Bill Would Criminalize Attempted IP Infringement 211
ianare writes "H.R. 3155, the Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act of 2007, has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH). In most cases, the bill appears to simply double existing penalties. One big change however, is that people could now be charged with criminal copyright infringement even if such infringement has not actually taken place. Not surprisingly, the EFF has condemned the legislation."
FP? (Score:5, Informative)
-uso.
FP? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why, nothing at all.
You did know that an attempt to commit a crime is itself a crime? Try forcing a lock the charge will be attempted burglary.
Re:FP? (Score:5, Insightful)
"You did know that an attempt to commit a crime is itself a crime? Try forcing a lock the charge will be attempted burglary."
In other words, you're charged with a different crime - "attempted burglary, not borglary. If you read the article, the charges, penalties, etc., are the same for an attempt as for the actual crime.
Attempted burglary can include a spur-of-the-moment going up to a closed door and seeing if its locked - the actual damages of an unsuccessful attempt are none, and its certainly not in the same league as successfully attacking the door with a crowbar which you brought along (premeditated) for that express purpose.
Instead of doubling jail terms for this, why not double them for white collar crime, perjury, and rape? Oh, right ... the perps of white collar crime own the politicians, the politicians and their friends want to be able to continue perjuring themselves, and they're too busy raping over the electorate to give a sh*t.
Re:FP? (Score:5, Funny)
Borglary - the act of assimilating all of someone's stuff into your own collective.
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I've often wondered about the sense of having lower penalties for an attempted criminal act than for a successful one. Let's say a person plans to kill someone. It's a pre-meditated, malicious act by a sociopath who openly tells the court that he will try to do it again when he is released. Should he receive a lesser sentence than someone who
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I just realized I didn't make it clear that the first example was supposed to be an unsuccessful attempt, whereas the second succeeded. Are there any "degrees" to attempted murder? Or is it always treated as less serious because it did not succeed?
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Its the same reason we don't put people to death for stealing a candybar.
Re:FP? (Score:4, Insightful)
--
And remember, boys and girls -- "We had to destroy your freedom in order to save it."
Re:FP? (Score:5, Funny)
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Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty" ?
Oh, we leapfrogged that and then blew past "guilty until proven innocent". Nowadays, you're guilty when nifonged.
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Are pirates that big of a threat to society that they merit a doubling of imprisonment? I can see how commercial pirates represent much more tangible harm than personal copyright infringement does, as sales take place, though at potentially at a much higher quantity than at the legitimate price. But this just going through the database and multiplying everythi
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Probably just making sure of a good supply of slave labor for companies who do business inside of prisons. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/may2000/pris-m08 .shtml [wsws.org]
for starters...
Re:FP? Doubling the prison sentence (Score:2, Insightful)
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Re:FP? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:FP? (Score:4, Funny)
"Asshole ruins joke, completely missing the point"
Really now... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Really now... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Really now... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Really now... (Score:5, Funny)
I could have sworn people have been award prizes for attempted peace in the middle east or attempted peace with the IRA.
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open secrets (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.a
Revolving Door Not Contributions (Score:2, Informative)
However, a mischievous explanation of his manipulation can be found by looking to his revolving door(*). Chabot's recently departed Counsel, Etheridge Berkley, was named Vice President and Counsel of the NMPA [wikipedia.org] (Nat'l Music Publishers Assoc'n) in March o
Freudian slip? (Score:5, Funny)
That wouldn't be "Gates", would it?
Fear (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm afraid of being locked up & not being able to understand why I'm locked up.
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Does nobody read TFA anymore? It's the Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal enforcement Act of Congress ... IPECAC for short.
My IP is 127.0.0.1 so don't infringe on it (Score:5, Funny)
Any IP infringers out there...be warned...that's MY IP you're infringing upon
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Any IP infringers out there...be warned...that's MY IP you're infringing upon
Re:My IP is 127.0.0.1 so don't infringe on it (Score:5, Funny)
I just hacked into your box! Now I'm deleting your root disk! You are so f^^#
%(^%#**(((
NO CARRIER
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Not law yet (Score:5, Informative)
Ya I know, online petition is not the best way. Write to your representatives if you can.
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Also, send them lots of money in the form of campaign contributions. They seem to really like that.
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"Write to your misrepresentatives if you can."
There, fixed it for you.
Re:Not law yet (Score:4, Insightful)
Not only not passed into law, not out of Committee. Barely into Committee, as it happens, since it was submitted just six days ago.
In other words, completely ignorable. It won't be an issue until next year, most likely, or never, quite possibly.
There isn't yet a companion Bill in the Senate, so it might as well have been submitted to /. as to the House Judiciary Committee for all that it's going to matter this year. And next year, people will be too busy playing at making the other Party look like the spawn of Satan to bother with it this side of 2009.
Question Copyright. (Score:2)
I just gave them a link from my copyright piece (Score:2)
Re:I just gave them a link from my copyright piece (Score:4, Insightful)
-matthew
I come from the academic tradition... (Score:3, Interesting)
This lead to my belief that copyright should be strictly limited (in the piece I link to in the grandparent, I conclude that the original term of fourteen years would be best), and further the decision to place my music [geometricvisions.com] under Creative Commons.
Unfortunately, the academic world I grew up believing in no longer really exists;
Re:I come from the academic tradition... (Score:4, Interesting)
The new generation of academics have grown up with the internet and are accustomed to easy online access to every journal imaginable. As this generation takes over more academic positions, I think this intellectual freedom will spread. In short, I'm hopeful that academia will undergo a mini-renaissance and re-emphasize its roots of "spreading knowledge."
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"You can't own information. It is totally absurd." . . . "I still believe in giving credit where credit is due for ideas and ensuring that creators are not plagiarized."
Are you attempting to dissect the semantics of the argument by narrowing or broadening the scopes of "information" and "ownership"? What do YOU call it when someone has created a work, and there is a mechanism for "ensuring" that it is not plagiarized? Is there some sanitized synonym for "own" that we sh
It's not about *owning* information... (Score:3, Interesting)
You can't own information.
While that may be true, copyright is not about *owning* information, it is about *organizing* information. Otherwise, someone would have already copyrighted the alphabet and we'd all be SOL.
Remember the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition? This is one of my Rules of Information:
"The organization of information is worth money." [I was thinking of computer programming at the time, but the concept is clearly extensible.]
[Caveat: some forms of information -- certain kinds of list
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Is it? To whom? Most people I know go right along with the current model of "intellectual property."
You're right, it isn't the law that are the problem. It is the idea that people can own information that is the problem.
-matthew
Donate money to friendly politicians (Score:2)
I just started a very good job; before long, I plan to be using some of my newfound salary to donate myself.
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Time Warner - $3,780,000
CBS Corp - $5,440,000
News Corp - $3,420,000
Recording Industry Assn of America - $1,501,400
Motion Picture Assn of America - $1,800,000
Broadcast Music Inc - $1,360,000
Viacom Inc - $1,475,000
Sony BMG Music Entertainment - $720,000
Sony Corp of America -$320,000
Sony Electronics - $445,000
Sony Pictures Entertainment - $400,000
etc.etc.
Total For TV/Movies/Music: $72,433,974
And that's just lobbyists in 2
Intent of the bill (Score:2)
However, intent needs to be proven, and the fact that it is "attempting" and not "actually committing" the infringement brings up some problems. How do you prove it exactly?
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The article mentions "for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain" and it also mentions it has to have a value over $1000. I'm thinking it is an attempt to clamp down on piraters, the true pirates, the ones that steal and sell other people's copyrighted material.
But doesn't the MAFIAA already assert that every song track distributed on P2P has a value of thousands of bucks? And couldn't they claim that avoiding spending $15 on a CD by downloading it instead constitutes "private financ
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God damn lawyers! (Score:2, Funny)
Criminalize wasting tax dollars? (Score:5, Insightful)
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"Attempted" Infringement (Score:5, Insightful)
So what evidence do you need of "attempted" infringement? Will having a BitTorrent client on your system be enough? I can easily see a RIAA lawyer taking that stance in court.
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Check those citatations! (Score:3, Informative)
506. Criminal offenses
(a) Criminal Infringement. - Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either -
(1) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, - OR -
(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000
Copyright Law of the United States of America [copyright.gov]
ILLINOIS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO POSTING '24' TELEVISION SHOW ON INTERNET PRIOR TO FIRST BROADCAST ON FOX
A Chicago man pleaded guilty today to a felony charge for posting the first four episodes of this season's "24" on the Internet before they were originally aired on the Fox television network earlier this year.
Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section [cybercrime.gov] [July 2, 2007], The No Electronic Theft ("NET") Act [usdoj.gov] [February 18, 1998]
Criminalizing Download Too, as "Conspiracy" (Score:5, Insightful)
From the bill:
This paragraph is more disturbing to me - language like that can be used to rope in just about anyone.
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What is driving those (Score:2)
They got no other topics to focus on than those _important_ issues?
They must - actually are - in a total dream world utterly detached from "normal" (majority in pure numbers) folks.
A healthy mandatory time of 6 month/2 years living with a workers family for every politician could cure that. Provided of cause they can show their butt in public which is, as it is impossible for most "higher up", an irony in itself.
Why does it have to be criminal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why does it have to be criminal? (Score:5, Insightful)
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"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." -- Ayn Rand
Nineteen Eighty Four shows a system where there is very few laws - there's no need to have seperate sections for robbery, extortion, fraud, etc when the term "stealing" would do. Other than that, it's pretty easy to avoid being vaporized - don't be a threat to society. Doing so is simple - don't be violent, don't be greedy, and don't think.
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Apparently you haven't read 1984, or it would seem, even heard of it.
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But feel free to assume whatever you would like. Simplistic, childish slashdot replies are fun, I'll give you that. Whoosh!
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Having fewer laws but broader and vaguer definitions is even worse; it invites selective-enforcement by police.
Selective enforcement is caused by the lack of police forces, a corrupt institution, or a despotism. In the latter of the two cases, selective enforcement is based on the ability to "get away" with the crimes. The number or quality of the laws do not affect this.
The RIAA, as you know, is flinging lawsuits left and right, as they have the resources to do so. They treat everyone equally - if you get detected, you become targetted. However, the DVDCCA allocated much less resources for legal battles and on
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Law Enforcement or Crime Enforcement? (Score:2)
Make those college students pay! (Score:3, Funny)
Republicans (Score:2, Insightful)
Please follow EFF Link (Score:4, Informative)
Please follow the EFF link in the article to send a letter opposing the bill to your senators and members of congress. It's very important that this law not be allowed. Thanks.
This is PRE CRIME! (Score:2)
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Making a law that can allow to burry anyone under criminal charges without needing to bring up a single proof because more and more civil judges now understand RIAA has difficulties bringing good enouth proofs to back up their clains is simple abuse of power.
How about Attempted Political Fraud Act 2007 (Score:3, Interesting)
Applies only to people (real ones) ? (Score:4, Interesting)
This will work well for many companies who favour stealing and ruining peoples lives in the name of profits and just doing my job. As usual the US government will not take a balanced view on the subject and do what their corporate masters tell them to.
For more info see today's other posting about a corrupt US official [slashdot.org]
On the other hand..
If I am wrong and I does apply to the GPL for companies this quote says.. Does that mean a judge could dole out damages for each separate source code files. Say someone is infringing the Linux copyright could a judge charge them per source.c file?
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Say someone is infringing the Linux copyright could a judge charge them per source.c file?
Why stop there? Why not charge them per line?
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Employees are not shielded from the law ... (Score:3, Informative)
criminalize some forms of "attempted infringement."
Say for example a company steals some GPL work they won't see any Jail time and/or penalties but a person who steals the companies work will get the full force of this bill. Not that the two are related but its the best analogy I could think of.
You are mistaken. A person is not shielded from criminal prosecution because they acted as an employee rather than an indi
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I remember in England a Train company that neglected to take care of the railway to gain more profits. Result? Multiple train crashes with many people dead.
The company was fined and no one went to prison. If you had the same situation where you could point a finger and say "it was him" then I would agree with you but these businesses are super massive and no one is ever to blame.
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When its Apple and Microsoft it is using. When it is the GPL it is stealing. Your post is lame and makes the BSD community look like a bunch of elitist assholes.
Corrected link... (Score:3, Funny)
Reading that made me want to vomit. That's how I learned the link needed to be corrected: "Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal enforcement ACt" [wikipedia.org]. Somehow, it just seems fitting to call it the IPECAC bill. Besides, what did you expectorant?
<groan>
The US' original concepts going down the drain (Score:4, Insightful)
This last example of a "Law" appears like the first forays into the world of Minority Report [imdb.com] for good. At the same time, it's sort of also going in the direction of Gattaca [imdb.com]
This is far, far away from the concepts of the "Land of the free" heralded by the forefathers...
Time to start writing... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Dr mr Waxman, I am writing you to urge your opposition to H.R.3155, which is still in committee. Should it go to general debate, it will double penalties for copyright infringement, and introduce new crimes in the process. I'm sick of congress making criminals out of innocent people and wasting our tax money enforcing this. This is being pushed by the RIAA no doubt.
Copyright issues are a CIVIL case, they are not criminal offenses, and should be dealt with accordingly. I for one am fed up with the congress that looks out only for big businesses. Its time to make laws that are good for the people. This is not one of them. Furthermore, a punishment should fit a the "crime". Copying an mp3 file or a movie is not a big crime. Nobody died. Nobody was hurt. Nothing was stolen (the original is still there). No property was damaged. Lets treat it as it is. Current laws are ridiculously harsh. We need to roll back the power your friends in congress have given the big RIAA machine and give it back to the people. "
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Problem is, not everybody here has a local congressman/woman, and some of those who have, probably have one that has no influence on this bill.
Ofcourse the good news is that those people will also not be subject to this silly law. At least not for a while.
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Why?
I mean, if you say no, he might ask why. Then you get to tell him. Maybe he'll even listen.
If not, so what? If he's as bad as you seem to think, what makes you think he'll listen to your future requests, either?
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So it's not quite so cut and dried.
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