President Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "President Bush has signed the EIPRA (AKA the PRO-IP Act) and created a cabinet-level post of 'Copyright Czar,' on par with the current 'Drug Czar,' in spite of prior misgivings about the bill. They did at least get rid of provisions that would have had the DOJ take over the RIAA's unpopular litigation campaign. Still, the final legislation (PDF) creates new classes of felony criminal copyright infringement, adds civil forfeiture provisions that incorporate by reference parts of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, and directs the Copyright Czar to lobby foreign governments to adopt stronger IP laws. At this point, our best hope would appear to be to hope that someone sensible like Laurence Lessig or William Patry gets appointed."

Czar

[religious freak (1005821)]

Ok, outside the copyright debate, am I the only one that is extremely skeptical when someone is the "czar" of something? What the hell does that actually mean, and what can they actually do?

If it doesn't sound like an utterly useless, powerless post, it sounds like we should be running for our lives from this all powerful czar - neither is particularly good, from my perspective.

Re:Czar

[Foobar of Borg (690622)]

Ok, outside the copyright debate, am I the only one that is extremely skeptical when someone is the "czar" of something? What the hell does that actually mean, and what can they actually do?

Establish a secret police to rout all revolutionaries and anti-royalists. Establish a serfdom and enforce it with an iron fist. Confiscate the property of radicals and starve them and their families. Get lined up against a wall and shot when the revolution comes.

Re:You don't vote for Kings

[MaskedSlacker (911878)]

Caesar was not an emperor of rome. Octavius was the first Emperor. Julius Caesar was appointed dictator for life by the Senate before being murdered by Senators. His ascension WAS the end of the republic, but he was not an emperor. The period after his death prior to Octavian's rule was essentially pure chaos and civil war between the Senate, Octavian, and Marc Antony for which of the three would rule Rome. After Octavian came to power, the Senate was officially done with and the Imperial period began.

Re:Czar

[meringuoid (568297)]

Ok, outside the copyright debate, am I the only one that is extremely skeptical when someone is the "czar" of something? What the hell does that actually mean, and what can they actually do?

They get shot, bayonetted, dunked in an acid bath, then thrown down a mineshaft, by Communists.

A spectre is haunting America - the spectre of Piracy ;-)

Re:Czar

[Jafafa Hots (580169)]

I've said it before, I'll say it again. When hundreds of millions of children can "manufacture and distribute" copies of works more easily than they can tie their shoes, with no cost to themselves, then the only way to stop it is with a government powerful enough to know when they do it and stop them or prosecute them.

The only government that could have such power is a global totalitarian state. I used to use that as an argument for why copyright law cannot be enforced.

Now we have a copyright "czar," felony charges, and a push for global synchronicity of copyright laws... why am I not comforted?

Re:Czar

[by Anonymous Coward]

When hundreds of millions of children can "manufacture and distribute" copies of works more easily than they can tie their shoes, with no cost to themselves, then the only way to stop it is with a government powerful enough to know when they do it and stop them or prosecute them.

The only government that could have such power is a global totalitarian state.

The national idiots.. I mean congress, have apparently realized that we don't actually produce anything of tangible worth in our own country anymore. So this is one of those prohibitionist efforts to criminalize significant portions of the population in the name of IP Protectionism.

And after the horrendous financial bleeding we've caused, the rest of the world these days is more likely than ever to ignore the nannering coming out of Washington D.C. ...Seems like the dumbest time ever to have gone ahead with this mess of a law.

Re:Czar

[MrBigInThePants (624986)]

Because departments tend to be ultra-introverts and power crazy zealots a "Czar" is sometimes created to cross these boundaries to encourage (and enforce) cooperation to a common goal. (e.g. Drugs, terrorism and now copyright)

It has more impact and is (arguably) more cost-effective than creating a new department to carry out tasks which are the same as other departments. This also assumes that the departments will fail to work together effectively and squabble over funding and power.
Sometimes there is a double up. There is a department that deals with drugs specifically, so the Czar's main role would be to coordinate all the interested departments.

Just like a Drug Czar eh?

[hurfy (735314)]

Does that mean copyrights will now be available on every street corner?

Whaddaya mean the wasn't the goal?

Re:Just like a Drug Czar eh?

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Does that mean copyrights will now be available on every street corner?

Whaddaya mean the wasn't the goal?

Those who forget history and all that. Prohibition doesn't work, no matter what country you happen to find yourself. Well, it doesn't work in terms of forbidding access to products or services that the people really want. It may work when it comes to illegitimately extending government authority.

What this debacle should teach us (as if we didn't already know) is that the levels of corruption, malfeasance in office, and influence peddling in Congress are much higher than was previously thought. "Elected" leaders of banana republics whore themselves out in similar fashion, and really, not for much less money.

Depressing, really.

Civil Asset Forfeiture = Really Bad

[corsec67 (627446)]

http://fear.org/ [fear.org]

Assets should only be forfeited when the owner of said assets has lost a case (civil or preferably criminal).

Cases such as "County of X against $10,000" are just wrong and evil, and should be in violation of the 4th Amendment.

Re:Civil Asset Forfeiture = Really Bad

[by Anonymous Coward]

Drugs were but an excuse. The government wanted to increase their ability to track money through the economy, reduce gray/black market activities, force people into using banking for every penny they could, increase taxation success, reduce currency in circulation, increase plastic usage, etc, just give it some thought. I can remember when successful farmers and ranchers carried rolls of hundred dollar bills with them often, no idea if they still do that or not but if they do they are at risk while just trying to do their daily business. Used car dealers on buying trips have had their money seized in forfeiture as have many others that don't have anything to do with drugs. For law enforcement, it is a license to steal and even kill. One of the examples being:

Some Police Will Kill You For Your Property [isil.org]

          In Malibu, California, park police tried repeatedly to buy the home and land of 61-year-old, retired rancher Don Scott, which was next to national park land. Scott refused. On the morning of October 2, 1992, a task force of 26 LA county sheriffs, DEA agents and other cops broke into Scott's living room unannounced. When he heard his wife, Frances, scream, he came out of his upstairs bedroom with a gun over his head. Police yelled at him to lower his gun. He did, and they shot him dead.

          Police claimed to be searching for marijuana which they never found. Ventura County DA Michael Bradbury concluded that the raid was "motivated at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the government . . . [The] search warrant became Donald Scott's death warrant."

Wonder how many similar things were just swept under the rug?

As if parents needed another "war" to worry about

[nightfire-unique (253895)]

With the war on drugs, the war on sex, the war on common sense, and now the war on "IP theft", the risk of raising a child in the US skyrocketing. :(

Young people often fundamentally don't understand the economic incentives, implications and justifications for copyright (regardless of whether or not they are still valid today). Couple that with very low purchasing power, and this new war-on-sharing is a disaster waiting to happen.

Mark my words. A lot of families will suffer terribly because of this.

Re:As if parents needed another "war" to worry abo

[jessica_alba (1234100)]

Young people often fundamentally don't understand the economic incentives

A public hanging of Santa Claus will teach the little bastards a thing or tw0.

Re:As if parents needed another "war" to worry abo

[Nimey (114278)]

Just think of how powerful the prison guards' union will be...

"How long are you in for, comrade?"
"Eight years."
"What are you in for?"
"Nothing, nothing at all."
"Lies. The penalty for nothing is ten years!"

Re:As if parents needed another "war" to worry abo

[life atom (1374873)]

I'm old enough to remember when this would have been assumed to be a Russian joke. Now it's an American joke.

America is dying

[rezalas (1227518)]

Hello mr. Constitution, my name was Paul. However, I was sued by the RIAA for infringing on their copyright of the letter "P" and now I'm known as inmate 5675. Unfortunately, God-King Bush said I also violated his copyright on free speech with my first letter so they took my Kidneys since I don't have anything left after my legs were taken for speaking against the media's word.

Unintended consequences.

[cwsulliv (522390)]

The intention: Since very little is manufactured in the USA any more, one of the few things we have to sell to the outside world is our IP, so we have to protect it.

The Unintended Consequences: As Lawrence Lessig has pointed out, draconian copyright and patent laws are a strong disincentive to building on the works of others, so there will be less IP to sell.

I guess we're sunk.

Re:Unintended consequences.

[bishiraver (707931)]

What I don't get about our lack of manufacturing / exports:

1) there is a huge demand for wind energy
2) most wind turbines are manufactured overseas, and there is a severe shortage of them
3) the rust belt has tons of infrastructure for manufacturing
4) the rust belt is severely underemployed

What the hell are we waiting for?

what's next?

[DragonTHC (208439)]

Are they going to make a fast food czar?

How about an SUV czar?

I mean, people are buying less SUVs than ever before, so we must have a cabinet level position to figure out how to get people to buy more SUVs right?

And people need to buy more fast food too. Let's create a cabinet position for that.

This is not unprecented. I mean, there's already a banking czar who is taking over the banks now.

Next will come the porn czar. "Sir, put your hands up and your penis back in your pants!"

Bush certainly is tying up the loose ends in the fascism loop ins't he?

You're kidding, right?

[DogDude (805747)]

At this point, our best hope would appear to be to hope that someone sensible like Laurence Lessig or William Patry gets appointed

I hope you're kidding. In case you've been asleep for 8 years, the US has gone further and further towards Big Brother to the point where having our rights suspended in a city where there's a Republican National Convention is no longer shocking. Whoever is appointed to this post will be as dumb, vicious, and bloodthirsty as possible. I mean, really, do you think for a second that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are going to appoint someone like Lessig?

No, they'll pick someone who is about law enforcement and headlines. Somebody who probably works or worked as a lawyer for the MPAA or RIAA. It's going to be a real shitstorm. Expect to see new, harsher mandatory sentence laws passed soon. There's money in prisons and fines!

We need a constitutional ammendment...

[istartedi (132515)]

...to abolish "civil forfeiture". It's bad enough when it happens to someone falsely accused in a drug case, or even acquitted. Expansion of CF? Absolute oppression. No other way to put it. I understand that you probably need to have *some* civil law apart from criminal law; but I think that if the founders knew that impoverishment was being used as "the next best thing" to imprisonment, they'd be turning in their graves.

At a time when the decline of property values has caused so much trouble; expansion of CF makes no sense at all. I know that as I've considered investing in property, the possibility of CF has given me serious pause. I don't do drugs; but what if my tenant does? And then they come along and, without the stricter standards of a criminal case, they deprive me of the property. Now I have to worry if the tenant is a warez guy? Maybe there's a way to insure against CF, but then that's just one more thing that cuts into the bottom line for an investor.

Slashdot

[Idiomatick (976696)]

I think at this point I only read /. to depress myself thinking about the affairs of government.

Copyright infringement is a FELONY NOW?!?!?

[ZosX (517789)]

Wait a minute........

FTFB: "Copyright infringement is a felony"

If I steal a CD from a store that is a misdemeanor....

If I download a song...THAT IS A FELONY?!?!?!?!?

WTF?!!?!?!?!?

Don't worry. They are already have massive surveillance in place. It won't be hard to pick out the offenders. I think we need to start looking at the RIAA under RICO statutes.

Aren't the jails already full of non-violent drug offenders???

Disgusting. How much longer before we can convince the nation to pick up some rifles and march to DC?

Re:Fist Prose

[by Anonymous Coward]

1. Countries without extradition treaties to the US, as the act makes pirating a criminal offense - one that you can be extradited for.
2. Countries without friendly relations with the US, as part of this act involves convincing other nations to join.

That's about it on requirements, I think...

On a serious note, it's nice to know that with the economy in the crapper, rather than trying to correct problems with the US banking system, they've instead decided that the US's biggest concern is people downloading MP3s.

Uh, no. The US probably wants to forget that the industrial revolution started in the US thanks to one massive effort in corporate espionage. Cracking down heavily on IP actually harms the economy.

The US has signed its death warrant, again. This act can only hurt the economy, and it really doesn't need to be kicked while its down.

Re:Fist Prose

[jamstar7 (694492)]

1. Countries without extradition treaties to the US, as the act makes pirating a criminal offense - one that you can be extradited for.

Which of course won't stop the Alphabet Agencies from kidnapping you from said non-extradition treaty country if they deem it a Good Thing. Remember Panama? Sure, Noriega was a scumbag that the United States put in power, but sending armed men across borders to forcibly remove him at gunpoint wasn't the height of diplomacy, it was outright invasion.

2. Countries without friendly relations with the US, as part of this act involves convincing other nations to join.

Outside of the UK, Afghanistan ('friendly' government installed at gunpoint by the US), and Iraq (see 'Afghanistan'), that's just about everywhere on the planet.

On a serious note, it's nice to know that with the economy in the crapper, rather than trying to correct problems with the US banking system, they've instead decided that the US's biggest concern is people downloading MP3s.

No, this is just a bait and switch from the Powers That Be to draw attention away from the fact that we're in a depression. It gives said Powers That Be the excuse to squeeze yet more taxes, spend more money, and do nothing but make examples of people who do not have the means to fight back without the ancillary effect of making a certain class of criminals ('drug dealers') rich in the process.

And of course, it has the Seal of Approval from the Senator from Disney.

Re:Fist Prose

[owlnation (858981)]

Don't worry, look how successful the Drugs Czar is. Money well spent.

Re:Fist Prose

[ChromeAeonium (1026952)]

The Russian czar was eventually replaced by communists who believed in free stuff for all.

Open source advocates believe in free software for all, and will likely try to destroy the position of Copyright Czar.

This isn't just money wasting legislation, someone has actually set up a very elaborate experiment to test if history repeats itself under controlled conditions.

Re:Fist Prose

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

They are successful. So long as you remember that the goal is to make the police force so big that a dictator can rely on them to keep the population in check.

BTW, if we weren't all criminals yesterday, and we're aren't all criminals now, you can be sure we will all be criminals soon.

We've all been criminals for a long, long time. It's just that nobody has bothered to prosecute us yet.

Re:Fist Prose

[boarder8925 (714555)]

What countries should I consider moving to?

Ones that don't have extradition agreements with the United States.

Re:Fist Prose

[Foobar of Borg (690622)]

any country you moved to that they could extradite you from is going to be more of a hell hole than just staying in the USA.

Said the geek who has rarely left his mother's basement, let alone the USA.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[TubeSteak (669689)]

Your government is out of control. Perfect timing. This will get zero media attention.

In the subject, you name Bush.
In your post, you name "your government"

Guess what, they are not one and the same.
Bush has issued 12 vetoes during 8 years.
4 of those vetoes were overridden.

The blame for this rests on the Senators and Congressmen who allowed themselves to be lobbied into passing such industry serving legislation.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[arth1 (260657)]

The blame for this rests on the Senators and Congressmen who allowed themselves to be lobbied into passing such industry serving legislation.

No, let's be fair. The blame is with those who voted them in.

Fellow people of the United States of America: You do a horrible job of voting. I don't expect clairvoyance, but I do expect you to see past the fit of the suit and the quality of the dentistry.
And when you make a wrong choice, I do expect you to take responsibility for having voted in the evil-doers.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[tepples (727027)]

No, let's be fair. The blame is with those who voted them in.

I didn't vote for Bush in 2004, nor did I vote for Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) in 2006. What should I have done, other than vote for other candidates and encourage friends and family members to do the same?

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[MaskedSlacker (911878)]

Which is exactly how I am left without anyone to vote for in the presidential election. No McCain (Military Commissiona Act of 2006), No Obama (FISA Amendments Act of 2008), No Bob Barr (*shudder*).

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[hairyfeet (841228)]

So who exactly are we SUPPOSED to vote for? Rich corporate asskisser A or B? You see that is what the problem is. With a two party system either choice has been bought and paid before you ever get to the booth. Would it be better with a multi party system? Hell if I know. All I do know is it really couldn't get much worse.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[coolsnowmen (695297)]

All I do know is it really couldn't get much worse.

Please don't tempt fate.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[russ1337 (938915)]

Bush is like Ronald McDonald.

When I get a bad Cheesburger, I don't blame the Server, I dont blame the Cook, I don't blame the store manager. No I blame Ronald. He is the figurehead that represents everthing about McDonalds so he is to blame. Also, when I get nice tasty fresh fries, he gets my high-five.

When the Government is out of control, the President is accountable. Just like Ronald.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[The Grim Reefer2 (1195989)]

Bush is like Ronald McDonald.

When I get a bad Cheesburger, I don't blame the Server, I dont blame the Cook, I don't blame the store manager. No I blame Ronald. He is the figurehead that represents everthing about McDonalds so he is to blame. Also, when I get nice tasty fresh fries, he gets my high-five.

When the Government is out of control, the President is accountable. Just like Ronald.

So instead of faulting anyone who had a hand in the making of your cheeseburger, you place the blame solely on a fictional clown that was invented by marketing people? That's an interesting philosophy you have.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[Nefarious Wheel (628136)]

So instead of faulting anyone who had a hand in the making of your cheeseburger, you place the blame solely on a fictional clown that was invented by marketing people?

The difference being...?

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[hedwards (940851)]

One is a made up amusement park quality attraction and the other one is a corporate mascot.

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[mgiuca (1040724)]

That's an excellent way to describe the president: "a fictional clown that was invented by marketing people".

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[Repton (60818)]

The world: America, you've got a corrupt lunatic for a president. You suck!

America: Actually, half the stupid stuff we do is because our senators and congressmen are corrupt lunatics too.

The world: Uhh...

Re:USA + Bush = FAIL

[TheSpoom (715771)]

America: Uh, heard of the War on Drugs?

The World: Y'know, on second thought, maybe you need to just get some better weed and chill out a little.

Re:What this looked like in the legislature:

[slashqwerty (1099091)]

We just need everyone we know to write letters to their congressmen -- Letters written on hundred dollar bills.

Why would politicians care about money? They are only allowed to use campaign contributions for their campaigns. What will their campaigns spend the money on? Publicity!

Who do you think lobbied congress for this law? It was the major media conglomerates that control 95% of all the media we are exposed to. What would happen to a politician that challenged the media? They would be torn apart in the press. This is why politicians always vote in favor of the media.

By the way, this bill went down just like the DMCA. Less than a month before a major election the bill came up for a vote. Virtually everyone in congress blindly voted for it with effectively no debate. The major media companies didn't publish anything on it.

In summary, congress did not vote for this law to get campaign contributions. They voted for it to keep the press from shafting them. Any attempt to persuade congress to create balanced copyrights will have to take that into consideration. This is not about campaign funds!

Re:What this looked like in the legislature:

[zippthorne (748122)]

"They are only allowed to use campaign contributions for their campaigns. What will their campaigns spend the money on?"

Yes, but they're allowed to use bribes whenever they visit foreign countries, or when they've been retired for long enough that no one cares anymore, or when their foreign shell corporation purchases vague services from their domestic LLC.

Re:How many copyright cases criminal court standar

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

This is what happens when you appoint a Czar.. a fuckin' WAR is declared and any allusions that people have about their rights go quickly out the window.

Well, the only saving grace here is that the Justice Department (who, after all will be responsible for prosecuting these "cases") is dead set against it. As they said in their rather concise letter to Congress, they have better things to do with their time and our money.

All in all, I have the feeling this probably won't go anywhere. If they start successfully screwing over too many people it's going to be political dynamite. Most likely this is just a step up in the RIAA's terror campaign, "Okay, so maybe you weren't afraid of us, but we're betting that you're just terrified of the United States Federal Government, so there!" This is one of those things for which you're not going to find much popular support. Drug dealers? Sure, why not: nobody likes them (even if they are supposed to have the same civil liberties as everyone else.) But ... music lovers?! Huh. Just wait until all the voting public using P2P realize that they're now subject to criminal prosecution. It's gonna get ugly: they're making yet another run at Prohibition, and it didn't work the first time.

So, they'd better play this very carefully. Not too many people are aware of the DMCA, or it's implications ... but this is going to be different. It will have to be higher profile if it is going to have the desired effect: keeping it out of the public's eye won't do any good at all.

Re:How many copyright cases criminal court standar

[BronsCon (927697)]

You know what? I'm actually happy now. The government did something for me, for once.

They listened when I said we need to mass-educate the population about the DMCA and just how bad it is; now they're implementing a program to do it.

Re:Luckly...

[Paradigm_Complex (968558)]

While it's influence has certainly been fading, the US still has quite a pull both economically and politically around the world. It's not exactly unheard of for the US to put pressure on other countries for things like this, and it's not unheard of for other countries to cave.

The more the US leans along these lines, the more other countries will. Sadly.

Re:Country Suggestions?

[Catbeller (118204)]

They already have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton [wikipedia.org]

On January 24, 2006 Halliburton's subsidiary KBR (formerly Kellogg, Brown and Root) announced that it had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build "temporary detention and processing facilities" or internment camps. According to Business Wire, this contract will be executed in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. Critics point to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as a possible model. According to a press release posted on the Halliburton website, "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities."[20]

How right you are...

[symbolset (646467)]

"At present the holder of copyright has the public feeling on his side. Those who invade copyright are regarded as knaves who take the bread out of the mouths of deserving men. Everybody is well pleased to see them restrained by the law, and compelled to refund their ill-gotten gains. No tradesman of good repute will have anything to do with such disgraceful transactions. Pass this law: and that feeling is at an end. Men very different from the present race of piratical booksellers will soon infringe this intolerable monopoly. Great masses of capital will be constantly employed in the violation of the law. Every art will be employed to evade legal pursuit; and the whole nation will be in the plot.

On which side indeed should the public sympathy be when the question is whether some book as popular as Robinson Crusoe, or the Pilgrim's Progress, shall be in every cottage, or whether it shall be confined to the libraries of the rich for the advantage of the great-grandson of a bookseller who, a hundred years before, drove a hard bargain for the copyright with the author when in great distress? Remember too that, when once it ceases to be considered as wrong and discreditable to invade literary property, no person can say where the invasion will stop. The public seldom makes nice distinctions.

The wholesome copyright which now exists will share in the disgrace and danger of the new copyright which you are about to create. And you will find that, in attempting to impose unreasonable restraints on the reprinting of the works of the dead, you have, to a great extent, annulled those restraints which now prevent men from pillaging and defrauding the living." - Thomas Macaulay, 1841

Ask yourself if he wasn't right: Does your local department store not stock blank DVD's and CD's in bare pallets of 100 packs because they move too fast to put on the shelves? Do you know anybody who doesn't have an MP3 player large enough to store more music than they can afford to buy? Is there not a vast network of servers from which any copyrighted work extant can be received without compensation for the creator, available in nearly every home?

By making stupid laws that should not and will not be obeyed and cannot be enforced we train the citizen from his youth to scoff at the law. That is far more damage than even the most egregious piracy can cause - it's promotion of anarchy. It would be better to do away with copyright entirely than to do further damage to social order.