Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have just sponsored a new wonderful bull. It's the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008. So basically they've combined all things wrong with PRO-IP and PIRATE Acts and created this wonderful new bill. Sounds perfect, right?
Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have just sponsored a new wonderful bull. It's the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008. So basically they've combined all things wrong with PRO-IP and PIRATE and created this wonderful new bill. Sounds perfect, right?
As per Ars Technica
Like PRO-IP, the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008 would double statutory damages for counterfeiting, with damages as high as $2 million for "willful" trademark violations. It also empowers the president to appoint an Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (or "copyright czar"), who would develop a "joint strategic plan" meant to harmonize the IP enforcement efforts of diverse federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, Patent Office, State Department, and Department of Homeland Security. The Attorney General is directed to deploy five further IPECs as liaisons to foreign countries where piracy is rampant, and to establish a dedicated IP task force within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The law also appropriates $25 million annually for grants to state and local government agencies working to crack down on IP violations.
First those who aren't familiar, the PRO-IP Act of 2007 creates an office of the so called US Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative. With this comes the greatness that is taking computers from the homes of anyone who is deemed to have "infringed on copyright". And as those who have followed the RIAA/MPAA cases against individuals for copyright infringement may know, many cases are real bullshit (not all I'll admit) and the RIAA/MPAA end up dropping them. So this opens a precedent , i think, for the seizure of computers.
I mean you could say heyyyyyyyyy this guy we need a lead on him don't we, lets bust him for copyright infringement or some shit like that. What's even worse is that this proposed bill would create and send "copyright cops" aborad to "aid foreign countries enforce US laws" WHAT THE F...and americans wonder why we have such low standing around the world! It's bullshit like this. You know what part scares me the most? There were 11 dissenters when this vote came to the floor of the house ELEVEN Dissenters...(one of them being ron paul)... there were 6 other republicans who dissented I know we've got to have at least more than 10 better democrats in the house...what the heck. Now I'm not really sure how our man Obama stands on this, since the senate has yet to vote on this measure. I mean wow...
And the Pirate Act basically allowed US Prosecutors to sue individuals in civil courts (doing the job for RIAA/MPAA) using OUR TAX MONEY! I'm not sure if NO-IP was lobbied by the MPAA/RIAA, but the RIAA did lobby for the Pirate Act. I'm sorry i don't exactly have much more information on the Pirate Act, it's from 2004. What I do know is that, it was placed into a spending bill and it created an IP Czar who would coordinate law enforcement efforts aimed at stopping internet piracy and that it gave 2 million dollars to the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council.
So now back to this new bill, it's called the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008. And it basically combines both of these to bills together. Now please don't misinterpret what i'm saying, I don't think people should be allowed free reign to infringe on these copyrights, but I do think copyright law in this country is seriously EFFED UP. The DCMA destroyed fair use fairly well, and this not only aids big media companies even more by creating more heinous punishments for copyright infringement, but it wants to cut down the costs that these media companies have to spend protecting their copyrights. It wants US Prosecutors to WASTE time on copyright infringement rather than spend it trying to keep our streets safe.
So the justification all of this? Once again Ars Technica gives us great words of wisdom.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the primary sponsor of the legislation touted the bill at a Thursday press conference as a means "not only to protect jobs, but to protect that very unique American sense of inventiveness and creativity." (No word on whether Leahy has ever watched the YouTube clip of his own face-off with Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight.) "If hundreds of our cargo ships were being hijacked on the high seas or thousands of our business people were being held up at gunpoint in a foreign land, there would be a great sense of alarm and unshakable government resolve to act," said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), a cosponsor of the bill. "That, in effect, is what is happening today, yet we are not doing nearly enough to stop it."
Yes Senator Leahy you are most correct (/snark), but what of the american sense of civil liberties? oh right that doesn't matter when you're in the pockets of the MPAA/RIAA? Oh I see, why doesn't the RIAA LOBBY ME... I'll take their money and promise not to blog about them, HELLO RIAA CALL me we'll set something up. On A serious note. IT DOES NOT HINDER CREATIVITY & INVENTIVENESS, what utter BULLSHIT , mind the language. I just hate it when politicians just speak blatant lies pisses the heck out of me. Especially in the music industry, tell me the artists actually make a dime off their albums, and not their concerts. Maybe you can make a point for movies, maybe... but no you cannot senator. Jobs are not lost over piracy, ok maybe SOME people won't buy the dvd when it ocmes out...but honestly the people who would buy the dvd would still continue to buy the DVD, i'll pirate an album before I actually buy it, or a game, or a movie... i won't lie , i'll do it... but like many people ,here and abroad, I WILL BUY THE FINISHED PRODUCT.
And god the analogy by great sir Evan Bayh astonishes my mind. THERE IS NO FUCKING GUNPOINT... THERE IS NO FUCKING HIJACKING OF GOODS... THE MOVIES AREN'T FUCKIGN STOLEN AND GOD DAMN IT THE GOODS AREN'T GONE THEY'RE HERE -- STILL HERE AND WILL ALWAYS BE HERE GOD DAMN IT... um is cursing against the diary rules? eeep if it is... i'll take it away when notified....