Posted on 04/24/2006 7:51:04 AM PDT by FewsOrange
For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite. A proposed copyright law seen by CNET News.com would expand the DMCA's restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers.
The draft legislation, created by the Bush administration and backed by Rep. Lamar Smith, already enjoys the support of large copyright holders such as the Recording Industry Association of America. Smith is the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees intellectual-property law.
Smith's press secretary, Terry Shawn, said Friday that the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 is expected to "be introduced in the near future."
"The bill as a whole does a lot of good things," said Keith Kupferschmid, vice president for intellectual property and enforcement at the Software and Information Industry Association in Washington, D.C. "It gives the (Justice Department) the ability to do things to combat IP crime that they now can't presently do."
During a speech in November, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed the idea and said at the time that he would send Congress draft legislation. Such changes are necessary because new technology is "encouraging large-scale criminal enterprises to get involved in intellectual-property theft," Gonzales said, adding that proceeds from the illicit businesses are used, "quite frankly, to fund terrorism activities."
The 24-page bill is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together. One would, for instance, create a new federal crime of just trying to commit copyright infringement. Such willful attempts at piracy, even if they fail, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
Why is it that you assume if you think something is true it must be so. The common usage of language is not a determining factor so far as the law in concerned. Please find for me in the DCMA the definition of root-kit and the exception for back engineering and removing the root-kit.
You guys are the biggest jokes on the planet, claiming the FBI will be going after people who remove rootkits rather than those who are unleashing them.
Did I claim the FBI will be going after them? I and others have claimed that the DCMA lays legal ground for them to do so but nobody has said they will. A bad law is bad before its enforcement, not just because of it.
"You haven't shown any damages done to anyone by Sony."
Ha ha! Unreal! Are you actually going to try to claim that no one was harmed by the Sony rootkit? You're a complete joke!
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/05/law_student_files_ro.html
Have you not heard about the class action suit against Sony/BMG?
http://www.sonybmgcdtechsettlement.com/
What is wrong with you? It's amazing that you continue defend this stinker while you go down in flames.
I'm not defending Sony, I'm exposing your endless lies that people will be prosecuted for removing their rootkit. It was malware, so hopefully they will lose in court if not suffer fines from governments for their innapropriate actions. But none of the millions who removed it will ever be prosecuted, anywhere. That's just your normal liberal smokescreen.
If you defend DCMA, you're defending Sony. DMCA is what emboldened them enough to try a stupid stunt like this.
The rootkit itself almost wasn't revealed because those who found it feared prosecution under DMCA:
"Researchers like Professor Edward Felten and Alex Halderman waste valuable research time consulting attorneys due to concerns about liability under the DMCA. They must consult not only with their own attorneys but with the general counsel of their academic institutions as well. Unavoidably, the legal uncertainty surrounding their research leads to delays and lost opportunities. In the case of the CDs at issue, Halderman and Felten were aware of problems with the XCP software almost a month before the news became public, but they delayed publication in order to consult with counsel about legal concerns. This delay left millions of consumers at risk for weeks longer than necessary."
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=938
Prosecutions are immaterial. The fact is, such a law could be used against consumers unfairly in the future. Just because you don't believe it will is no justification for keeping your bad, UN crafted law.
This new law has nothing to do with the UN does it? They're all about open source now I'm sure you know.
Sony didn't write a virus to install their rootkit. I'm not defending Sony, but your lies never end.
The new law is the old law, as I said before. Expanded infringement definitions and harsher penalties. It's pretty much all amendments to the existing DMCA. Which, is pretty much straight from the UN.
Just like your worldview.
You are defending Sony, to the hilt, because you want companies to be able to hide copy protection programs on peoples' hard drives and prohibit them from finding it or talking about it.
No SONY put a root kit in a CD and youre saying its AOK because it 'did no damage'..
I don't think the U.N. is involved in any way on this new law. They're pushing open source and "copyleft" now.
POLICIES OF UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM ORGANIZATIONS TOWARDS THE USE OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE (OSS) FOR DEVELOPMENT
http://www.unsystem.org/jiu/data/reports/2005/en2005_7.pdf
UN Backs Open Source With New Agency
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3400071
UN recommends open source
http://osdir.com/Article8328.phtml
UN organizes open-source software day
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/25/HNunorganizes_1.html
UN backs drive for free software
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3601710.stm
Repost:
I'm not defending Sony, I'm exposing your endless lies that people will be prosecuted for removing their rootkit. It was malware, so hopefully they will lose in court if not suffer fines from governments for their innapropriate actions. But none of the millions who removed it will ever be prosecuted, anywhere. That's just your normal liberal smokescreen.
I didn't see him or anyone state that a Sony BMG customer would be prosecuted for removing the rootkit. What I said, and what you haven't offered much of a response to, is that they were in violation of the DMCA in doing so.
That means they broke the law.
Period.
That's okay with you?
Why should every Sony BMG customer have had to perform an action in violation of the DMCA merely to remove illegal and potentially dangerous spyware from their computers?
>You haven't shown any damages done to anyone by Sony.
>It was malware
So...installation of malware does NOT constitute damages?
I don't know what is more amusing
1) He knows the future (i.e. he knows people will not be persecuted
2) He is OK with a law that makes something which should be legal a crime so long as there are no persecutions under it
It was malware
Can you point me to the part of the DCMA that defines and makes an exception for malware?
so hopefully they will lose in court if not suffer fines from governments for their innapropriate actions.
Perhaps he is a lawyer he seems not to care how poor a law or a patent is so long as there can be a long drawn out court case which benefits only the lawyers..
BTW Sparkles: there is only one 'n' in inappropriate..
He finally showed some damages. They still required a third party besides Sony, who was more at fault for them.
"Finally" showed some damages?
You posted this a few HOURS ago:
>I guess you could sue Sony, but since there were no damages
The settlement agreement is from MONTHS ago, but a few HOURS ago, according to you, there were no damages, even though there's an inconvenient date of...12/27/05.
On 4/26/06, according to you, 'no damages.'
I can only hope you're not in the business of writing software.
You might want to explain to anyone who's interested why anyone should trust one word you say. I'm not. Have a great day.
Great. That's not US law though. DMCA is. And, it was authored by the goons at the UN and is defended to the death by you.
Again, we're talking about DMCA. Your dodges and repeated attempts to change the subject aren't going to get it this time.
Repetition doesn't change the (in)validity of what you said. You ARE defending Sony, because without the protection of the DMCA, which states people aren't allowed to tell others how to defeat "copy protection" (i.e., rootkits), they never would have tried this.
The people who discovered Sony's rootkit broke the law, and they were justifiably frightened of the consequences of doing the right thing. Thankfully, Sony and a bunch of others realized what asses they would have looked like had they pressed the law.
I haven't yet seen you condemn the UN authored DMCA, the very law that can make you a criminal for trying to fix your own computer, REGARDLESS of whether or not anyone's been arrested for it. That's because you love the UN and the laws that they make which override US sovereignty.
I can tell you why you SHOULDN'T trust anything he says....
The Current Golden Eagle Lie/Hypocrisy/Cluelessness/General Lunacy List:
(Now with 48% more ad hominem attacks!).
Lies:
Here's where he says that all GPL copyrights are signed over to Stallman: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1612495/posts?page=44#44
then, when he's caught, says that he's not sorry (or, as I like to call it, a "nopology"): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1612495/posts?q=1&&page=61#62
Here's where he refers to Dell "systems": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1585665/posts?page=35#35
Then denies his own copied-and-pasted quote: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1585665/posts?page=137#137
then blames me for it all, saying I should have reminded him of his own words: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1585665/posts?page=165#165
Then, here's where he makes more false accusations of ME: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1592292/posts?page=90#90
and here's where I ask him to prove I said the things he accused me of: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1592292/posts?page=92#92
Here's where he doesn't provide any proof: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1592292/posts?page=95#95
And fails again to prove what he says: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1592292/posts?page=99#99
And yet again, repeating the accusations, but failing to provide proof: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1592292/posts?page=122#122
And now, where his "proof" of what I said is something I didn't even post: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=125#125
and where he has the nerve to ask another poster to back up what they say with specific examples, despite the fact that he refused to do so for me: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=255#255
and here is where he demands that yet someone ELSE provide a link to prove what THEY said: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1568848/posts?page=68#68
and here is where he claims he will admit mistakes, despite the fact that he hasn't admitted this one: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592494/posts?page=43#43
Here he is claiming that Red Hat has a couple of hundred Linux kernel developers: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1527263/posts?page=49#49
And here he is claiming no one knows how many kernel developers work for Red Hat: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1527263/posts?page=77#77
and here, he denies that he said hundreds, yet again (21st paragraph): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=131#131
And here he is getting nailed for it yet again:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=132#132
and again: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=137#137
and claiming that I never proved that he was wrong about the number of kernel developers at Red Hat, despite the fact that he said "literally hundreds" himself, but later retracted it: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=134#134
Here he is saying that he's leaving a thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=127#127
and here he is, many days and over 100 posts later, still posting: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?q=1&&page=281#284
Here's where he tries to say that Richard Stallman is opposed to all patents: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=266#261
Here's where he amends his statement to say "software patents": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1609606/posts?page=22#22
Here's where Jim Robinson tells about creating the Freerepublic Forums in '97: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1011545/posts
And here's where GE, a man on the cutting edge of technology, claims he managed to get a membership at FR two years before the forums existed: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/950193/posts?page=285#285
Here's where he hijacked the Open Source Ping List, and the ensuing discussion: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571222/posts?page=8#8
Hypocrisy:
Here, he complains that Cedega's bad because it's not free: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1591595/posts?page=115#115
and then, mocks another user for suggesting that Cedega be free: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1591595/posts?page=134#134
then complains that Linux is bad because it is free: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1530486/posts?page=40#40
then says Solaris is good because it's free: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1490554/posts?page=21#21
Here he is, criticizing Linux because it doesn't run Windows apps (despite the fact that it can, in some cases): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1591595/posts?q=1&&page=101#115
Here he is, recommending Solaris, which doesn't run Windows apps: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1490554/posts?page=21#21
...and Apple, which doesn't either: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1573697/posts?page=9#9
and copping out when challenged about Windows inability to run Linux apps: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1591595/posts?page=118#118
Here, he's criticizing others for namecalling: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1584107/posts?page=29#29
And here he is, namecalling: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1583531/posts?page=61#61
Here's where GE says Stallman is a whacko leftist: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1601565/posts?page=24#24
Here's where I agree: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1601565/posts?page=30#30
And here's where he disagrees that I agree: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1601565/posts?page=30#31
And here's where he claimed I defended Stallman (I didn't) and fails to provide a link to back up his accusations:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1607069/posts?page=96#96
Here he is ridiculing another poster for using bold fonts to make a point: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1493462/posts?page=130#130
And here he is using bold fonts to make a point: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=106#106
Here he is, complaining about abortions in China: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1592292/posts?page=106#106
and here he is, defending Microsoft's contributions to Planned Parenthood: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1492595/posts?page=22#22
And here he is defending Planned Parenthood itself: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1601565/posts?page=35#33
and again, lying about the primary mission of that organization (he says it's to fight AIDS in Africa): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1601565/posts?page=40#40
Cluelessness:
Here, he becomes concerned about security on Knoppix, a live Linux filesystem, written to a FINALIZED (read that: unwritable) CD-R, which by default, runs with all drives unmounted and in unwritable mode: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536740/posts?page=18#18
Here's where a poster very obviously criticizes him for his closed-mindedness and he totally misses it, instead taking it as a compliment (post 79 and his response, 80): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1539488/posts?page=80#79
General lunacy:
Here is a Linux thread with only one post by GE (notice how pleasant and peaceful): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1500664/posts?q=1&&page=1
Here is a Linux thread where GE stayed and trolled (well beyond 280 posts, totally off the topic. No insults before he showed up, as with many of his threads. He has stated multiple times that he was leaving, yet he keeps posting, because he's a last word freak): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1592292/posts?q=1&&page=1#1
Here are some of his infamous "picture posts", usually made when he is getting beaten very badly:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536740/posts?page=106#106
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536740/posts?page=125#125
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536740/posts?page=149#149
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1530253/posts?page=25#25
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1489068/posts?page=29#29
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1487693/posts?page=163#163
Here he is, suggesting that Richard Stallman "build[s] up his power" by getting "dopes" to download Linux: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1612495/posts?page=75#75
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