Cute ;)
Posted on 10/24/2005 7:06:10 PM PDT by Centurion2000
By Andrew Orlowski Published Thursday 9th September 2004 13:36 GMT
HR.4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, has been approved by the United States' House Judiciary Committee.
The bill specifies up to five years' jail for anyone making over a thousand copyrighted works available for download. That's if the infringer is profiting from the action: ordinary P2P users would face up to three years simply for making their collections available.
Thwarted by the courts, copyright holders and their lobby groups, notably the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA), have been forced to file "John Doe" suits against infringers. But HR.4077 brings the full power of the state to their aid:
The FBI will be required to serve as propaganda ministry, or in the words of the bill, "develop a program based on providing of information and notice to deter members of the public from committing acts of copyright infringement through the Internet," and enforcer.
The Feds must "facilitate the sharing among law enforcement agencies, Internet service providers, and copyright owners of information concerning acts of copyright infringement described in paragraph".
The committee asks Congress to discourage the P2P networks from deploying the "guns don't kill people" defence.
"Publicly available peer-to-peer file-sharing services can and should adopt reasonable business practices and use technology in the marketplace to address the existing risks posed to consumers by their services and facilitate the legitimate use of peer-to-peer file sharing technology and software."
The bill also makes it illegal to use a video recorder in a cinema to capture a movie.
The chairman of the House Committee which nodded through the measure, Rep James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis), was paid $18,000 by the Recording Industry Ass. of America to make a trip to Taiwan and Thailand in January 2003, a breach of the House ethics rules, say critics. [WaPo | Reg] Sensenbrenner said it was a "fact-finding mission", even though his schedule was arranged by the State Department.
But the distinction between State and corporate interests are now so close as to be indistinguishable. ®
Congressman pocketed $18,000 for RIAA lobbying trip
War on Culture's victims face Penitentiary Blues
US DoJ searches homes of P2P evil doers
Court tells RIAA and Congress to let P2P software thrive
Why wireless will end piracy and doom DRM and TCPA - Jim Griffin
US inspired copyright laws set to sweep the globe for fun and profit
Jane Doe ruling limits effect of RIAA legal defeat
Links don't work.
I suddenly feel tired. ugh.
Cute ;)
what about fines distrubuting and using these
Draconian enforcement of copyright can have only one outcome: a Constitutional Ammendment abolishing copyright.
Our frickin' moronic legislators are more concerned with illegal downloads by college students and illegal steroids used by pro athletes to waste their time on the millions upon millions upon millions of illegal aliens scrambling across our frickin' borders....
Why do I believe that if I looked into this a little I'd see Senator Orin Hatch in the middle of it all?
This bill is so broad that it makes it illegal to transmit copyrighted material over the internet, even with permission.
This would make even I-tunes illegal.
That says copyrighted "works", not just movies and music. Meaning it could apply to any thing copyrighted, like articles posted on FR.
I have to say, this looks a hell of a lot more corrupt than anything Tom Delay is accused of, and it really happened lol.
The "no on all incumbents" platform is starting to look more appealing every year. ;)
Once upon a time, I was screwed over on a patented machine that a friend and I developed. I'm not saying this is perfect, nor am I saying most popular music even borders on intellectual, but the protection of intellectual property is one of the things that has made this nation great by motivating the inventive people with the chance at economic gain.
Let's see how it comes out of the conferenc comittee.
Once upon a time, I was screwed over on a patented machine that a friend and I developed. I'm not saying this is perfect, nor am I saying most popular music even borders on intellectual, but the protection of intellectual property is one of the things that has made this nation great by motivating the inventive people with the chance at economic gain.
Let's see how it comes out of the conference comittee.
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