Posted on 12/08/2012 12:36:35 PM PST by seacapn
Illegally downloading a couple dozen songs can earn you a million-dollar fine. Setting some Robert Frost verses to music can make you a criminal. Software or hardware that could possibly be used to copy DVDs -- illegal. And thanks to congressional action every couple of decades, Disney still holds a copyright over Mickey Mouse, whom Walt first created nearly a century ago.
The law and law enforcement around copyright has moved far beyond its purpose of promoting arts and sciences and has become a textbook case of collusion between big business and big government.
If Republicans took on this issue, they could make a play for younger voters while fighting for free enterprise. But that would require standing up to big movie studios and record labels -- and that's not really how Republicans roll, as a GOP memo on copyright reform painfully showed.
...
Republicans are surprisingly close to the entertainment industry. For instance, Mitch Glazier, as a Republican House Judiciary Committee staffer in the late 1990s, played a key role in drafting GOP bills expanding copyright before cashing out to the industry. He now runs the Recording Industry Association of America, a $4 million-a-year lobby operation that fights for more government protection of record labels.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
The answer - unfortunately - seems to be payoffs and corruption among GOP elected officials and staffers.
The GOP could make some inroads with younger people by reviewing some of the insane copyright laws we've allowed Hollywood to write for itself over the years, but the party leadership would rather get occasional payoffs from the big media conglomerates.
Anyway, here's a link to the Cato Institute event referenced in the article:
A downloaded song is worth about a buck. I say the fine should be no more than ten bucks each for an illegal download.
That's why plank number one of the Communist Manifesto and United Nations Agenda 21 is the abolition of private property rights.
But I guess “sampling” is still ok?
And the GOP went out of its way to fire the 24 year old Congressional staffer who was brave enough to simply write a memo suggesting that copyright laws could be reined in. Fired.
Only reasonable explanation is that there is a political class working to keep its nest feathered. That instinct is “bipartisan” in Washington. Has the effect of screwing the rest of us, but they DON’T CARE.
An apple is worth about the same price so why is the fine for the music millions of times more? Stealing an apple will get you a severe talking to and maybe the cost. You would never be arrested because the judge would laugh it out of court and probably fine the prosecutor for wasting the court's time.
I’m well on my way to seeing republicans like I did before Reagan.
Agreed, the tea party could gain a LOT of the Youth and tech youth vote by going against the Hollywood accountants and their ilk who push copyright on the liberal garbage.
We need to scorch earth those liberal propagandist morons in Hollywood, we wanna win the culture war, start by de-funding Hollywood.
Mickey Mouse SHOULD be public domain by now for crying out loud, part of the expiration of copyrights was to foster innovation by releasing old ideas into the public for free usage as well as make the producers of the expired stuff incentive to continue to be creative...
Instead you have Disney which was feasting off the corpse of mickey mouse for so many years, no wonder they almost went bust before they acquired pixar and lucas films.
Even if the mouse is still protected things like the steamboat willie cartoon should be in the public domain market if no other reason than the keeping with the principle of the 200 year old copyright laws.
The best way to overcome the problem of corporation hoarding copyrights and patents in libraries, not using them, but not allowing others to use them, can be overcome with a change to the law.
Make copyright and patent law like the original US Mining law, the General Mining Act of 1872. It said that about anyone can stake a claim anywhere, but they had to either improve that claim to the tune of $500 every year, or make a profit from mining that claim of $500 every year, or they would lose their claim.
An example is Disney, and their copyright of Mickey Mouse and the movie Song of the South. Mickey makes them millions every year, so they should be able to keep government protection for that copyright. However, they did market Song of the South, but now both refuse to, and won’t let anyone else, either.
So they should lose that copyright.
In effect, it would be a “use it or lose it” law.
If they don’t ever want to sell it, no problem. Just don’t release it for public sale, ever. If someone steals it, then sue them for theft. But once it is out there, its future belongs to the market, and that is the only reason it needs government protection.
MIght see what the relationships are of those Conservatives ~ we already know Boehner is deep in thrall to the hollyweird producers and their lackeys.
Definitely not an arrestng offense, definitely a minor crime
Definitely not an arrestng offense, definitely a minor crime
If there’s one thing the GOP is good at it’s Mickey Mouse. Everytime the GOOBers show up for work on Capitol Hill, the effeminate ‘RATS beat them up and eat their lunch.
We’re SO on the same page about the underlying purpose of intellectual property rights. Incentive to create, but also expiration to encourage innovation. So obvious, but such a classic case of regulatory capture. Focused private interests dominate the political scene at this point and it is only going to get worse. Who is John Galt?
The reasopn you are confused is that you still believe there are actually two separate parties in this country. That hasn't been the case for years. There is establishment party A, and establishment party B, and what they have in common is that they are the establishment.
Actually, you are talking about two different things here. There are trademarks, and there is copyright. Disney corp has a trademark over the use of Mickey Mouse. Trademarks last forever, as long as they are actively used and protected by the owner. Even if Steamboat Willie had mercifully been allowed to lapse into the Public Domain, you still wouldn't be able to make your own cartoon with Mickey Mouse in it. You would be able to share the cartoon Steamboat Willie with anyone on the planet you wanted to.
Many people don't understand the difference, and the media purposefully confuse people about it because they are complicit in the scam.
With the elephant having committed suicide this past election, it seems natural that the GOP-e would want to be in good with Micky Mouse.
GOP-e begins anew with it’s new theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ZOcIc_pKk
Copyright laws in the USA are rigged to favor big business. The laws are an outrage to common sense. I am a criminal if I hire a band that plays “You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound dog”. Ridiculous. As a consequence I do not hire bands to play at my (little) bar.
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