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.
Private property is private property. Someone owns the music, movies, content and have established a pricing and distribution agreement with the people that buy it. Just because we have created technology that allows us to copy and distribute content doesn’t obviate the need to protect IP. You are not allowed to photocopy books and distribute them either.
Life imprisonment for using pirated software, and we can't even give a few years in the slammer for the average child rapist. Draconian, indeed.
Theft of property is not a right, but don’t forget that the Constitution directs government to define and protect copyright, thus giving those who create IP a legal monopoly on their work, but for a limited period of time.
It was never the intent of those who ratified the Constitution to give a monopoly to an author or artist forever. Copyrights should expire. But now we have entire industries built around uber-IP, something called a “franchise”. You know, Micky Disney’s Mouse. Commercial interests don’t want their franchise to be destroyed, so they lobby Congress to extend and extent the copyright.
At some point it must end and the work enters the “public domain”, another important legal concept.
Commercial interests must not be allowed to turn copyright, which is right an proper, into a perpetual monopoly.
Gonzo’s scheme sounds like big government/big business tyranny to me. Drive a stake though it while there is still time.