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Music Industry 'trying to hijack EU data laws' 147

Posted by CowboyNeal from the burden-of-proof dept.
sebFlyte writes "The recording industry is trying to hijack the EU's data retention directive, which is being brought in to fight terrorism, to try and get their copyright battles fought for them. As previously reported, the EU may be making copyright infringement a criminal offence, and the Creative Media Business Alliance is lobbying hard to stop the European laws on data retention being restricted to cover terrorism and organized crime (as is currently proposed). In essence, they want to be able to get police to search through newly extended records from ISPs to look for evidence of illegal filesharing. In the words of the executive director of the Open Rights group, 'the music industry's attempt to hijack this legislation is a travesty and a gross affront to civil liberties and human rights.'"
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Music Industry 'trying to hijack EU data laws'

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  • Mabye people will start to realise the absurdity going on.

    • hijacked (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Douglas Simmons ( 628988 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:18PM (#14110259) Homepage
      So, in the spirit of the story topic, I'm gonna hijack this first post to make my point. Governments are concerned with politics and their constituents. The MP/RIAA are natural enemies to a lot of tax paying voters, plus they've made some major screw ups. For example, the recent Sony screw-up of course, and those false-positives in sending out mass subpoenas. I see governments, particularly on the local level (where there's less lobbying), siding with the people (IE the pirates) and legislating appropriately.

    • Re:good news (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @10:35PM (#14110536)
      Ive said it before, but I sometimes think if "marxism" is ever going to make sense to anyone, it'll be the musicians.

      We've long since cottoned on to the fact that the industry is definately not acting in musicians interests, because while the Music industry are busy criminalising and raping the musicans best friend, the kids, we still aint seeing a cent for our endevours.

      Hows about the "bosses", get out the way and let us muso's do what we always did best; SELF promote. We have the net these days, our "means of production", as those whacky old russians used to call it. We can do it ourselves.

      • Re:good news (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Scarletdown ( 886459 )

        Hows about the "bosses", get out the way and let us muso's do what we always did best; SELF promote. We have the net these days, our "means of production", as those whacky old russians used to call it. We can do it ourselves.

        If you have the means to produce and self-promote, then what is holding you back? As far as I know, the RIAA and other music cartels around the world have not yet made it illegal for independent artists to do it themselves. Go for it, and make it happen. I, for one would love to see

        • Re:good news (Score:4, Insightful)

          by cnerd2025 ( 903423 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:27AM (#14112382)

          As far as I know, the RIAA and other music cartels around the world have not yet made it illegal for independent artists to do it themselves.


          It might as well be illegal. So many indie artists would use filesharing ("legally") to spread their stuff to the world. The RIAA wants to bring all file-sharing down because it is "illegal" or "unethical". It's a load of cold, hard crap. Consider this: indie artists get very little (if any at all) air-time on radio. Even the artists who do get air-time are made to pay for it (the studios subtract the fees against the artists' profits). Now let's say someone wants to create an indie radio station. Too bad, gotta go through the FCC, pay fees, and yada yada. And what about playing indie music on regular radio stations? Not gonna happen. The radio stations are put under the fingers of each studio. The (RI/MP)AA have this sick, twisted, and tyrannical view of art, science, and media. They infest the masses with this idea that an abstract idea or representation can be copyrighted. They have this idea that "to benefit artists" the exclusive right to copy, play, or use the song/art/media is given to the "artists" ::cough cough::ahem, studios::cough cough::. Anyone with good experience with the Constitution should cringe at this. For those blessed souls who do not have a baboon as president, the US Constitution provides that copyright exists a) for limited periods of time and b) exists only to be used for the progress of art or science. NOT for the benefit of just the "artists"...er...studios. Since the Constitution supercedes all US Law, much (if not all) of the US Copyright Law is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.


          These facts haven't stopped the (MP/RI)AA from spreading their propaganda and their lies. The Media is allied with these cartels, and the sad state of American media has a) led to indoctrination and b) led to crackpot journalism. "News" with little analysis, incorrect analysis, or the complete lack thereof is rampant in American mass media. The news networks present these stories about "illegal file-swapping" or "filesharing bandits" which are completely one-sided. When I was younger and had no idea about the truth, I believed what they said about Napster. It sounded like some sort of evil plot. Until I learned the truth. I learned that the truth truly does set one free. I learned that the Media (as any group with power) only wants more power. They think the world would be a better place if everyone just did everything the way the media wanted. Most likely, this would only benefit the media. That is the state of things now. The Media is on this self-appointed crusade. Yet now they have experienced the bulk of their power. The news relics of the cold-war are no longer adequate. People are actually becoming disgusted with the media. Movie viewership is far below projected estimates this year. The MP/RIAA claims that this is the underhanded dealing of filesharing "pirates". Since these cartels have so much influence, they dance about unchecked, weilding lawsuits, subpoenas, and red tape. I hold the opinion that the MP/RIAA hold much less wealth than we are led to believe, and that is why they have begun these attacks. They are desperate, and they know that copyright provides enough leverage for the MP/RIAA to become some state-sponsored thing. They'll get their money (somehow they'd get it; energy research is willingly cut out of the budget, but the MP/RIAA must get their new subsidy) and they'll be happy...at individuals' expense. Their rights end where ours begin.


          To those filthy corporate bastards: Sorry, we left our eyepatches at home. Cartels are much more piratical than we. We the consumers are being alienated. Why not make something that we like? Capitalism is founded on the principle that competition forces innovation. Capitalism does not induce bitching about consumers. F^** you!

    • Bad news (Score:2, Insightful)

      by thesnarky1 ( 846799 )
      As usual (like all the other steps RIAA/MPAA has taken in the US and abroad) most people won't give a crap, it'll be under-publicized, and politicians will keep worrying about their job as opposed to the will of the people.

  • Here is the original article (Score:5, Informative)

    by warmcat ( 3545 ) * on Thursday November 24, 2005 @08:37PM (#14110119)
    For some reason neither zdnet nor the submitter give a link to the site and article they are talking about:

    an openrights.org blog entry [openrightsgroup.org].

    The page has a cool link to WriteToThem [writetothem.com] where UK readers at least can quickly find out who their MEP is and how to contact them.

    • For the record, I think the Open Rights Group are still looking for pledgers for their funding pledge [pledgebank.org], so that they can properly start up. You know it makes sense, fellow Brits.

    • The truth is that the copyright system incentivizes a media system that promotes hype over substance. Terrorists exploit that hype to gain dominance and attention in a way they wouldn't be able to otherwise. By themselves, terrorists have no possibility of military dominance, but with the copyright system - they at least have the chance of political dominance.

      So in truth, the copyright industry reeks with blazing hypocracy and I wouldn't be supprised if some were doing this simply to hide their own dark r

    • Re:Here is the original article (Score:5, Interesting)

      by neillewis ( 137544 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @12:42AM (#14111082)
      Here's my attempt, sent to all the MEPs for my area...

      I am concerned at attempts to widen the uses for Data Retention beyond the initial aims of combatting serious crime such as terrorism.

      I strongly believe that acceptance of the proposed amendment by MEP Bill Newton Dunn, which has been the subject of lobbying by the CMBA, would make the law an invasive and overbearing infringement of our rights to both free association and privacy.

      I am disturbed that this attempt to change the scope of the legislation has come despite prior justification that it was necessary for fighting terrorism and would be limited to fighting serious crime.

      One of the strongest arguments against this type of legislation is that its use is inevitably broadened in an undemocratic and authoritarian manner. This inevitably weakens public support for what might otherwise be seen as acceptable to society.

      Abuse of process and betrayal of public trust in this way, supported by misleading lobbying by special interest parties is profoundly undemocratic.

      What is more, it is inevitable that the public's response to such an egregious abuse of power to diminish privacy would include the widespread use of technological countermeasures that would undermine the intended purpose of the legislation.

      For these reasons I would ask you to ensure that the legislation is not hijacked when it comes before the Parliament in the coming weeks.
    • For some reason neither zdnet nor the submitter give a link to the site and article they are talking about:

      an openrights.org blog entry.

      Hello. You must be new here. :)

      Did you think somebody would actually RTFA and notice that the submitter posted the wrong link?

    • WriteToThem really does work work! I've sent my MP many emails through the WriteToThem form, and now receive official typed replies to my questions and ongoing issues. My MP seems interested to help resolve problems such as this, copyright and patents, chipping an xbox etc - and has replied with enthusiasm and good intent.

      Its a lot more than i expected! It does work, you can get through to the people who matter.
    • The ORG are having a public meeting in London next week [openrightsgroup.org], so RSVP if you can make it.
      The pledge drive [pledgebank.com] is getting close to completion, so if you want to be one of the thousand founding donors, you need to hurry as there are 39 places left.
  • Just when the petition from http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com/ [dataretent...lution.com] closed.

  • The arrogance! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pig Hogger ( 10379 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (reggoh.gip)> on Thursday November 24, 2005 @08:41PM (#14110138) Journal
    The arrogance of that mostly irrelevent "industry" is incredible!

    They think they can force everybody to use technology that will only benefit them (remember the hard-drives that were supposed to check if the data they copy is copyrighted?).

    This arrogance only warrants one thing: that "industry" shall be pirated to the croporate death penalty. The slow one: diminishing into irrelevence and oblivion through gradually diminishing sales.

  • The EU is "better" than the US (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Elrac ( 314784 ) <carl@smotr i c z . c om> on Thursday November 24, 2005 @08:44PM (#14110155) Homepage Journal
    ...insofar as corporations don't *always* manage to bully or bribe their way to getting legislation passed in their interest and against those of consumers, or citizens in general.

    Here in Europe, the success rate for such capers is only about 50% :)

    So let's see what happens this time. Remember, if the EU Parliament doesn't immediately give in, it's still a feasible tactic to target individual countries, bring about some division and then see if the Überparliament has meanwhile changed their tune.

    • Re:The EU is "better" than the US (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:48PM (#14110356) Journal
      The quote about using records to find evidence of illegal filesharing... Reminds me of a Business Week article [businessweek.com] I just read. About half way through the article:
      ...business groups contend that the Patriot Act, as written, gives the feds carte blanche to rifle through corporate records. One worry: Like police searching a car trunk after a traffic stop, the feds could discover evidence of unrelated crimes or securities law breaches when they rummage through business records.
      to Summarize:
      • EU music groups want the police to search through records for crimes unrelated to the law under which the records were obtained
      • U.S. Companies are afraid the police will search through records for crimes unrelated to the law under which the records were obtained


      I think this this really insightful comment [slashdot.org] (from the thread about DMCA Abuse) sums it up.

      Whenever a controversial law is proposed, and its supporters, when confronted with an egregious abuse it would permit, use a phrase along the lines of 'Perhaps in theory, but the law would never be applied in that way' - they're lying. They intend to use the law that way as early and as often as possible.

  • This illustrates for Canadians too... (Score:5, Informative)

    by saskboy ( 600063 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @08:45PM (#14110156) Homepage Journal
    For Canadians who aren't sure if the new Wiretap legislation or Copyright Act amendment Bill C-60 are good bills, we'll end up with the same push from the CRIA to obtain ISP logs that are supposed to be only available to the police in criminal investigations where they've obtained a warrant.
    • When you're done giving them an earful for the winter election, remember to give them an earful about this too. Canada has a tradition of "sane" copyright policy, and let those who want your vote know you have no interest in this insanity being perpetuated here.

  • Boycott (Score:5, Informative)

    by JohnnyLocust ( 855742 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @08:46PM (#14110160) Homepage
    http://www.boycott-riaa.com/ [boycott-riaa.com]

    'nuff said.

    • Re:Boycott (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kesuki ( 321456 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @10:26PM (#14110490) Journal
      I beg to differ RIAA Radar [magnetbox.com] will help music listeners Find out if a band or artist Should be boycotted or bought and supported ;)

      so instead of just boycotting the artists of the lobbying group formed by profiteering labels.
      you can do Much better if you Acutally Support smaller artists who don't want to have anything to do with those evil profiteering exploitative labels.

      That way musicians can continue to sing, people can continue to enjoy music, and only the fools who believed they were entitled to the ears and pocketbooks of everyone in the world will suffer..
    • I think it's time to "thin the herd". It's obvious that music industry executives have grown in number and now there's not enough money to support them all. It's for their own good, really.

      And just think, the TV executives could make a reality TV series out of it: "Music vs Guns, find out who wins next week on Executive Hunter!"

  • "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" (Score:5, Informative)

    by Quirk ( 36086 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @08:48PM (#14110163) Homepage Journal
    McCarthyism [wikipedia.org]

    "...the Army's attorney general, Joseph Welch, rebuked McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

    "McCarthyism took place during a period of intense suspicion in the United States primarily from 1950 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively countering American Communist Party subversion, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. During this period people from all walks of life became the subject of aggressive "witch-hunts," often based on inconclusive or questionable evidence. It grew out of the Second Red Scare that began in the late 1940s and is named after the U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of Wisconsin."

    It's ironic that, especially Hollywood, and, the recording industry, so much a target of Joe McCarthy should now be at the forefront of an hysterical witchhunt intent on making criminals of all and sundry.

    • Ironic? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Prof. Pi ( 199260 )
      It's ironic that, especially Hollywood, and, the recording industry, so much a target of Joe McCarthy should now be at the forefront of an hysterical witchhunt

      You say that as if Hollywood is the first group ever to suffer persecution, and then turn around and do it to someone else.

    • Are your fingers in a knot?

      That's what happens when you down on when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue.

      When fsck is Dylan when you need him?

      I started out on limewire but soon hit the harder stuff
      Everybody said send they'd stand behind me when the FBI got rough
      But the joke was on me there was nobody even there to bluff
      I'm going back to itunes now I do believe I've had eeee----nuff:)

    • ...the Army's attorney general, Joseph Welch, rebuked McCarthy...

      What I find most interesting is that an "evil army guy" called McCarthy on this. Military people are typically no-nonsense, Eisenhower's warning [wikipedia.org] notwithstanding.
  • Who cares? All the copyright cartel needs to do is donate a bunch of CD's to the ISPs, then they can just go in and take whatever they want! I heard Sony is recalling a whole bunch of them (possibly just for this purpose?)
  • don't buy their content!

    But you will, won't you. You attention-deficit, attention-seeking, aspirational, apple-loving, consumer media whores.

    Also, in case the message wasn't clear, don't steal/borrow/"share" it either.

    You wouldn't eat battery farmed eggs, even if they were free, would you! (would you? urgh).

    Go back to riding your litle silver scooters, ipods and turtle-necks. You people make me sick.

    • Re:If you don't like their practices ... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      nope, I resolved that there is no way to be an honest citizen so therefore I went the other direction. I steal it all. All software all music and other information. I use the tools of the trade that make it very difficult for them to catch me. I now encrypt everything and make it easy to destroy the evidence in case they try to attack me.

      Personally, after the past 6 months I have said fuck it. It is far easier to simply go completely to the illegal side and keep it hidden then to try to stay legal. The
    • don't buy their content!
      But you will, won't you. You attention-deficit, attention-seeking, aspirational, apple-loving, consumer media whores.
      Also, in case the message wasn't clear, don't steal/borrow/"share" it either.

      "If you don't like the music industry: LIVE WITHOUT MUSIC"

      Are you deaf? This is an honest question.
      • "If you don't like the music industry: LIVE WITHOUT MUSIC" Are you deaf? This is an honest question.

        Music doesn't have to be about "industry". There are plenty of great musicians out there that don't bow to the "industry".

        Wouldn't it be nice if more "musicians" believed in their craft like Charles Ives?

        (I'll leave it to those that don't know who he is to google him)

  • hijacked (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Douglas Simmons ( 628988 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:14PM (#14110246) Homepage
    In the spirit of the story topic, I'm gonna hijack this first post to make my point. Governments are concerned with politics and their constituents. The MP/RIAA are natural enemies to a lot of tax paying voters, plus they've made some major screw ups. For example, the recent Sony screw-up of course, and those false-positives in sending out mass subpoenas. I see governments, particularly on the local level (where there's less lobbying), siding with the people (IE the pirates).

  • Consumer drons are teh problem (Score:5, Insightful)

    by a_greer2005 ( 863926 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:20PM (#14110264)
    Consumers seem like mind numbed robots for the most part, I understand that the music industry has the right to control the distrobution of their property, however, they have a total monopoly and are abusing it and the end users dont give a care.

    the industry bullies tech companies (who oddly enough make as much money in a day as the RIAA makes in a week) and keeps down and/or lockes any new tech innovations and somehoe gets to dictate exactly how they work.

    The RIAA could litteraly stop all analog radio, CD sales, net streaming, napser, itunes and so on, and offer a propriatery DRM as the ONLY way to get music, and the consumers would just take it accept for the 2% that go rouge, one of which will get a 60 minutes interview from prison just to scare the rest.

    We have NO power as long as consumers continue to suck the Industry conglomerates' collective tits, and as long as they are the only place to get the milk...

    • The RIAA could litteraly stop all analog radio, CD sales, net streaming, napser, itunes and so on, and offer a propriatery DRM as the ONLY way to get music, and the consumers would just take it accept for the 2% that go rouge, one of which will get a 60 minutes interview from prison just to scare the rest. - please explain to me what would be wrong with that? It's their products and they definitely have the rights (both moral and legal) to distribute their product in any way shape of form they see fit, whi

      • Re:Consumer drons are teh problem (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Well, I could live with it if at least 4 conditions were met:

        1) A non-DRMed copy is provided to the government in each and every country where copyright is desired. This is used for archival purposes (cultural inheritance), libraries and so forth. No non-DRMed copy, no copyright.

        2) No prison time. Prisons are overcrowded, and downloading a copy of a 30 year old work should not put you in the same place as rapists and murderers. Period.

        3) All 'blank media' levies are immediately dropped and refunded. See, I
        • 1) A non-DRMed copy is provided to the government in each and every country where copyright is desired. This is used for archival purposes (cultural inheritance), libraries and so forth. No non-DRMed copy, no copyright. - I don't see a reason for this. But I don't particularly care about the culture 100 years from now. So from my point of view this is a non-issue. Whatever, I am sure the music industry would even agree with this deman, but to be honest with you I wouldn't agree with anything if I was the

  • thepiratebay.org (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:22PM (#14110273)
    **AA is trying to change the laws in Sweden so they can go after Bittorrent users and thepiratebay admins. Something to be aware of.

  • CreativeCommons is based on Copyright Law! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tetrahedrassface ( 675645 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:23PM (#14110278) Journal
    Copyright infringement should be an offense punishable by law. Even Creative Commons relies on the basic idea of Copyright. Read this from the Collective Commons Legal Text:

    "License THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL" OR "LICENSE"). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED. BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS. "

    So even Creative Commons is bound by the idea of Copyright Law.

    This is not a bad thing
    What is the bad is abuse of Copyright law on both sides.
    Either record labels are going to have to get a clue about the digital universe that is expanding and growing around us, or continue to persue Draconian methods of enforcement, and strict Copyright legalities on thier IP.
    If they do so, i imagine that the online world will continue its move in another direction, that being more Creative Commons artists, and contributers across a wide spectrum.Releasing works under lisences with terms that we can sleep with at night.
    So undermining Copyright law is not a good idea. What is is releasing works that don't punish the consumer/listener for wanting to share.
    Thats the labels problem. Not ours.

    IANAL,
    D

  • E-mail the parliament! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Psionicist ( 561330 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:36PM (#14110318)
    If you disagree with this, e-mail the EU representatives (MEPs). Complaining at slashdot won't help. Here's a list of all the email addresses from http://www.europarl.eu.int/ [eu.int] .

    List of emails [stoppa-storebror.se]

    I have already e-mailed and called my countries. You should do the same.

  • Out to kill their own market (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HPNpilot ( 735362 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @09:59PM (#14110394) Homepage
    Sounds odd but that's where I think they're headed.

    The music industry needs new artists to keep making money but how to promote this new talent? Spitzer and other AGs are watching over their payola schemes making it harder to get radio airtime. Concerts are good, but getting to be very expensive undertakings. So how does the public get to hear the next great bands?

    One way, even though they don't want to admit it, is by P2P networks. It is easy to listen to a song by some new artist you heard about. Very few people have enough money to just go out and buy CDs all the time and the risk of a lot of duds is too great, but downloading has much less adjusted risk, even with the much-publicized lawsuits.

    There is a balance that must be achieved: all P2P downloading and no buying means no income for the publishers and artists, yet no downloading cuts off a very vital marketing channel.

    With draconian copyright laws it is becomming a more serious offense to make a digital copy than to steal the CD from a store. Worse yet, governments seem all too willing to abdicate enforcement and police powers to these corporations. When the government and RIAA/MPAA have control of our computers and own all our data, it will be too late, the battle will have been lost, and we will enter a new historical period of information slavery.

    All attempts to equate P2P with international terrorism must be soundly rebuffed. A threat to failing business models is *NOT* the same as the threat of killing innocent people. How bad to these proposals have to get before the RIAA/MPAA are kicked the hell out of these legal processes?
  • This may sound a little off topic but whenever some other country is trying to manipulate your laws or your reputation and have sent liaison/lawyers/hijackers to make you see things their way, don't back down! Get up and fight!

  • Can't possibly work. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Chrontius ( 654879 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @10:42PM (#14110565)
    50% of the population can't support the other 50% in prison.

  • UK Home Secretary already has unlimited access (Score:5, Informative)

    by UpnAtom ( 551727 ) on Thursday November 24, 2005 @10:52PM (#14110597)

    The totalitarian UK Government already has unlimited access to ISP records, courtesy of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 [magnacartaplus.org].
    RIPA also can force ISPs to install mass surveillance equipment.

    I mentioned some of the Govt's other totalitarian laws [slashdot.org] earlier today.

  • greedy fools (Score:5, Interesting)

    by E8086 ( 698978 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @12:38AM (#14111066)
    If they want to stop looking like a bunch of greedy fools once in a while they might try donating some of their excess cash to a "good cause" in the last month cnn.com has had: " EBay founder gives $100 million to university" and " Gates loses 'top philanthropist' title" On the list of the top 50 people who have donated the most, not one is connected to the MPAA or RIAA, either they don't have that much donatable cash laying around or they really are that greedy. Now they're even lazier, first they wanted the government to pick up the tab for their "people(RIAA) v possibly suspected music pirate" lawsuits, now they want governments to spend the money, time and effort investigating, prosecuting and imprisoning/executing people who they don't like. That's hundreds to thousands in legal fees a day for the trial and a few hundred for the prison, the governments probably prefer fines so they can get some money out of it, but the industry likes the sound of up to 5 years in federal prison. Even when they were forced to "donate" CDs to public libraries they sent dozens to hundreds of copies of the same unpopular disk.
    Here's another one against "Intelligent Design" if the word was intellegently designed the RIAA wouldn't exist or wouldn't be as greedy.

  • Seems like (Score:2, Interesting)

    by KwKSilver ( 857599 )
    If "piracy" should be a criminal offence, then infecting hundreds of thousands of computers with rootkits/trojans should be worth a death sentence. SONY/BMG and 1st 4Internet CEOs report to the nearest wall & bring your own blindfold. Virus writers, ditto. How about life sentences for spammers and those who contract for their services? Too expensive, send them to the wall, too. Corporate assholes are quick to demand their customers be jailed, but how they lie and whine when they get caught.
  • At least, that's what I thought..

  • Patent infringement, too (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jeti ( 105266 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @03:34AM (#14111572)
    What's more, the european commission and the council of the EU are considering to make patent infringement a criminal offense, too.
    Since the european patents office granted 173000 applications last year, it means we basically get 474 new laws each day. This does not take into account the national patent offices.

  • erosion of liberty (Score:4, Insightful)

    by StrawberryFrog ( 67065 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:00AM (#14112002) Homepage Journal
    "But ... a group of media companies .. has lobbied the EU to allow this data to be used to investigate all crimes, not just serious offences such as terrorism."

    Yes, that seems about right: "We need this extreme measure to fight terrorism. OK, you agreed to that out of fear. ... Oh look, we can use it to enforce parking tickets too, let's make it. standard operating procedure".

    Can you say "erosion of liberty"?

  • All the activist documents and webpages say that the European Parliament will be voting on this on the 13th of December.

    However, I just had a look at the parliament's own pages, dealing with the plenary session in question (12th to 15th December 2005), and it looks to me like the matter will be up for voting already on the 12th. I'm no great genius at figuring out the (deliberately?) Byzantine structure of the EU's documentation, but that's what it looks like to me.

    Draft agenda for the plenary session, 1 [eu.int]

  • Indies need to lable their albums (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Secrity ( 742221 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @10:20AM (#14112792)
    ASSOCIATION = Appropriate recording industry association, such as RIAA, BPI, IFPI, SDMI, ARIA, ETC.

    Indies need to label their albums specifically stating that they are not $ASSOCIATION members.

    This sort of labeling was done in the US in the early 20th century to indicate non-membership in the various Trusts and cartels of the era.

  • I was disgusted (Score:3)

    by johansalk ( 818687 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @12:13PM (#14113353)
    I was disgusted when I watched a movie in the cinema and before it started they showed that copyright notice that said 'copyright theft helps terrorism'. I was so, so disgusted. Can we have enough of this bullshit?! It's becoming the norm that anyone with an unreasonable case to make only has to come up with a bullshit statement like "helps terrorism" or "hates America" for them to think that they've made the point without needing a proof. I can't have much respect for a rich organisation which propaganda resembles that of a stupid usenet troll. I'm also starting to feel a wish to shoot everyone who makes this "helps terrorism" bullshit to push their case.

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