article is consistent. "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" only claimed that they were protecting a trademark. The manufacturer of the Magic Cube _also_ claims that the patent on the Rubik's cube has expired, which is interesting but not very relevant.
Only the Slashdot article submitter throws in the word "copyright", which is completely wrong and not relevant to the article. It's a bit sad that CowboyNeal didn't catch this before putting the article on Slashdot.
- Erwin
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Insightful)
This is exactly what you get when you trade freedom and liberty for the illusion of security. Security is always a future risk issue, and only a fool thinks the future is can be controlled by people. Of course there are general precautions, but history has shown that the most effective methods are simply to treat your neighbor as yourself, then only the profoundly selfish, sadistic and crazed are at issue. In which case, you're sunk anyway.
For example, why not empower the State to do daily inspections of every single home to root out 'terrorist cells'? Of course, if this were to be undertaken some "cells" would be found, but the proven reliable sociological effect would yield only the sadistic domination by the very 'security' people responsible for the enforcing the policy. And from the evidence I've seen this behavior cannot be predicted by any level of psychological screening. It's a matter of flawed human nature. And the effect is seen in less than a week, so for all those who think this is slow and unusual and is easily managed, you're simply wrong -- the effect propagates through all echelons of such organizations and is quite thorough and complete.
For those of you following along with the true issues involved, liberty has been redefined by Presidential decree three times in the last 50 years (see EO13083, et al). Of course, the US consitution itself hasn't been changed, but the dictionary used to decode it sure has.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
But it wasn't imported. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:But it wasn't imported. (Score:3, Informative)
Of course it was. They don't make stuff like that in America - spelled with a "c", by the way, for the benefit of illiterates who fancy themselves clever - any more, because it's the sort of thing you can get in China for a fraction of the price that a domestic manufacturer would charge you. But don't take my word for it - "Founded in 1981, Toysmith [toysmith.com] is an importer/distributor of toys, gifts and novelties from all over the world."
It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a matter of priorities and if this our current administration's idea of a law enforcement priority, then we need change really, really bad.
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Interesting)
Exactly. What you need to do is to stop terrorists at their source, and not terrorize your own people by hurting their privacy rights.
Tough statement, I know, but really just a logical conclusion from your argument...
Besides that (and back more on-topic, sorry), I think in this case the nomenclature is just unfortunate with the customs department being part of the DHS. On the other hand, look what this did to the shop owner... scare tactics at work.
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, we all know that locking your door is pointless. You need to stop the criminals at their source, not after they've walked into your house.
So, you're saying that scanning containers is impossible, but somehow it is possible to find every single terrorist hiding spot?
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you really want to live in a country where everyone have to wear a AK47 and a bulletproof vest if they go outside ?
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
Pal I have to break you the news, but if we dont start figuring out a way to inspect the containers most of the seaports in this country could be blown to kingdom-come. There wont be any products left to buy.
The Terrorist threat has been blown way the fuck out of proportion by the bush administration. We were attacked (and also had several failed attempts) several times before 9/11. 9/11 was the most succesful for sure, but what exactly made it seem like all of a sudden the terrorists got more well organized, or more well financed than they were before 9/11 ? Need I also remind everyone that we were aware that 9/11 was being planned ? The intelligence was there. The government however is to bloated and bureaucratic to handle things like this, and hence dropped the ball.
Want to be secure ? Leave everyone else the fuck alone. You dont see every country in the world being attacked by militant islamic extremist foreigners now do you ? Its because most countries mind their own fucking business.
Oh
"What you need to do is to stop terrorists at their source not after they've gotten their goods into the harbours."
You think searching the harbours or container ships is a problem ? Take a look at a fucking map, searching and securing the entire globe would be a bit harder. I think you can wait an extra month for your digital camera. The economy will adjust if it has to.
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Informative)
2/25/03 - Venezuela - 2 bombs explode simultaneously at spanish and columbian embassies. 1 Columbian and 3 Venezualans killed.
3/4/03 - Philippines - bomb explodes at airport. 21 killed, 149 injured.
3/20/03 - Lebanon - bomb explodes in apartment building. 2 killed, 9 wounded.
3/22/03 - Greece - bomb explodes at ATM.
3/24/03 - India - 11 men, 11 women, and 2 boys shot execution style by armed militants
3/25/03 - Serbia - 4 bomb attacks on UN interim administration
3/26/03 - Chile - bomb explodes at bank
3/29/03 - Greece - hand grenade tossed into a McDonalds
3/31/03 - Cuba - plane carrying 46 passengers hijacked
4/2/03 - Philippines - bomb explodes on passanger warf. 16 killed, 55 wounded.
4/5/03 - Lebanon - two bombs explode at restaurant. 10 wounded. undetonated C-4, TNT, and gas containers found.
4/8/03 - Algeria - 1 Swede and Dutch citizen kidnapped
4/11/03 - Algeria - 2 Austrians kidnapped
4/12/03 - India - multiple grenade attacks kill 1, wound 43.
4/12/03 - Venezuala - C-4 bomb explodes at OAS office
4/14/03 - France - militants set fire to car and destroy restaurant
4/15/03 - Turkey - bombs explode at 2 different McDonalds. 1 injured.
4/22/03 - India - bomb explodes at dairy. 6 killed, 12 wounded.
4/25/03 - India - bomb explodes at courthouse. 3 killed, 34 wounded.
5/5/03 - India - bomb and grenade attacks kill 1, injure 26.
5/16/03 - Morocco - 5 bombs explode simultaneously damaging Belgian consulate. 33 killed, 101 wounded.
6/4/03 - Belgium - Letters found containing the nerve agent adamsite. 10 hospitalized.
6/9/03 - Peru - 71 workers of an Argentine company kidnapped
6/17/03 - Italy - bomb explodes in front of spanish school
6/18/03 - France - militants destroy 2 villas with bomb blasts
6/26/03 - Kenya - aid workers attacked with hand grenades
7/3/03 - Columbia - 5 swiss citizens kidnapped
8/5/03 - Indonesia - bomb explodes in front of hotel 12 killed 149 wounded. Al-Qaida claims responsibility.
8/8/03 - Spain - mail bomb sent to Greek consulate
10/5/03 - Malaysia - 3 Indonesians and 2 Filipinos kidnapped. 1 escaped, 4 found executed.
11/11/03 - Greece - bomb found outside bank
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
You will also notice that a large number of those countries have a significant oppressed class/religion/whatever. Then quite a few are also just as guilty as the US regarding trying to control the world.
You know what you wont see on that list are any nuetral countries that dont have their own internal problems. Every single one of those countries has there own internal issues, was/is a significant ally of the US or is involved in the middle east on there own.
The criteria for that list is bullshit. The bloods and crips would be on that list if they were shooting at mcdonalds instead of each other, that doesnt make them terrorists, it makes them plain old criminals.
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Informative)
Huh? Someone sets fire to a car in a "difficult suburb" (read ghetto) and all of a sudden it's "militants"?
From the Reuters report:
Re:It's a case of priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
The Center for Disease Control (the CDC) keeps odds on what you will most likely die from over the span of your life.
Do you know where terrorism ranks? Your more likely to die from lightning than die from a terrorist attack. That's right. Go to the CDC site and see it for yourself.
Your 8 times more likely to die in your own bathtub than die from a terrorist attack. TERRORISM?
You are 18516 times more likely to die in a car wreck than you are in a terrorist attack at the mall you were driving to. TERRORISM?
Do you know how many children in this country die every year because of no healthcare and no food? Do you know how many homeless people there are across the country?
TERRORISM?
You are THOUSANDS of time more likely to get shot, stabbed, hung, hit by car, flambayed, gored, frozen, drown, bludgeoned, and electrocuted during your life than die in a terrorist attack.
The amount of fear-mongering in this country is completely revolting. VOTE FOR BUSH BECAUSE HE PROTECTS US! Bullshit. How about making the roads safer. That would save thousands of lives as the average peron has a 1 in 81 chance of dying in a car wreck during their life.
I've read articles on how parents fear for their childrens safety in this "age of terrorism", while ignoring the fact that their child is thousands of times more likely to die just around their own homes than in a terrorist attack.
TERRORISM? The only real terrorism I know is the fear-gospel being spewed forth by the media.
"One terrorist attack is one too many." You have a 1 in 197 chance of being murdered in your lifetime. Compare this to a 1 in 88000 chance of being killed by the terrorist. I'm a little more concerned about being murdered.
TERRORISM? With 45 million people being uninsured for health, I really don't think that terrorism should be up at the top of the list. You are THOUSANDS of times more like to die from disease over your lifetime than you are to die in a terrorist attack over your lifetime.
No my friends. Terrorism is not the biggest threat to this country. Ignorance is. This country has real domestic problems of its own that DWARFS terrorism on all fronts.
We've spent billions on a war that didn't need to be fought, but we have millions of starving kids in our own backyard. We've spent billions to precision bomb a country that didn't even have clean drinking water, while thousands die every year in our country because they can't afford health care. Billions have been spent on Homeland Security, while homeless shelters have been packed to gills here in our own country.
Think about it.
~X~
sorry... (Score:5, Insightful)
That "not be able to inspect" the containers jazz is a load, OF COURSE they could if they wanted to, they don't want to. They manage to "inspect" 80 year old ladies and crippled vets in wheelchairs at the airport. They manage to "inspect" a heap of countries over yonder, to the tune of billions of dollars a WEEK using hundreds of thousands of dudes, some of them making in excess of 600$ a day to just tote a rifle. The "war on terrorism" is a complete fraud. It's war to terrorise americans,oh, that's true, that's really true, but it's being waged by the government, and this article proved it in yet again another small way.
You had to watch it grow ever since the 60s to see it,but it's been creeping incrementalism, and a lot of folks have been warning about it for years. The past few years they have hit the nitrous button, that's the only difference. And they show no sign of relenting, or rolling anything back for that matter, just ever onward. And people have been eating it and sucking it up every step of the way. Can't look at a news site anymore without seeing more and more evidence of it. A FAN at a baseball game shot and killed by getting hit in ther eye with a riot paintball pellet? Huh? Random "courtesy" checkpoints? Huh? Cameras all over staring at you? Huh? Even that name "Homeland Security" WHAT WW2 B war movie did they drag that from? What is all this crap BUT big brotherism and state terrorism?
The goons have proven it, the slow boiling frog, most people will just slurp it down, excuse it, make believe they aren't seeing or hearing what they are seeing or hearing, every step of the way.
Re:sorry... (Score:4, Insightful)
Blessed are the days when the bad and nasty foreign manufacturers had an import quota of 6000 cars per class per year per manufacturer.
Blessed are the days when steel had an import duty of 30+%
Blessed are the days when... We can continue...
One minor problem though, the day these days return there will be the same measures everywhere else around the globe so no effing container is going out anywhere. Example - the recent spat over steel tariffs between US and EU.
So get real.
Re:sorry... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fear of powers (Score:5, Funny)
My search warranties always seem to expire right before I really need them.
Re:Fear of powers (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know about US law, but in the UK, trespass goes from being a simple civil offence to a full-blown criminal offence once you start disrupting a lawful activity {Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 s.61, from memory}.
Getting back on topic: (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the most illinformed shit I've seen on Slashdot in a while. A Slashdot while that is, which is not very long. Sometimes people make a little mistake and think say for instance a trademark is covered under the same laws as copyright. Pisses me off, but it's never the end of the world. But this? The End of the World .
end of the world (Score:5, Funny)
And now, Slashdot editors confuse copyright, trademark, and patent law all together at once, creating a sort of Grand Unified Theory of IP Confusion which was obviously the purpose of Slashdot.
So yeah, the end of the world.
Absolutely the worst writeup I've seen too (Score:5, Informative)
A Rubik's cube can't be copyrighted - there's no text. The INSTRUCTIONS could be...
A trademark on it could be valid - but only if it was confusingly similar - ie, if a reasonable person buying it might THINK they were buying a Rubik's cube, or something from the same company.
The patent is apparently expired, at least if can trust the article. Which we can't.
Patent law != copyright law != trademark law != trade secret law. THEY ARE ALL TOTALLY SEPERATE.
*sigh*
Re:Absolutely the worst writeup I've seen too (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrong, copyright covers more than text. Copyright covers any fixed expression in a tangible medium. Thus, it covers text, but it also covers sculptures, bike racks, scribbles on paper, computer code on disk, and potentially, Rubix cube designs.
If the mods/editors need a quick refresher on what trademark/patent/copyright/trade secret really is, they can check out my blog. [smiglaw.com] So many people mess this up, I have to keep pointing this out. I'll gladly volunteer to review submissions concerning IP- I'm an IP attorney, and it really bugs me that people use these terms interchangeably.
*sighs louder*
go figure (Score:5, Insightful)
So which is it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Trademark in the title, copyright in the summary, but a patent on the Rubik's cube. These are all different you know...
Re:So which is it? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:So which is it? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So which is it? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:So which is it? (Score:4, Funny)
-russ
Ahh, America (Score:5, Funny)
waste of resources (Score:3, Funny)
"One of the things that our agency's responsible for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation's financial systems and obviously trademark infringement does have significant economic implications,"
a Rubiks Cube Clone??? Seriously, i could eat a bowl of alphabits and crap a better Bullshit argument.
Re:waste of resources (Score:5, Informative)
What makes this so sad is that slowly the terrorists are winning. I don't mean that as a joke. Their goal seems to have been to make our lives as shitty as theirs and they're are making progress.
And no, John Kerry in office isn't going to change anything because you still have Republicans in the house and senate. And yes, I am a Republican and no I don't agree with everything that they do.
Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Apparently the Department of Homeland Security does not have enough to do in keeping the US safe, and now is enforcing copyright law as well.
The patent for Rubik's cube was issued in 1980, and so it is expired."
So, are we talking about a copyright, a trademark, or a patent?
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
Either way, it really bugs me that homeland security is even thinking about anything besides terrorism. Why the hell are we paying agents to fly out to bumsville for a da## rubiks cube.. And if we're paying them to do that, why aren't we paying them to research things first? Perhaps the same researchers that decided there were WMD's in Iraq (though I think there must be somewhere.. still intelligence was bad enough we cant find them if they are there)..
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Informative)
rUSsiA (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:rUSsiA (Score:5, Interesting)
Check this [livejournal.com] out.
Excerpt:
Re:rUSsiA (Score:5, Interesting)
Zandecks [easyjournal.com]
**Snip--From the end of the Blog**
After about half an hour of searching they let me go and everything was ok. The customs girl who searched me was really nice and I've got nothing against her, but now there is a file on me that they found traces of cocain in my bag. I thought about how the hell this could happen, and when I got home I realised that the lock on my bag was missing (I had noticed earlier but forgot when I was being searched). I opened up my bag again and found a note from US customs. Apparently they had broken open my bag to search it. I guess ing these fuckers searched my bag and accidently contaminated my bag with some cocain they found on an ealier search. Thanks guys...
**Snap**
Re:rUSsiA (Score:3, Informative)
From the post:
Please kill George Bush. I hate him so much. I think he is a giant dick and I want terrible things to happen to him. I'm not really big on the specifics of how he dies, but if you could at least arrange it so that the authorities find his dead body on top of an underage black male prostitute surrounded by a mountain of cocaine and child pornography, that would really be super-awesome. And mayb
Re:rUSsiA (Score:5, Informative)
a prayer for dubya
Dear God:
Wassup? How's it hanging? Yeah, I know it's been a long time since we talked. This probably stems from my belief that you do not exist. Anyway, the reason why I'm calling you is because last night, President Bush said that he could feel it every time we prayed for him, and since he apparently doesn't listen to anyone but you, Lord, I thought you might pass this along to him.
Re:Mod Parent Up (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:rUSsiA (Score:5, Funny)
And that wouldn't look good on a visa application...
Re:rUSsiA (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, for god's sake. It's not that bad. If it were, there's about 200 newspapers that would be shut down already, for endorsing the political opponent of the president. You can still stand on the street corner and hold up a big sign that says what a dickless coward you think the president is; I know, because I see people doing it all the time here in Columbia, Missouri.
Wher
Re:rUSsiA (Score:5, Informative)
Can I point out two things?
Here's a clue boy: go get yourself an education, you seem to need it.
MartJust Wow. (Score:3, Interesting)
This sounds like really great news. What next? Every person who downloads MP3s is automatically branded a 'terrorist' because they might be threatening the integrity of the economy? Even if they own the CD in question (which is analogous here, because legally there's nothing wrong with the Majick Cube either now that the Rubik's patent has expired)?
--Ryvar
Confusion (Score:3, Informative)
Customs is part of Homeland Security and customs has been enforcing these laws for as long as I can remember. These are imported goods.
Re:Confusion (Score:3, Insightful)
DHS should be an organization designed to focus on real terror threats, and leave the rest to other separate agencies - yes, communication can be a problem between agencies, but misallocation of resources by an oversized organization is likekly to be an even greater problem
DHS likely will be split up eventually
Uh huh (Score:5, Funny)
"Within six months of passing the PATRIOT Act, the Justice Department was conducting seminars on how to stretch the new wiretapping provisions to extend them beyond terror cases," said Dan Dodson, a spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. "They say they want the PATRIOT Act to fight terrorism. Then, within six months, they are teaching their people how to use it on ordinary citizens."
Re:Uh huh (Score:5, Insightful)
Democracy is quietly dying because a buch of lazy people will happily pass the "Happy fluffy bunny (you'd be a nasty pinko liberal for not passing this) bill" without actually reading it and finding out that it disbands senate & congress and leaves all legislative & executive power in the hands of the president who now has an extended (life) term of office.
Re:Uh huh (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this is a bit simplistic. The senate had 735 Bills [state.mo.us]last year according to that site, with language such as:
"A producer member shall submit to the authority an application for the tax credit authorized by this section on a form provided by the authority. If the producer member meets all criteria prescribed by this section and is approved by the authority, the authority shall issue a tax credit certificate in the appropriate amount."
Imagine trying to understand 735 documents composed of such language, some of which can be many many pages, or make "small" adjustments to current laws. Some bills, I'm sure, are written and titled to purposely obfuscate their true intentions as well.
My guess is that's why senators and house members have staffs: to read the bills and tell them what they mean. There's not time enough in the day to read and understand fully all those bills.
But...
I certainly agree that each bill should be fully understood before it's voted on, which would mean a LOT more time between introduction and passing, which would mean fewer bills being passed, which is fine with me except in emergency situations (like aid to hurricane victims, etc.).
Democracy is quietly dying because a buch of lazy people will happily pass the "Happy fluffy bunny (you'd be a nasty pinko liberal for not passing this) bill" without actually reading it...
No, democracy is dying because of fundamental flaws in large scale republics and american culture, and lack of interest and education of Americans.
(Disclamer: I'm an American and I dislike both of the major candidates, but I hate Bush more. Remember though, the DMCA was passed under Clinton.)
Of course! (Score:5, Funny)
DHS seems to have morphed (Score:5, Insightful)
Now the DHS seems to see its role as more than a simple anti-terrorist investigative agency. They think of themselves as another arm of Federal law enforcement. To some extent, they are correct. The role they play is vital to American national security, and to reach the goals of the agency it is mandatory that they have the ability to use law enforcement tactics.
However, to stretch the fairly narrow initial charter of the DHS to include such things as "defending the national economy" is nothing short of stupid and dangerous. When the DHS was formed, their purview only included possible terrorist attacks. Now it is expanded to include just about any crime that someone deems undesirable.
The government should not have many overlapping law enforcement agencies. Indeed, this is what led to the massive intelligence failure on 9/11 with the lack of communication between the various government agencies. The DHS would be better absorbed into the FBI as a anti-terror division than to continue expanding its powers unabated.
Re:DHS seems to have morphed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:DHS seems to have morphed (Score:3, Informative)
The DHS was never intended to be just an anti-terrorist agency and it never had a narrow charter. The whole idea was to put everything relating to domestic security under one roof. Among the many [dhs.gov] former departments and agencies that it includes are Customs, Immigration, the Coast Guard, and the Secret Service.
But wait... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just the facts ma'am (Score:5, Funny)
Terrorists? Do you think we'd be mucking around in Iraq if we knew where to find terrorists??
Now just put down the cubes and nobody gets hurt.
Nothing to see here (Score:5, Interesting)
The Customs Service is now part of Homeland Security. Ergo, DHS agents were the ones who investigated this incident.
Re:Nothing to see here (Score:3, Informative)
Yes it probably is, and it took me a whopping 45 seconds on Google to figure that out - "Founded in 1981, Toysmith is an importer/distributor of toys, gifts and novelties from all over the world."
source [toysmith.com].
Patents are important for security (Score:4, Funny)
Terrorist suppliers cannot be allowed to sell the tools of evil with just one click.
The terrorist must always click twice.
Useless summary. (Score:5, Informative)
The article states that the action was taken on the basis of a trademark. With a name like "Magic Cube" if the toy is anything at all like a Rubic's Cube then it almost certainly does infringe on the Rubic's Cube trademark.
And why all the fake wonderment about the department of Homeland Security handling the case? In case anyone missed the press release the department is not some niche organisation that deals specifically with terrorism. It's a big tarball of a whole bunch of departments and old law enforcement angencies that used to deal with all manner of federal law enforcement issues. They do lots of things besides deal with terrorism.
Re:Useless summary. (Score:3, Insightful)
The AP story very clearly states :
"Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, D.C."
These agents, working for Customs enforce
Re:Useless summary. (Score:4, Funny)
With a name like "Magic Cube" if the toy is anything at all like a Rubic's Cube then it almost certainly does infringe on the Rubic's Cube trademark.
Yeah, cause how dare they call a six-faced object with square faces a "Cube". I mean, they even capitalized the C!
I want one (Score:5, Interesting)
So how about it ThinkGeek? I want "the toy the government doesn't want you to know about".
How cool would that be.
Conspiracy Theory (Score:3, Funny)
I'm not sure what's more frightening (Score:3, Insightful)
You have a chance to do something about it next Tuesday. Go vote.
We're going to have to change our name to the country formerly known as the land of the free.
Abuse of Power (Score:5, Insightful)
If we let these powermad tyrants have power, they will abuse it, and maybe apologize later, after the damage is done. We have to get rid of this unaccountable department immediately, and use our National Security system to protect us. Anyone know what is the difference is between "National" Security and "Homeland" Security? Or the Department of Defense, for that matter? We're turning into squalid East Germany, where every fifth German was a "security" henchman, controlling their neighbors through surveillence and intimidation.
Re:Abuse of Power (Score:3, Insightful)
Agreed; I even found the fact that they used "Homeland" which sounds so much like "Fatherland" to be mildly entertaining.
But they took it from a long US playbook, which includes the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT) checking the 1938 Nazi gun control laws out of the Library of Congress immediately prior to writing the US's 1968 gun control laws--which look surprisingly [jpfo.org] like [lewrockwell.com] the 1938 version! (In fact, barring translation issues, they're almost word-
Re:Abuse of Power (Score:5, Insightful)
>If we let these powermad tyrants have power
We did. They won a long time ago. Thanks to things like the "culture war," conservative media passing itself off as "fair and balanced," Reaganomics, the marriage of Christian fundies to the GOP, etc. The damage that has been done will take decades to fix, if not generations.
POE (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:POE (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/ibex/archive/dickens
This concerns Trademarks... (Score:3, Insightful)
Specifically, the trademark probably hasn't expired (in principle trademarks don't while you defend them); A rubiks cube (or anything similar) can't infringe upon copyright (unless you're crazy enough to consider it a medium for information).
I don't like whining about bad slashdot stories; but this really is poorly presented...
--Eamon
Submitter and gov't has no clue about trademarks (Score:3, Interesting)
OK, so US Customs is enforcing a trademark violation. Fine.
What is wrong is that Customs does not have jurisdiction inside the US only coming and going from it. Once in the US, it is a civil case that would need at least a hearing or court order to remove merchandise from the store. More than likely, an authorized local authority would then execute the court order(not actual agents).
It is disturbing that Homeland Security did think that Magic Cube and Rubik's Cube are similar in name or that they don't understand what a trademark is. Most disturbing is that Homeland Security obviously does not understand the laws they are trying to enforce or how to legally enforce them.
The only 'wrong' thing going on is that Rubik or whoever reported it is intentionally damaging and interfering with Magic Cubes and Pufferbelly Toys businesses. Homeland Security should immediately return the items to Pufferbelly Toys and apologize. I don't think there is much Pufferbelly Toys can do for restitution directly against Homeland Security. It would be nice to be able to sue the government for incompetence, but then there would be no government left.
the real story (Score:3, Funny)
National Intellectual Property Rights Center (Score:5, Informative)
This is part of the Cornerstone Initiative [ice.gov], "Protecting the Homeland through Economic Security". Their site is "being revised", but their newsletter [ice.gov] lists what they're up to.
Not Patent! National Security! (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, if kids start using it, they grow smart and intelligent. And intelligent people start to question questionable orders from the government, protest against warfare, lobby towards upbringing that makes smart kids, may listen to reason instead of blindly following propaganda...
This toy is definitely danger to homeland security.
(but such reasons can't be stated clearly so the dept had to think of some other bogus reasons like the patent or such...)
patent? copyright? trademark? (Score:4, Informative)
Please try to keep the three concepts apart. One thing is clear: the DHS should have no business enforcing any of them.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:But we all know... (Score:3, Funny)
Come one now, this is
Re:Uh... yeah. (Score:5, Funny)
So, if the Dept of Homeland Security confiscated the American cubes.... they must be agents of the Soviet Government. Thats the only thing that makes sense.
Re:Oh come on (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And why _aren't_ you voting for Bush? (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you seen the price of oil recently?
Re:And why _aren't_ you voting for Bush? (Score:4, Insightful)
How do you know the claim is bogus? Nowhere does it even say what the actual claim was. Are you the judge and jury because some slashdot article gave you inaccurate and incomplete infromation, that you can pronounce a claim bogus? For that matter, how do you know they didn't have a warrant? The article doesn't mention it either way.
Re:And why are you people voting for Bush? (Score:5, Insightful)