U.S. to Get New IP Czar 320
tetraminoe writes "Reuters is reporting that Congress's latest spending bill provides for the creation of a federal copyright enforcement czar. According to the article, 'Under the program, the president can appoint a copyright law enforcement officer whose job is to coordinate law enforcement efforts aimed at stopping international copyright infringement and to oversee a federal umbrella agency responsible for administering intellectual property law.' It also gives $2 million to the National Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council (NIPLAC), created in the '90s and never funded. NIPLAC will work to protect American IP overseas and oversee enforcement."
Am I the only one (Score:2, Insightful)
This is news for nerds, IP should mean Internet Protocol, not some copyright sillyness.
Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
IP Czar or P2P Czar (Score:5, Insightful)
big deal (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine! (Score:5, Insightful)
And we get to pay for it both on the enforcement and higher prices caused by inefficient distribution systems.
What a warm way to start this holiday.
Canada Eh? (Score:1, Insightful)
The real question (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
I for one... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because we all know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
As for being the enforcement arm of the *AA, this country's core creed is "the protection of capital" even to the point of propping up failed business models (hey, it works for Amtrak and the Big Three Airlines). Ignore that at your peril.
WTF is this 'CZAR' BS? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that what it's come down to in 21st century America? 'Czar's?
At least the US gubment is going out in the open about it. No more of this pussy footing about the real intent here: screw freedom. Drug Czars, IP Czars, what next?
Potentially useful for USA, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
The bad news is that the other posters are right - this czar will probably focus more on coordinating the RIAA/MPAA legal fights and forcing computer makers to build in DRM so that I can't even legally backup copies of my own CDs/DVDs/etc.
It frustrates me to see people who *share* content getting more persecuted/prosecuted than those who try to profit from stolen content - the real pirates.
Government propping up private enterprise (Score:5, Insightful)
"This isn't the Pirate Act, but I think the taxpayers would be surprised that there's money being spent for copyright enforcement when terrorists and criminals still roam the streets," said Gigi Sohn, president of the nonprofit fair-use advocacy group Public Knowledge. "When every dollar is being counted for education, health care and homeland security, it seems like a strange priority."
Indeed, it's funny how certain industries always seem to get government help when they need it. Must be nice. "Lesse, my business is suffering because of competitors who won't play by my rules. I could try to out market them, or out produce them, or enforce my own rules, or, wait a minute! I know! I'll just cut a check to my congresscritter and get them to do my job for me! Whee! Ain't America grand!"
Maybe that's why the article began this way:
"Buried inside the massive $388 billion spending bill Congress approved last weekend is a program that creates a federal copyright enforcement czar. "
Yeah, better not let this one see too much of the light of day. Just bury it in the spending bill that has to pass.
Re:RIAA/MPAA out of a job now (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing better to do (Score:3, Insightful)
Its nice to know that there are no more starving children in the country, or neglected. or abused.
All other *real* crime has been removed from our land.. so now we can waste resources on meaningless things like this.. and have the feds invade farther into our lives, what should be civil issues?
Don't we all just feel so much safer now?
I do (Score:3, Insightful)
Piracy is the only check we have on the price of games, movies, and CD's.
CD prices have dropped recently. Why? Because the competition (i.e. "free") forced it down.
There is a myth that if there was perfect copy protection, prices would decrease because of "less losses from piracy".
In fact, prices go up in this situation, because there is no competition.
I view a small amount of piracy as a healthy thing for the consumer, because it forces the producer to compete with *something*.
Re:Am I the only one (Score:4, Insightful)
You can personally choose to ignore it, but it's at your own expense. If you don't fight to keep IP laws fair you'll one day find it's illegal or too expensive to be a nerd.
Re:Finally (Score:5, Insightful)
You'd have thought the lawsuits would have done that [theregister.co.uk] for most of the kids.
Maybe it's me, but the US seems to be heading down a deeper and deeper spiral, with the Government losing sight of the fact it exists for the people, by the people. Instead, it's for the corps, by the corps. Even wars are seen in economic terms.
Until all the political donations by artificial entities are eliminated, things are going to get a lot worse.
-- james
One czar to rule them all... (Score:3, Insightful)
In the other hand, "international copyright infringements"... what about US infringements about international copyrights? US laws/view of the problem always seems to be "i am the right one, the other countries just copy what is done here" even when its not, same with the "fair trade" US definition (accept our products, lets see if I accept yours)
Re:big deal (Score:3, Insightful)
Trust your government: they're here to help.
Re:WTF is this 'CZAR' BS? (Score:5, Insightful)
>
>Is that what it's come down to in 21st century America? 'Czar's?
>
>At least the US gubment is going out in the open about it. No more of this pussy footing about the real intent here: screw freedom. Drug Czars, IP Czars, what next?
In Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia came next.
You know the grand experiment in freedom has ended when Yakov Smirnoff jokes start sounding like a cross between Cold War era history textbooks and tonight's evening news.
Hoping about the GOP? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:2, Insightful)
that's true.. but..
aimed at stopping international copyright infringement
Re:Finally (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm gonna call BS on that right now. The low dollar cost projects SETI, PBS, and NEA have been favorite points of attack for the dems and pubes in their little budget battles for years - any government funding of this sort of philosophical project is an endorsement of it by the recognized rules of engagement.
Plethora of Czars (Score:2, Insightful)
Every administration since at least Reagan has appointed a Drug Czar. He has had absolutely no effect on the availability of drugs in this country.
Before creating the Department of Homeland Insecurity, Bush appointed Tom Ridge to be his Homeland Security Czar. Far from making everyone feel more secure, he's spent the last three years or so scaring the bejezus out of us.
So now that we're going to have an IP Czar, file traders everywhere should be breathing a sigh of relief. It means the government isn't really serious about the "problem" and is just going through the motions.
Re:big deal (Score:4, Insightful)
Any way you look at it, government wins, at the expense of the individual.
Ending or "winning" the war on drugs, or the war on terror, or poverty, or copyright abuse, is the last thing government wants to do. These programs are set up not to succeed, but to provide a steady stream of revenue and justification for expansion of government powers.
Re:Finally (Score:3, Insightful)
The government controls the military.
The government controls the law.
The government controls the prisons.
I dunno.. somehow, I don't feel comfortable with the government also controlling the schools.
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:big deal (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WTF is this 'CZAR' BS? (Score:3, Insightful)
Historical note (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there an 'Event Horizon'... (Score:5, Insightful)
If so, then everything we try to do to get consumer-friendly laws pass will be thwarted, and all we will be able to do is to watch as current trends move towards their logical conclusion, where there's a small number of ultra-rich corps/people, and the rest of the world lives like Bangladeshi farmers do today.
Have a pleasant holiday!
Re:Hoping about the GOP? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Finally (Score:2, Insightful)
"The government" is not an intelligent entity. This is, despite all appearances to the contrary, still a democracy, and if the lawmakers get away with doing things like this it's because the people don't care.
Stuff like this doesn't happen because "the government" is big, and bad, and evil, it's because the people stopped paying attention. Stuff like IP law doesn't show up on literally 99.7% of the population's radar screens. And that's how they're going to get away with it.
"Of the corporations, by the corporations..." (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is there an 'Event Horizon'... (Score:3, Insightful)
Possibly, but things have been worse than this before. The monopolists of the early 20th century USA were far worse than today's breed, and you're probably aware of the bloody awful lot the workers had in 19th century Britain.
The great problem right now is that the corporations are beginning to surpass the governments in power. There are only a few countries in the world that are much wealthier than the largest corporations, and since they're mostly democracies that means that their leaders can be easily bought. If you have a single socialist bone in your body then this is a nightmare - the government, representative of the workers, should protect our rights from the capitalist barons, but they're selling us out. It's beginning to look almost like feudalism.
But as I said, we've seen worse before and come back from it. We probably need the left to get over the fall of the USSR and develop a post-Marxist philosophy; perhaps left-wing libertarianism along the Dutch model. Unfortunately, for socialism of any kind to have a fighting chance would probably need a really serious recession to damage the credibility of the ultra-capitalist model; this would be No Fun At All.
Re:Scared Congress??? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll imply it. In fact, I'll come right out and say it: The RIAA is not justified in its claims that downloaders on p2p services are hurting them. Primarily this is because their claims are overblown and are used by RIAA as the SOLE culprit in their revenue loss, when in fact it is only a small portion of the blame.
Let me explain the simple math for you: if you have a choice between "paying" and "not paying" for music, which will you do? Speak for yourself. Since you seem to have no regard for the law, I suppose you will do anything you can get away with. Personally, I don't care for the crap the RIAA label put out these days, and I don't buy it, and I don't listen to it (other than occasionally on radio and tv, or at a bar - I do have friends and family).
Artists (even bad ones) should have some way of being compensated, if that's what they care about. But the RIAA model of stealing from artists, controlling the broadcasters, and ripping off the public is old and dying and deserves no respect. And using the government to protect their dying business model is plain evil.
So yess[sic], the RIAA has 100% legit claims of financial ruin.
So, along with the airline industry, the auto industry, etc., etc., I suppose you think it's ok for MY tax dollars to be stolen from me (at gunpoint) to bail out the music industry? Well, then, fuck you.
You don't want the rich to go without, do you? (Score:3, Insightful)
In practice, this plays out through the operation of two seemingly diametrical systems. The laissez-faire economy is operated for the poor and working classes, who must either sink or swim, while a kind of socialism is provided for the rich. They are entitled to sink all they like. Their political servants--the US government--will always be on hand at poolside to revive them, pump their waterlogged bellies, and towel down the poor dears while delivering fulsome praise for their bravery and daring in plunging to the bottom.