President Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar 555
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."
Re:Fist Prose (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Fist Prose (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
What this looked like in the legislature: (Score:4, Insightful)
All those who have already spent the large amounts of money placed conveniently on their doorsteps from an "Anonymous DonoRIAA" last week, say "Aye" -- any opposed? The Ayes have it. Send it to the president!
It's easy to start a grassroots campaign to get a new bill instated that will have this one eclipsed or overturned. We just need everyone we know to write letters to their congressmen -- Letters written on hundred dollar bills.
Re:Fist Prose (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
Said the geek who has rarely left his mother's basement, let alone the USA.
Re:What this looked like in the legislature: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's also easy to write prospective presidents and urge them to not appoint this position.
Civil damages require civil remediation. The governments job is to issue patents and copyrights, and provide a court system to litigate them within. Without regard to what I might think of the RIAA's tactics, they are at least using the system somewhat as intended. Civil damage, civil remedy.
Let's tell our leaders to be exactly what we think of these shenanigans.
How many copyright cases criminal court standards (Score:2, Insightful)
How many copyright cases are at criminal court standards?
jury trial.
Just having a ip is weak evidence as they are many was for the ISP mess it up and tieing it people who don't have HSI but do have cable / digital cable and the CO may of some how tied to some one who was on the same node just like how you can see / pay for other people VOD / PPV.
Civil Asset Forfeiture = Really Bad (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Just like a Drug Czar eh? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Czar (Score:3, Insightful)
It means we've got another unaccountable political appointee running things.
Is that two in a week? (Score:0, Insightful)
Ya know, if this were Friday, this would make the second Czar appointed this week.
The Bailout Bill (AKA Death of Capitalism, Comrad) created a man, the Treasury Secretary with more power than the president: the power to, and I quote "Ensure the prosperity" of the American people.
I don't know what to tell ya; voting Republican doesn't stop this anymore, and voting democrat only makes it 100 times worse. MAN, I wish the media hadn't picked our candidate.
Re:Czar (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
{sigh} unfortunately, we're talking about an unelected bureaucrat, not a real Czar.
So, this guy won't get shot, much as he'll probably deserve to be. He'll be in office until the next President fires his happy little ass and installs a new model.
The people responsible for this travesty won't suffer at all. That's the downside of being a civilized nation. How does the joke go? "Some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them."
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Country Suggestions? (Score:2, Insightful)
As the USA continues its bi-polar swing between Fascism and Marxism, I'm wondering if a country exists whose governments better balances the rights of the individual with the need of the population? I think I might need to move before they start setting up internment camps here.
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Unintended consequences. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
what's next? (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
and back in the real world (Score:4, Insightful)
.
The production budget for WALL-E was $180 million.
If you know a congressman who doesn't like to see hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in clean industry, skilled labor and high-paying jobs in his home district, I would very much like to meet him.
I doubt you are going to find him in California, New York, or Florida - not in this election and not in an economy where every export dollar matters.
You're kidding, right? (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is that both sides are equally bad.
No matter who they vote for, they are screwed.
Oh well. Doesnt affect Australia *too* much. :D
Four score and seven years ago... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, Abe, this shows that our government is clearly now of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.
The lovely bill was signed by what is likely the most corrupt president since Andrew Jackson. Ironically, he is from your party, the Republicans (you were the first elected Republican president). And the republicans were formed by former members of the Whig party, which existed to fight the tyranny of Jackson.
What would you say if you were here today, Abe? Is this what America has been fighting for?
So what does this mean for kids? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fist Prose (Score:3, Insightful)
Extradition is not a magic teleportation to another country, it must be justified.
Two standards must be met before someone may be extradited.
There must be enough evidence against the accused so that its likely a conviction could be reached, and most importantly in this case;
Condition number two.
It must be shown that extraditing the accused serves justice.
This one is most notably brought up for people being extradited for capital crimes. If its likely you will receive the death penalty if extradited and the country your currently in does not have one. They will not extradite you, because it does not serve justice.
The same applies for any crime, but becomes harder to demonstrate by the defence as the crimes become lesser.
But it's important here because while the EU is slowly reforming its IP laws to more sane standards in this age, the US seems to be regressing them. And if the country your in doesn't think its a crime you ain't going anywhere.
Whats going to happen now is that the US and the EU will move further and further apart on this and sooner or later US patents won't automatically be valid anywhere, the country will get a reputation for foolhardy IP laws and they'll make coporations go through local application processes before they recognize their copyright/patent.
Re:Luckly... (Score:5, Insightful)
The more the US leans along these lines, the more other countries will. Sadly.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
We need a constitutional ammendment... (Score:5, Insightful)
...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.
Re:Statutory damages (Score:3, Insightful)
Think about it. Copy "rights" only exist because governments invent them to provide incentive to create new works. This sort of thinking don't exist in nature or even in commonlaw AFAIK. The only "damage" that takes places is against those invented "rights", not against anything tangible.
and some extra "quotation marks" for good measure.
Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
I think at this point I only read /. to depress myself thinking about the affairs of government.
Re:Fist Prose (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, President Bush did sign it into law....BUT remember, the President makes NO laws whatsoever. He only signs them in.
If you really don't like this, and I don't either...look to your state's representatives and senators in congress up there.
They came up with the law...debated it and still passed it on to the president to sign.
I'm guessing BOTH of our lovely parties had people voting for this.
Any idea which way our presidential candidates voted? If I had to take a guess...I'd guess both McCain and Obama voted yea.
Re:How many copyright cases criminal court standar (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Fist Prose (Score:3, Insightful)
Ca Ching!
Re:What this looked like in the legislature: (Score:5, Insightful)
"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:As if parents needed another "war" to worry abo (Score:3, Insightful)
"Mark my words. A lot of families will suffer terribly because of this."
But somehow, not enough to cause an uproar. They learned a valuable lesson from Prohibition: Don't have too many high-profile raids.
And a corollary: People who think they can "buy" other people's stuff for way less than it's worth probably won't protest reason too much.
Re:Free works other than software? (Score:3, Insightful)
No surprises there.
Open Source software is a creative product that, when it leaves the nest, is likely to continue to develop and improve, and come back to the creator greater than when it left.
Passive entertainment is different: why would I spend a bunch of time and money creating some product for a bunch of parasitic consumers? Yes, in theory many versions of the CC license allow modification, but in practice I think that this is much less likely than with software, largely because while code fills a specific need and there are some measurably good and bad ways of doing it, art is far more a personal act of the creator, not very niche-driven, and there are an infinite number of ways to do it right.
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:4, Insightful)
Before the "war on drugs" we had a "war on poverty". They both had czars, and each was as effective as the other. Allow me to predict that the copyright czar will rise to unprecedented levels of negative success. I think something was lost in translation here. In the original russian I don't believe the word "czar" means "ineffectual idiot tasked with the impossible". I could be wrong about that.
Any russian linguists in the house?
Re:Czar (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
You say that like it's a bad thing? silly rabbit. The people in power have seen that as a flaw for quite some time. Most people over 40 don't give a damn about personal rights as long as they can drive SUVs and own Guns (but not "bad" guns) Nobody believes in PERSONAL freedom anymore, they want the govt to fix marriages, stop gays, make people have good credit because it's a guy borrowing $200k for his house that caused this mess. But the people at the top can live better than rockstars and do no wrong because they live the dream and worked hard and got rich... so they must be good people!
Re:LOL @ twitter (Score:3, Insightful)
And a "-1, bashing twitter for no good reason" moderation. I'm all for nuking his karma further into oblivion, but it simply adds nothing for ACs to troll him... especially when he doesn't actually say anything particularly stupid or abusive (like the post above).
Re:Fist Prose (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh yeah, it's a living hell here in Australia.
Can't stop to talk more, the weather's heating up and we're all off to the beach now, then maybe a barbeque later. We'll throw a prawn on for you.
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:3, Insightful)
People need to think logically, and vote their hearts. They need to stop voting for the popular candidates, and look at all the choices individually. And this means eliminating someone as a possible voting choice when they see them do something foolish.
Re:Fist Prose (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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.
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:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:5, Insightful)
All I do know is it really couldn't get much worse.
Please don't tempt fate.
Re:As if parents needed another "war" to worry abo (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm old enough to remember when this would have been assumed to be a Russian joke. Now it's an American joke.
Re:Civil Asset Forfeiture = Really Bad (Score:3, Insightful)
I would go so far as to say that failure to recognize and understand sarcasm will always lead to making stupid comments.
He understood the post perfectly. You just misunderstood his.
Post 1 was indeed sarcastic, and implied that police keeping seized assets could (or would often) lead to corruption.
Post 2 said that not only would it _often_ lead to corruption, it would _always_ do so.
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:4, Insightful)
Rep. Souder isn't responsible for this bill making it out of committee. He is not a member of the majority.
It is time for people to learn that we had a Republican majority in the recent past for a reason. The reason is that Democrats were colossal failures at leadership too.
By all means, though. Elect Obama, and keep Pelosi in power. Just don't delude yourself into thinking this will change anything.
It's not good enough to vote for "other candidates". You need to encourage intelligent, strong-willed, highly ethical people to leave their otherwise profitable and rewarding day jobs and run. Then you have to convince the sheep that watch 80 hours of reality television and CNN to vote for them even if their platform doesn't rhyme. Either that or pick up a Bible and start a'thumpin.
Copyright infringement is a FELONY NOW?!?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
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:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:3, Insightful)
"because the wrong lizard might get in" [williams.edu] is not a good enough excuse to keep repeating a mistake. voting for bush once -- hey, everyone makes a mistake, right? voting for bush twice? as they say in texas: "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...-foo..ma...won't get fooled again."
what i'm saying is, why not try asskisser b? just for the variety?
Doesn't work like that (Score:5, Insightful)
People need to think logically, and vote their hearts.
Impossible. They are usually at odds. For an example, try to fall in love with someone based on a rational argument of what positive qualities they possess. You will not succeed. You will instead fall in love with a total nutcase, nine times out of ten.
Them's the breaks. The heart does not submit to reason. Politicians know this, too. They're actors first and foremost. Each and every one.
And this means eliminating someone as a possible voting choice when they see them do something foolish.
Also impossible. It's been Red vs. Blue now for decades. Nobody thinks anymore. Politics has become a sporting match. Doesn't matter what anyone says or does - you just want your side to win.
Besides, you aren't allowed politically to pick and choose good ideas from either "side". If you're for gun control it's assumed you also think global warming is man-made. They are two entirely unrelated ideas, but the left-side claims them both, so someone from the right-side cannot claim either. They must say they are against gun control and they think global warming is nonsense.
A candidate that came along and actually spoke their mind rather than quote the party line would probably at this point make people's heads explode. They would see it as impossible. Like saying it's day and night at the same time.
In short, they have us trained. Pick a side and line up. And for God's sake don't reach any of your own conclusions. If you're on this side, your position on topic X is Y. If you're on the other side, your position on topic X must therefore be !Y.
It's hideous, really. Both major parties don't do jack for the people. Remember when everyone got all happy that the Democrats won Congress, and finally something would put a stop to W's free ride? What happened? First thing Congress did was roll over and take it up the tailpipe about warrentless wiretapping. "Oh sure, that's ok, especially since it was just this once. No problem W, carry on."
Same horseshit, different crew. Doesn't matter who gets voted in anymore. Big business lobbies to get what it wants, and both Red and Blue will bow before Green.
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:3, Insightful)
There's also another part of the analogy. Both Bush and clowns are evil.
This act is fucking stupid, and I'm quite sure it'll see as much success as the war on drugs has. In 30 years time we'll have a TV show like "The Wire" but instead of busting the heads of dealers, they'll be busting the heads of those trading music.
Fuck your country in it's stupid braindead ass. Seriously, my closest friend is American. She's awesome. It's also quite clear a lot of American's on here are sensible, rational individuals. I know they are out there and they do exist. But the majority of your country are fucking morons who base their entire vote on Republicans being anti-abortion (which they'll never actually ban because then they can't use it to drum up votes anymore) or some other equally asinine notion! Yes, who cares what this governments does to peoples rights, foreign policy, the debt of the country, so long as we get someone in who is against women having the right to choose.
I know I'm going to get modded as a troll, and I don't fucking care. I am SICK TO DEATH OF FUCKING IDIOT AMERICANS! It wouldn't be so bad if it was any other country. Like if Canada had come up with this PRO-IP crap. Yeah, it'd suck. But it would have no bearing on anything else outside the country. But the US has to wave their fucking cock around like they own the planet, and now they're going to have this Copyright Czar, bought and paid for by the MPAA, RIAA etc... Harassing OTHER SOVEREIGN NATIONS to bring in similarly asinine and uneven laws. But of course despite appointing themselves the world police, nobody outside the godforsaken country gets to vote, because they did, Bush would have been gone four years by this point and you'd all be watching President Kerry run for a second term right now. But no, you rattle your sabres and tell other nations what they can and can't do, but the other nations don't get to stand up and have a say in anything.
America isn't a nation to aspire too. America isn't a nation to admire. All you good people there, and please don't think this is aimed at you because my close friend and you all give me hope that the country isn't completely doomed, but you are clearly not enough to do any good. Your country is nothing more than a bully paid for by corporations and special interests.
Fuck America. You need another civil war and to start again. I would gladly come and fight by your side.
Re:Doesn't work like that (Score:3, Insightful)
A candidate that came along and actually spoke their mind rather than quote the party line would probably at this point make people's heads explode. They would see it as impossible. Like saying it's day and night at the same time.
That candidate would most likely spread like a viral meme through word of mouth and receive very little media attention, and then inspire a small but very vocal minority to spam message boards constantly. They might even get the chance to voice their views once or twice on a debate before being yanked in favor of a candidate with the same poll numbers but a strong penchant for lying and using the term Islamofacist. But ultimately they are doomed to fail. *sigh*
It sure would be nice to see a multi-party system where there is a candidate I'd like to vote for.
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:3, Insightful)
It is time for people to learn that we had a Republican majority in the recent past for a reason. The reason is that Democrats were colossal failures at leadership too.
ok,ok, failures sure. Colossal? I don't think so. Two wars costing over a trillion, 700 billion down the tubes, what could become the largest recession in recent history, a stolen election? I'd hardly call the lagging economy and .com burst that Clinton left "colossal."
Sure Pelosi sucks and Obama is mostly media hype, but they can't be any worse, And I mean that with all seriousness. Bush did damage no rational person who isn't guided by handlers who want to profit at any price and uncriticized ideology would do. If Obama was another lame duck like Carter, he would still be 10 fold a better president then Bush.
I do know one thing it will change, the powers that be will have to at least give a reach around while they rape out country, the Dems usually get that much done.
Re:This could backfire... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's just the excuse they will look for to justify the harsh punishments and remove what semblance of privacy and due process that remains. Read up about the Reichstag fire [wikipedia.org], it was Hitler's excuse to bring in the "Ermächtigungsgesetz" or "Enabling Act" [wikipedia.org] in English. It will only help them assosiate piracy with the grim spectre of terrorism, a scared population is easy to control, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia should have taught us that.
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:3, Insightful)
This is why the American Founders said, "Our worst disease is democracy." The average person on the street can't even locate the U.S. on a world map... how are they supposed to know all the intricate details about which Congressperson supports (or does not support) fair usage of artistic works?
I suspect most American voters simply pick the name that they recognize, thereby ensuring we get the same incumbent decade-after-decade, and have no clue how or what that person stands for. "Oh he has such a nice smile. He actually spoke to me! He gets my vote."
Take Obama for example. Most people are voting for him simply because "he's not Bush". Or "he sounds good". Back in 2000, that's how Bush got into office. People voted for him because he was "not Clinton" and "he sounded like he really cared about us". The American people vote these men into office, and they have no clue what they actually represent, and then they act disappointed with the results.
That's no way to choose the leader of the executive branch.
Originally the president was chosen by the State Legislatures via the electoral college. Perhaps we should return to that, because they chose better leaders (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe) than the current method of "he who smiles most, wins the vote".
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:5, Insightful)
P.S.
"Copyright Czar" and "Drug Czar" are appropriate terms. I can not think of a title more appropriate for describing our loss of freedom than the word "czar" who terrorized Russian serfs (slaves) for centuries, or the "ceasar" that killed the Roman Republic and turned it into a virtual dictatorship. These new "czar" positions within the U.S. government represent a gradual but definite loss of republicanism, liberty, and individual sovereignty.
My downloading of Star Wars Clone Wars harmed no one. (It was trash; I saved money by Not buying it.)
My smoking of weed while watching said movie also harms no one. It only harms me, and it's my body, therefore my choice how I treat it. Besides: If we can abort babies on the grounds that a woman controls her body, then surely that same woman has a right to inhale some smoke.
Re:Fist Prose (Score:3, Insightful)
On any bill, I count the lack of a vote as a vote on the side I disagree with the most. It shows a decision to allow a 'pass' on a controversial bill with the resulting effect of allowing them to be on both sides at once. I don't like it, so I count their abstaining vote as the worst case vote unless they have a very good excuse.
Re:How right you are... (Score:2, Insightful)
Laws have to be introduced sometime. We can't just make a bunch of rules at the dawn of civilisation and expect us to live by them forever onwards. Circumstances change, and so do our needs. Right now, the fact that this law is disobeyed so frequently is not just evidence that the law is stupid, but also that the law is so necessary. We need (read: we really really want) our music, our movies, and our video games. We want it so much we will flit around the law to get more and more of it. Surely laws that safeguard the supply of such luxuries should be passed and enforced?
As for enforcement, it's not that hard. Regularly monitor P2P networks. That will cut down most anonymous sharing, and it can be done mostly automatically, like a speed camera that checks file names and puts them on a "suspicious" list. Or it could be done manually by a person or two. It wouldn't have to be that costly, but enough to put some real risk in piracy.
Re:Fist Prose (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's see here - a few more CD's means a few more purchases, with little effort involved. Net gain for the economy. On the other hand, paying salaries to the Copyright Cops and the Copyright Czar to bust a woman in a wheelchair and her 10 year old daughter living on a meager income with little property... equals a net loss for the economy. If a net gain is a positive number, and a net loss is a negative number, isn't a positive number always larger than a negative number?
I didn't even pull this out of my ass... It's just simple Economics 101 and Math 101 for you... In fact, in a basic Macro Economics course, you are taught about the curves that represent the amount of goods sold for a given price, the cost of making a certain number of goods, etc. I don't recall these curves taking into account pirated copies of the copyrighted goods. In fact, those should ALWAYS be ignored except for the purposes of devising a way to turn the infringers into paying customers without the political spin.
Face it, if there's no profit in publishing songs, movies, tv shows, software, or books, then why are they in the business of doing so, and why do they need increased taxpayer subsidized "protection"?
Re:USA + Bush = FAIL (Score:2, Insightful)
Mod him up.
It is disheartening, but it is true. As Americans we have lost our way. How much does your average American even know of the founding of the country? Of the details of the Constitution?
The majority of people are just flat out ignorant of what it is supposed to mean to be American.
The whole point behind America was to secure liberty, freedom, for everyone. You do that by protecting the minority. You do that by putting individuals before corporations.
The entire point behind our election processes was to get your voice heard. But what has happened?
The number of Representatives has been capped. It is no longer 1 for every 30-50 thousand like it should be. Now it is only 472. Always. So as populations shift and grow, the number of seats change. Some States have one seat while others have 16. Where is their say?
Or even when you are voting for President it has been changed. The runner up no longer gets any position whereas before they would become the Vice President. So in close races a large portion of the population is shunted aside and grows sullen.
Over the years we've slowly legislated away our rights and its going to take years to straighten it out.
The biggest problem to me is that lately it seems people think the Law is the Law and cannot be changed.
The biggest point to America originally was that the Law could be changed.
I sincerely hope we never see another civil war. I sincerely hope we can straighten this shit out. But without people at least trying we never will, and many people seem apathetic because they're just "one guy."
Go read over your history books to your kids. Our schools don't seem to be doing a good enough job. I know I learned more about the founding of America and the Constitution thanks to the Internet than I ever did in school.
Re:Forfeiture (Score:2, Insightful)
Seems to me somebody with the proper skill- and mindset should crack an RIAA executive's home computer and stuff it with a few thousand illicit media files (preferably non-RIAA music, so they can't weasel out of it) and turn him in to the new "Czar".
No need for that complicated first step. Someone will take an RIAA exec and turn him into the new czar anyway.