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 ...
Why don’t Gonzalez work on enforcing our current laws, instead of coming up with new unnecessary crap?
Homeland security working for the RIAA? Ugh...
This country’s gone crazy, and I can’t just blame the Dems anymore.
I change my mind. Time for him to go.
Gonzalez should spend his time looking at all the crime and corruption in government first. That would keep him occupied until he is out of office. Of course, he should already be out of office.
It's getting hard to tell who's in bed with whom any more...
Don’t these RINO morons realize the Hollywood types will NEVER vote Republican, no matter what they do?
Don’t forget, he’s also supporting a Dem written law that says “suspected terrorists” can be denied gun purchases.
Stealing other people’s property is immoral and illegal. Saying that we are using the government to “prop up” an industry that you don’t care for is incorrect.
It will be a crime to think about attempting to infringe on a copyright...
Viva la Raza!
/s
That’s it... I give up...
Obviously Gonzales needs to be fired, both for botching the fired attys deal, and this complete fiasco.
And, given the environmental pronouncements of the past few weeks, I’m voting for changes there too.
It’s a good thing that term limits prevent us from deciding on whether to dump our incumbent....
Maybe it's easier to come up with new unnecessary crap... enforcing laws is hard work, and he's tired? /sarc
“It will be a crime to think about attempting to infringe on a copyright...”
It’s a crime ti talk about thinking about infringing, too.
Step away from you computer.
I think I agree. I mean, we have laws against attempted burglary, attempted murder, attempted suicide. Actually, we have all kinds of laws against attempting to break the law. I don't see how this is any different.
This is no black and white issue. Windows recently filed suit for IP infringement on several pieces of software that are marketed as free and open source. Considering the legislative push in the works here, the individuals using that “free” software are stealing from Windows and should be subject to being spied on by Homeland Security.
Of course, the innocent have nothing to fear right? Unless they downloaded something that claims its open-source/shareware/freeware.
I'm not proposing that piracy is right. I don't do it, and I don't encourage it.
But the fact is that the entertainment industry is a dinosaur that needs to face the facts of the digital age properly, rather than co-opt the Federal Government to attempt to continue archaic approaches to protecting their IP.
This proposed legislation is draconian and unconstitutional. Saying piracy is immoral and illegal, while true, has nothing to do with the fact that this is a gross abuse of Federal power.
Gee, I have an idea:
Why not make it a crime to steal TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, SHRED THEM AND THEN LIE ABOUT IT?
Sheesh.
This is *insane*.
Gonzales needs to go.
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