CALL YOUR SENATOR: Stop proposal to make taxpayers responsible for MPAA's copyright claims!
Alex from Public Knowledge sez,
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee gave the green light to S. 3325, "The Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008." We need you to show them the red light, and quick! Among other things, this intellectual property enforcement bill lets the DOJ enforce civil copyright claims and lets the government do the MPAA and RIAA’s intellectual property rights enforcement work for them—at tax payers’ expense.ACTION ALERT: Tell the Senate to Hold Up the IP Enforcement Bill (Thanks, Alex!)We've setup Cause Caller to help you talk to Senators that we believe would be receptive to the message, but you should call your Senators, too.
The bill is already out of committee and could get sign-off from Senators for streamlined passage as soon as today, so we need you to call in now!
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This sort of thing is sickening. How can we let our government continue being against the people? Why do we still allow corporations to run us? Why won't they accept alternative forms of media distribution? We need to call and stop this now!
Aren't you only supposed to call your own state senators?
This bill is pretty scary. I just got done reading it and not only does it allow the attorney general to commence civil actions against enemies of the MPAA and RIAA, it will hand out money to state and local authorities to combat heinous crimes (i.e. ANY form of copyright infringement over the Internet). That's right, your local police station could soon be receiving tax money for training and equipment to crack down on infringement of copyrighted works over the Internet. Used a sample of a copyrighted song in your blog? Say hello to your local deputy, who will be glad to take all the possibly infringing computer hardware and place it in storage, while letting the taxpayers foot the bill.
Exactly why is this bad?
Wouldn't this mean that the DOJ does the enforcing/investigating , and not the RIAA ?
Given that copyright is a reality , i see two options:
- the RIAA has police powers and steps above the law to investigate
- this stuff goes through the proper legal channels
I'd much rather see option #2 then let the RIAA have superpowers to spy, subpoena, and judge/jury/execute americans at their will.
One of Senator Kyl's staffers was snooty with me when he found out I wasn't calling from AZ. The other staffers were all very polite and simply asked for a zip code or location at the end of the call.
I believe the reason to keep this off of the DoJ's plate is the cost to the tax payer. Instead of option A: giving the RIAA police powers, I'd rather they just went through the courts and got warrants and subpoenas like everyone else.
@JONATHAN_V
You forgot option C: RIAA uses legal methods to pursue copyright claims
Every other industry enforces it's own copyright, why? Because they know their IP the best. Are we going to train a special unit to understand the intricacies of IP in every field? Sounds ridiculous.
Also, I called my senator. Requested a response, still waiting.
Is there some kind of list or cause I can sign up for that will just automatically include my "democratic voice" against every single piece of pro-IP legislation that ever comes to table?
I can't be bothered with all this unilateralism democratic consensus bullshit; it's death by a thousand paper cuts to have to deal with.
Just sign me up as Dr. No for everything that in any way expands the scope of so-called "intellectual property" law.
Copyrights and patents are unjustifiable government granted monopolies and must be abolished completely. Not "copyright reform", but complete elimination.
p.s. This bill is an excellent example of regulatory capture, where a civil matter of a private organization has literally become an externality to the government as a "criminal" matter. This practically defines corporatism / fascism.
This is all part of the larger scam to make "intellectual property" pretend to behave like common law property -- for real things that have rivalry and excludability, in other words scarcity.
There's nothing scarce about information; in fact it's practically free to distribute infinitely to anyone who wants it. "Intellectual property" is just an attempt at rent seeking by dinosaur businesses who have failed to adapt to the changing economic landscape.
There are other ways to make money from intellectual creativity such as music, film, and invention, that don't rely on corporate welfare (i.e. "intellectual property" monopolies) to succeed.
-- Robert A. HeinleinMost charming was to discover that Both Obama's and McCain's mailboxes were "full".
They want to be president and they cannot even use phone technologies properly?
We are doomed. Also, this story sucks.
Because suing kids and the rootkit fiasco weren't enough, now the record industry wants to use our money to continue its bullying? Way to endear yourself to the American public.