Posted on 11/19/2010 5:41:04 AM PST by markomalley
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed “central to the activity” of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the “nuclear option,” which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites “off.”
COICA is the latest effort by Hollywood, the recording industry and the big media companies to stem the tidal wave of internet file sharing that has upended those industries and, they claim, cost them tens of billions of dollars over the last decade.
Do you have citable information that some sort of 'crackdown' is occuring after Thanksgiving? Last I heard the bill was dead on arrival.
Who cares? If he were the next one won't be. If we were guaranteed that every AG for the next 200 years will be an honest man, it's still too much power for the bad guys stolen from those of us with real jobs.
If they believe it's a bad bill, letting it out into a larger venue where they can supposedly vote their conscience and yet the bill still pass, is inexcusable. They had in their hands the power to kill dead a bill they say they oppose, and they didn't do it. I suspect their no vote in the full Senate has more to do with preening their [fake] conservative creds so they can get reelected, but doing so at a time that won't endanger a vile bill. I actually don't care why they're doing it, as I said before, it's inexcusable.
All the lobbyists care about is the final result. In the full senate, there are more arms to twist and more crooks to bribe, and those congress critters really want campaign funds.
I don't approve of digital piracy. I pay for downloading songs. But giving leftist political thug Holder the power to shut down websites?
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