This is great…
Attorney General Gonzales wants to make this: “the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007″ a law and have tougher penalties on content pirates…
I don’t like to keep banging the same drum over and over again but it seems that this seems like it’s a ‘favor’ for the MPAA and the RIAA.
In a press release from the Department of Justice, it says the bill was presented before “before members of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy.”
What? Why now?
This bill is first and foremost crazy.
It wants to “criminalize attempted copyright crimes”–what does attempted mean here?
“…who attempt to commit a crime but do not complete it are as morally culpable as those who succeed in doing so.”
What? “morally”? So copyright is now a moral issue?
“Current intellectual property forfeiture laws lack uniformity, both in the items subject to civil forfeiture and the procedures for criminal forfeiture.”
You know what that means? That means that intellectual property laws are vague so let’s make them more vague so more people will go to jail.
Oh it also states that they can take anything that is involved with this venture of “piracy”–of copyright crimes.
“While current 17 U.S.C. 5 506(b) allows for civil forfeiture only of property ‘used in the manufacture of such infringing copies or phonorecords,’ subsection 4(b) of the Administration’s legislative proposal also would authorize forfeiture of ‘property. . . intended to be used’ in the commission of the offense, such as blank media or polycarbonate intended for use in producing counterfeit CDs and DVDs.”
Oh, this thing is definitely a favor for the MPAA and the RIAA–this thing has all the things they would want to do but didn’t do rampantly for fear of getting caught.
This thing adds: “Forfeiture and Restitution Remedies to the DMCA Criminal Provisions Consistent with Those Remedies Available for Other Intellectual Property Crimes.”
When you bring up the DMCA you bring up the MPAA and the RIAA because it’s their child.
Listen to this guy–he writes: “Although a violation of the DMCA does not require an underlying infringement of a copyright as an element
of the offense.” What? This is the same guy that said that the Constitution doesn’t give us the right to habeas corpus.
I can’t even believe this. I was writing a little while ago how in Sweden a prosecutor implied that BitTorrent Users were ‘terrorists’. It seems that Attorney General Gonzales is going to take the US to a new level and take us in that direction–he’s hasn’t said it but he’s wording it in the way that would imply…well, look under the section entitled: “Authority for Voice Intercepts in Investigations of Criminal Trademark and Copyright Offenses”
Yes, you read right voice intercepts–wiretaps he writes: “Law enforcement officers should have access to the full range of lawful investigative tools when they investigate intellectual property crimes. Currently, a Federal court may issue an order authorizing the use of a voice intercept (otherwise known as a ‘wiretap’) in the investigations of a host of Federal crimes; copyright and trademark counterfeiting crimes are not among them. This is unacceptable.”
Hahahaha, this guy is talking about courts and wiretaps–what does he care about courts and warrants? Anyways he calls the fact that they can’t wiretap unacceptable. So now you can have your phone wiretapped because you’re a terrorist and/or because you attempt/commit copyright ‘infringement’. Seeing that the defintion of terrorism is whatever the Government wants it to be that means now everybody can be wiretapped now.
Heh, we haven’t even gotten to the bill yet–this is still the introduction letter.
But listen to how Gonzales introduced the bill, “These crimes, as we all know, also have a direct impact on our economy, costing victims millions of dollars and, if left unchecked, diminishing entrepreneurship.” (emphasis mine)
Tell me that doesn’t sound like something that the MPAA and the RIAA would say. He says “as we all know…a direct impact on our economy…victims millions of dollars…diminishing entrepreneurship.” Really–they always say these thing but never say how and when they do and give stats they are tainted because it’s not true.
Some comments from people:
Nope no corruption here… Not until you see Copyright violators getting more jail time than murderers and rapists… oh wait I think they already do (well the rapists at least).
Bah, when copyright is infringed, corporations lose money, and when corporations lose money, the terrorists win!
Why do you hate Freedom so much?
Heh, that sounds like the 6 Step Program.
More comments:
I wonder which definition General Gonzales is using when he states “hoping to ensure that any ‘ill-gotten gains’ are forfeited”. Is he using the traditional definition where you pay restitution based on proven damages, or is he using the “War on Drugs” definition where all of your personal property is forfeit to the government for sharing a single MP3 file?
Yes, make the punishment harder, so they have a harder punishment than rapists, pedophiles, and murders? -rolleyes-
Corruption at the Justice Department. The laws are to protect the citizens. The citizens do not want strong copyright punishments. That is what the big media corporations want.
So yeah I hope you’ve gotten an idea about how crazy this thing is–this is certainly not something that should be addressed as it has been unless there are alliances with the MPAA and the RIAA.
