Posted on 05/15/2007 9:23:37 AM PDT by dayglored
Gonzales proposes new crime: "Attempted" copyright infringement
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including "attempts" to commit piracy.
"To meet the global challenges of IP crime, our criminal laws must be kept updated," Gonzales said during a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday.
The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a proposal called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, which is likely to receive the enthusiastic support of the movie and music industries and would represent the most dramatic rewrite of copyright law since a 2005 measure dealing with pre-release piracy.
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
Establishing the copyrights is one thing, no objection. The objection here is not to the copyright -- I'm a software author and musical performer who respects copyrights.
The objection is to a law which trashes constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure, invasions of privacy, etc. This is only incidentally about copyright per se.
Its MO is to subpeona Internet service providers for the Internet addresses of people who may have downloaded music from one of the MP3 sites that proliferate on the Internet. Since addresses are usually assigned on a rotating basis for short periods of time, tying an address to specific activities a given person may have been engaged in is highly problematic. RIAA files a suit in a distant jurisdiction in the literal name of "John Doe" (A string of midnight riders attached to various pieces of recent legislation allows them to do this!) requiring whoever lives at John Doe's address to pay a "settlement" of some huge number picked out the air. These suits ave been filed against the dead, people who don't use computers, but everyone just pays up because it's cheaper than hiring a lawyer and traveling to a court in some distant state.
The new bill from Gonzales would increase the penalty to life in prison, slacken the evidence standard to "potential" infringement, and have Homeland Security report violations directly to RIAA. This makes record labels an arm of the federal government.
I'm sure this bill will not be voted out in its present form. Just like all the other times, we will wake up one morning to find that it has passed as an amendment to a bill for fish hatchery inspection.
WORSE THAN THAT
It makes the Federal Government an enforcement arm of the RIAA.
And his mug shot is a step up from Reno.
But ... yeah ... his mug adds insult to injury.
“”attempts” to commit piracy”
Paula Poundstone: I think the cops are out to get me.
David Letterman : How’s that?
Paula Poundstone : Last night I got pulled over for attempted speeding.
As am I, so I am not throwing any stones here. I voted for him in '04 (I was too young to vote in 2000).
Do you think he should be fired?
Actually, he proposes policy only with the concurrence of the once-White House, so do you suppose Rove and Co may have vetted his comments and pproposals?
And in return, the Hollywood lawyers will donate millions to any politician who supports it.
I oppose commercial piracy, and companies who are victims should be entitled to seek damages in court. But this IPPA legislation is absolutely insane.
Good man. I hoped that was what you meant. I don’t assume anyone is racist but with the massive invasion across our southern border which the government seems to have no interest in addressing, I could understand a person getting a little frustrated.
I concur on the dorkiness eveident in that picture. He looks like the kind of guy whose undies would have been pulled up between his ass cheeks more often that in the normal position during his junior high years.
How can they do that? Since when do you not have to file suit in a venue which can in some way be tied to the defendant?
Because we slept while this stuff was sliding through Congress like laxative through a horse.
Hmmm. Then it ought to be put back right, and those who “passed” it, thrown in jail.
It’s not like he came up with this crap all on his lonesome. This, like it or not, is a Republican initiative.
commerce clause
something somewhere , some how , may be sold ... or may not be sold ...
If they can say growing grain to feed your own stock is regulatable via the commerce clause because you would have had to go out in to the open market and make a purchase ... but you didn’t because you grew your own , therefor impacting the world market prices of grain ...
then they can say anything is covered under the commerce clause.
it’s a another power grab
This what is happening
The first stage of fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power”
—Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Fascist Dictator of Italy
Be afraid. Very afraid.
We have state laws against them. We don't have federal laws against them, except on federal property. We also don't have life prison terms, even in state law, for people who purchase stolen goods.
Why would he consider their devotion to the Constitution, considering his signing CFR, his desire for renewal of the AWB, his ignoring our immigration laws? He seems to have neither a grasp on the principles or a devotion to the Constitution.
That's a great sentence! When I pass it on, I'll give you attribution.
Invent your own damn words and damn language then. Quit stealing mine.
Look -- did YOU make each of those words, those letters? Where did you get them from? You realize that SOMEONE at one time DID invent each of those words, and that someone else, invented the shape and sound of each of those letters. Why aren't you paying their heirs and assigns their fair royalty?
Answer that, if you cam.
Gonzales should be fired. He is a danger to the Republic. Seriously.
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