Obama Backs MPAA, RIAA, and ACTA 703
boarder8925 writes "In a move sure to surprise no one, Obama has come out on the side of the MPAA/RIAA and has backed the ACTA: 'We're going to aggressively protect our intellectual property,' Obama said in his speech, 'Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people [...] It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century. But it's only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can't just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.'"
Re:Wild West Internet will be gone (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't question the ingenuity of the Internet.
Not Trolling ... (Score:5, Insightful)
What would we expect from any President? Pick anyone from the last batch, or even the next batch, of candidates. Do you think any one of them wouldn't back big business in this situation?
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wild West Internet will be gone (Score:3, Insightful)
"Rampant" piracy? I suppose that's why they've pulled not just record profits pretty much every year but also almost always had a record breaking increase over the previous year's record breaking profits as well.
Their piracy figures, when they aren't just plain made up, are them saying "We expected this much of an increase over last year's profits and we actually got this slightly lower amount so since we didn't overshoot our initial prediction by 500% that 500% must have been lost due to piracy."
Same song (Score:4, Insightful)
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Logical (Score:5, Insightful)
Those up high have understood that the USA's commercial future is not in manufacturing (they left that to China or Germany). If it's not physical goods, then what else is America selling abroad? IP, that's what. That's where the USA's commercial future lies, and that's what it'll have to defend at all costs, trampling their people's and other nation's right to defend that.
It's that or become insolvent. (look up the USA's trade balance over the last few 20 years. Think it'll improve? Think again.)
Come on... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:First rebellion (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that this got rated "Insightful" is a woeful commentary on the state of rational debate and analysis in the geek world. I thought we were supposed, as a group, to be smart. Apparently not.
In fact, manufacturing in the U.S. is doing very well. Productivity is at an all-time high, and the amount we are producing has not been in decline, as is commonly believed. Of course production is down right now because we're in a recession, but as a percentage of our economy, manufacturing production is pretty stable. What's down is manufacturing jobs, and that's because productivity is up. The better you are at doing something, the less work you have to do to do it.
In a perfect world, more production per unit of labor would mean that we would all have to work less to achieve the same level of prosperity. Unfortunately, that's not the case in the U.S. because our current intellectual property laws allow a relatively few people to take the lion's share of the benefit from the production being done. Rather than this new-found prosperity being spread across the whole population, it reaches only a relatively few peoples' pockets, and of course those people get quite rich.
So in fact draconian intellectual property laws are antithetical to prosperity. Obama's thesis here isn't just irrelevant to the average worker's prosperity. It's antithetical to the average worker's prosperity.
Re:First rebellion (Score:2, Insightful)
See this is were bloody revolutions fail.
Because either A) you're going to elect another batch of morons whom to execute at a later date or B) you're going to have a dictator (military general, etc) show up to fill the void or worse (a foreign entity).
Fail in either case.
How does it go? (Score:2, Insightful)
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
OR
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
How terribly disappointing, Obama. At least the EU threw out this stupid treaty. Hopefully this won't be successful at all.
Unrealistic World View (Score:5, Insightful)
In any reasonably free society, copying of digital content is impossible to prevent. In non-free societies, it does not matter as those in power can take the money of anybody anyways. So, trying to prevent copying of digital content is just a sure path to failure. Incidentially, protecting outdated business models holds a society back and is bad for eveybody.
Well, I guess it does not matter that much for the rest of the world, the US-centric century is certainly over, as its economic power is vanishing rapidly.
Re:Wild West Internet will be gone (Score:3, Insightful)
Obama=Bush III (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh please, as if anyone could possibly be surprised Obama is a corporate whore. What do you think happens if you can't run for president unelss you can raise $60 million. Do you think his benefactors gave him that money expecting nothing in return?
Re:Wild West Internet will be gone (Score:3, Insightful)
I think we have to be careful though with separating unjust prosecution of piracy and piracy itself.
Obama is exactly right. IP is going to be the foundation of any future economy. There needs to be a means by which efforts of the mind are as recognized legally as efforts of the body.
We're becoming a nation where digging ditches and assembling parts is going to be taken over more and more by automation and cheap overseas labor and it'll be up to our inventions and our software and our innovation in exporting ideas that continues to pay our bills and put roofs over our heads going forward.
While the RIAA and the MPAA might RIGHT NOW control intellectual property and be the face of IP in the future it's going to be the individual creators who no longer need a large corporate overlord who are going to need the same protections. So we need to be careful that an inventor in Iowa can fight off the mega corporation trying to simply steal his idea and profit off of his innovation without giving him any reward.
The RIAA's laws protect the indie artist FROM the RIAA more so than it protects the RIAA itself. If there were toothless IP laws then Universal Music could just start burning copies of some new popular band and not send them a penny. They have the market and the distribution power. They would overnight become the main source of some new indie band's music without offering any creativity of their own.
You weaken IP and it's not the large corporations that will lose money it's the little guys who will get screwed by the large distributors who have all the money and resources.
Slashdot Official Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
'Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people [...] It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century. But it's only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can't just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.'
TRANSLATION:
"Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and the creativity of the American Lawyer. As our education system collapses and laziness and ignorance steadily increase until the Constitution is entirely without meaning and it becomes impossible for our society to function without coercion -- we expect lawyers to bring home enough cash to sustain not just their coke habits but also our military... with a small amount of funds possibly left over for health care (but don't bet on it). We won't have the money in this century to bully anyone with our military capabilities, so we're counting on our lawyers to win the important battles."
Really? REALLY?!?! (Score:2, Insightful)
Its only fair... (Score:3, Insightful)
What about "Free Culture"? (Score:2, Insightful)
But it’s only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can’t just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.
Look at the Free Culture/Software movement, Obama. There's people all over the place "stealing other people's ideas", except it isn't stealing. When you steal something, you take it from them without their permission. Should you need permission to make a program that does the same thing as another program? Should you need permission to cover, adapt, or remix something someone else did? It's not like you can just sue random people off the street for singing a song you "own" (Oh wait, that happened quite a few times already. Nevermind). None of these uses of our culture should ever be thought of as infringing; doing so practically removes our right to say as we please (then again, people over the years have stated that we have never had "free speech" anyways).
"Fair Use" has produced millions of dollars, and you dare imply that it didn't? By supporting the ACTA/RIAA/MPAA, you're supporting concentration of wealth (which just so happens to be concentrated towards the few companies that are trying to control our culture), which is never a good thing. "Intellectual Property" doesn't need to be "protected" in this matter at all, and these ideas are just getting more and more absurd. Things aren't going to get better if we have people like Obama supporting these crazy ideas.
Open letter to the United States Government (Score:4, Insightful)
Dear Mr. President and members of Congress and Senate,
Please, stop listening to the corporate un-citizens. I say un-citizens because all they care about is lining their pockets with money. Not to say that most Americans wouldn't love to line their pockets with money as well, but only Corporate citizens (which aren't even real citizens as they can't be called to fight for their country, aren't held accountable for their actions unless someone with more money than them can fight them) have the money to pay for you to listen to their needs. The luncheons, the corporate sponsored getaways, the private flights and perks are all their way of buying you, you the representatives of us, not corporations.
If you really want to protect the creators of ideas and artistic endevours, you must do away with tyranical organazitions like the RIAA and MPAA which prosecute little children as well as dead or dying citizens for a percieved (never proven) loss of a few pennies, all the while wholesale stealing from the very creators they cry woefully to protect.
I'm going to copy en masse an e-mail sent to me - please read it, please consider it, and please, when you are done, think about pushing corporate citizenship back where it belongs, to non citizenship - without rights, without needs to protect as you would the individuals who actually do the creating of everything you wish to protect.
Pretty interesting if one reads all the way to the end. Follow this by reading "Confessions of An Economic Hit Man", by John Perkins. We had a surplus in 2000 and no way does the banking industry and those who rule it want to see that again, even if it takes two wars.
EVERY U.S. CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE. READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.
Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason.. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
Re:Let's Do Something (Score:5, Insightful)
ACTA will actually make the US poorer.
Yes, ACTA is aimed towards giving IP laws more power, globally. But how much do you think countries with real problems care about protecting IP laws from countries they don't care about? Do you think China will put some muscle behind enforcing IP laws? Or anyone in the far east, maybe with the exception of Japan? Do you think Russia cares a lot, or any of the post-Soviet Union countries? South America? They got bigger problems. Yeah, they'll certainly pay lip service to it and maybe, when enough of a stink is brewing, they might stage a sting or two, arrest a few token low level copy sellers, then ignore the problem. Why? Why not? What's their interest in it? They have little to no IP, it's like asking a landlocked country to spend money to make the coasts that don't belong to it secure.
In the US, ACTA will be enforced fully, of course. Not only the IP of the US, but also the IP of other countries. Yes, including countries like Russia, China and all the others that will not put the same amount of muscle behind it. So who benefits from it? THe US? Stop kidding. Yes, the IP owners in the US will be happy about it, but the US as a country will lose money in the process. Because its consumers have to hand money to the IP owners abroad, with nothing to little coming back in return.
And I'm not even talking about how DVDs are sold for a buck there because else you couldn't sell them at all.
Re:First rebellion (Score:1, Insightful)
There, he said it *almost* (Score:2, Insightful)
He could just as well have said:
"We welcome low standards for patents and long timespans for copyrights because this will help our economy, and we will push these rules down the throat of other nations."
idiot (Score:3, Insightful)
this is precisely capitalism, and precisely what you term as 'free market'.
in any environment in which you allow groups or individuals to become more powerful than others, eventually those who get to the top first subdue or eliminate others and a power hierarchy gets established. this is how precisely feudalism came to being in the first place.
this is the nature of social dynamics, and it will never change. unless there are rules and laws preventing anyone from becoming more powerful than others, there will always be a pyramid of power in the long run.
wealth is power.
put in layman's terms, your 'free market' can exist and be free only in the early times. like in the initial times of united states. later, when some groups get more wealth than others, they will get to the top and establish a hierarchy. so, this is the EXACT thing you should have expected to happen - groups who set up the pyramid first, ensuring that pyramid continues to be, and they stay on top of it.
enjoy your 'free' market capitalism. its much more hard to combat than aristocracy.
IP based society. (Score:5, Insightful)
Do we then start sending troops into nation X for downloading Disney movies? How about when they all decide to stop paying royalties?
- Dan.
Re:First rebellion (Score:5, Insightful)
Ummm.... I see you ignore the fact that major portions of our manufacturing capability have been moved offshore. When was the last time you bought a TV made in the US? When was the last time you bought a major household appliance that was manufactured entirely in the US? How about a car? How long has it been since the majority of steel used in the US was made here?
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:2, Insightful)
Motherhood and apple pie... (Score:5, Insightful)
He made some un-controversial statements about protecting U.S industry from commercial copying: "But it's only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can't just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor."
I don't think anyone would mind that, and that is what a legitimate anti-counterfeiting treaty would prevent.
Alas, the commentator leaps out from beneath his bridge and shouts "the RIAA wants that too, and they're evil, so Obama is evil". That's then picked up by a page headed "Obama Care - Stop Him", and retitled "Obama Sides with RIAA, MPAA; Backs ACTA" and referenced here as "Obama Backs MPAA, RIAA, and ACTA".
Do you begin to see a pattern here? This is a classic "guilt by association" scam, in which you say "X", and are promptly tarred and feathered by a commentator who says "but the <insert your choice of evil group here> is in favor of X, therfore you're a member/supporter/fellow-traveler of <evil group>.
One should attack Mr. Obama for what he said, not for something Mr. Sandoval said on his behalf...
--dave
Re:Coffee party (Score:5, Insightful)
The so-called Coffee Party is actually just another astroturf [bigjournalism.com] wing of the Obama campaign machine.
Re:Is anyone really surprised by this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:First rebellion (Score:4, Insightful)
That's true as far as it goes, but take it another step. If those fat cats can't make their money in America any more, they move to other countries where they can. That means our best and brightest (and often luckiest) will not BE in America any more. Now their success doesn't help America -at all-.
Those laws, as much as we hate them, keep those fat cats from taking their fat loot elsewhere.
Are they too much right now? Absolutely. Should they be abolished? Hell no.
Imaginary property is insolvent (Score:5, Insightful)
when the only thing your country produces (Score:2, Insightful)
is stuff like the latest Britney spears cd(i know it's kind of a exaggeration but it's closer to the truth then you realize) draconion laws such as these are needed to a degree.
excuse me (Score:3, Insightful)
but if an individual cannot distinguish the importance of freedoms over 'right of ownership' over thought processes, and comes up defending the private interests that seek to monopolize thought, there is nothing to defend about him.
acta is evil. it is the most evil thing since spanish inquisition. the very fact that whole thing proceeds by CIRCUMVENTING democratical procedures is itself appalling from the start, leave aside all the 'measures' that seek to cramp down freedoms for some parties' interests.
it wouldnt be radical to say that anyone who sides with evil, for WHATEVER reason, is the enemy, for, by siding with such kind of evil, they have become dangerous to our freedoms themselves.
Re:Open letter to the United States Government (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wild West Internet will be gone (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, those indie artists who actually WANT free distribution get screwed by the general assumption that all songs/movies are controlled by the RIAA/MPAA.
If an artist ever had a contract with a big label, that label will try to control their songs, permanently. It's happened before, and it will happen again. It doesn't matter what the details of the contract were. Somebody's going to make a poor design choice (possibly but deniably with intent), and say "For all these billion songs we published, start sending DMCA notices to Youtube users," and their automated system will do it. It doesn't matter that since that original (non-exclusive) contract, the song is now freely available. If they get caught, they say "Oops, sorry!" and pay no fine, and make no effort to prevent it from happening again. If they don't get caught, then it's another person who might pay them a $2000 settlement for music they don't own.
It's not even likely that tougher laws will prevent the recording labels from trampling your rights anyway. According to OSNews [osnews.com], each label has a list of songs they used without permission, such as for compilation albums and such. They say they're making an effort to track down the artists on that list, and that's good enough for them. They can claim that with such a huge number of songs to deal with, and so many contracts, such things fall through the cracks. They'll get sympathy from courts, and go on their merry way.
The system, especially when designed by big groups, screws over normal people.
Re:Let's Do Something (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:First rebellion (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, manufacturing in the U.S. is doing very well. Productivity is at an all-time high, and the amount we are producing has not been in decline, as is commonly believed.
To quote Peter Schiff [youtube.com] : 'If we're becoming so much more productive where are the goods we're producing and why can't I see it in the balance of trade ? If we're so productive where are the exports ?"
Re:idiot (Score:1, Insightful)
this is precisely capitalism, and precisely what you term as 'free market'.
It may be capitalism, but only because there are kinds of capitalism other than free market capitalism, A market restricted by copyright and patent monopolies is simply not a free market. Cheap cloning is a feature and macroeconomic advantage of a free market system that copyrights and patents are designed to prevent.
A "capitalist" system with copyright and patent is about as capitalist as the USSR was communist - i.e. not very.
Re:First rebellion (Score:3, Insightful)
In fact, manufacturing in the U.S. is doing very well. Productivity is at an all-time high, and the amount we are producing has not been in decline, as is commonly believed.
I'd have guessed that greater than 95% of the products I purchase and use on a regular basis are manufactured outside of the U.S. Would you mind providing more information as to what sectors are producing 'at an all-time high'? I'm not trolling or even necessarily disagreeing with you, but there appears to be a distinct disconnect here.
Re:Not Trolling ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Dissent IS a form of patriotism. But misinformed fear-mongering, blatantly FUD-spreading speculation, and purposeful yet meaningless obstruction is NOT.
I see, so you've only got a problem with dissent you disagree with and/or uses facts or logic that makes your point of view look untenable and/or is in *your opinion* "misinformed fear-mongering, blatantly FUD-spreading speculation, and purposeful yet meaningless obstruction"?
What about protecting free speech, and especially that speech with which you disagree? Or is that protection only for Progressives & others on the Left with the "correct" views & opinions?
Strat
Re:First rebellion (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but more likely than not many of the key parts (with the most valuable IP) - the processor/SoC, digital tuners, etc, are made by a US company. The "interesting" software in new Internet-connected TVs (Netflix, VUDU, Cinemanow, Pandora, Youtube) is all made by US companies. And not coincidentally, all of those companies focus on distribution of the higher-margin content that the RIAA and MPAA are trying to protect.
The economic (and military) successes of the United States have almost always been based on technological innovation and entrepreneurship - and those innovations DO need to be protected.
The MPAA/RIAA's methods of "enforcing" their IP are despicable. But without any protection, one of the current major assets of the US - media and entertainment - will be in serious jeopardy. Let's put it this way - if Chinese citizens actually paid for even a small fraction more of the American software, movies, and music they consume, the trade deficit picture would be significantly different. That is what Obama is talking about, not picking on homemakers who shared a few mp3s online. Hopefully the MPAA & RIAA can get a damn clue and start focusing on the real threat to their business - rampant, organized, professional international piracy.
ACTA or ad acta (Score:4, Insightful)
ACTA will only work when every (first world) country is implementing it, but the EU-Parliament is already against it, because the discussion on ACTA and all documents are kept undisclosed. You could say: Who cares what this parliament is thinking? Well Obama should care, because if the parliament is not involved and the documents are not public, then the EU will not implement ACTA which means almost 500 mio people will not be threatened by ACTA. Third world countries will not adopt to ACTA either when the EU is not doing so.
Even though, some information leaked and it looks like that ACTA would not be legal in Germany as the constitutions defines certain rights. For example the state is not allowed to transfer information on Internet-traffic to private organizations without reasonable suspicion and a letter from a judge. Also the three-strikes-law-idea is against the rules in the EU, and obviously it is against the French constitution. And I am absolutely sure if they would try it in Germany it will fail too. As cutting you of from the Internet violates your right to be informed. And this right is very important in a democracy. It is definitely not an allowed sanction by any European constitution or agreement. So ACTA may be a dead horse and Obama is riding it. It would be better when he would tell all these US-Americans that general health care is good and that securing the existential basis of any person in a country is a necessary thing.
Re:Coffee party (Score:1, Insightful)
From what I can find, the Coffee Party's founder has too many ties to the current president. Also, you display of false modesty when you mention the number of people who have joined is a bit of a turn off.
Re:Coffee party (Score:5, Insightful)
Do something about it and join the Coffee Party [coffeepartyusa.com]?
I love your solution to disagreeing with behavior by the Obama Administration: Join an organization started by members of Obama's Presidential campaign. You are worried about the tea party being taken over by special interests, so you suggest joining an organization that is basically just a subsidiary of the Democratic Party (which you seem to believe, likely correctly, is run by special interests).
The most dangerous part ... (Score:3, Insightful)
But it's only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can't just steal that idea ...
Ideas cannot be stolen. It is a physical impossibility. The copyright & patent industry love to blur the lines of the law and pretend that using IP without authorization is as heinous as breaking into someone's house and stealing their physical goods. But it is a complete lie. It's bad enough that the various industries that benefit from these get away with blatant misleading and deception of the general public about it, but having the *president* endorse that lie is very disappointing.
Re:First rebellion (Score:5, Insightful)
For every Vespasian, there's a Nero AND a Caligula.
Re:Not Trolling ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Only liberals are allowed to complain about their leaders, is that right?
As long as the other crazies do nothing but walk around with picket signs of Heith Ledger's face as the Joker with a Hitler mustache painted on it, yes.
Re:Not Trolling ... (Score:5, Insightful)
... I'm just asking: What would we expect from any President? Pick anyone from the last batch, or even the next batch, of candidates. Do you think any one of them wouldn't back big business in this situation?
Ron Paul?
Re:First rebellion (Score:3, Insightful)
The MPAA/RIAA's methods of "enforcing" their IP are despicable. But without any protection, one of the current major assets of the US - media and entertainment - will be in serious jeopardy. Let's put it this way - if Chinese citizens actually paid for even a small fraction more of the American software, movies, and music they consume, the trade deficit picture would be significantly different. That is what Obama is talking about, not picking on homemakers who shared a few mp3s online. Hopefully the MPAA & RIAA can get a damn clue and start focusing on the real threat to their business - rampant, organized, professional international piracy.
The problem here is that for all his apparent "good will" he either doesn't get it, or he is banking on the voters not to get it and push something through.
It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century. But it's only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can't just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.
You can't put a copyright on an idea that someone else in a third world country won't just copy WITH CHEAPER INPUTS AND LABOR. You can copyright a song, a movie that sort of thing yes - but unless he wants the US to simply be the entertainment supplier of the world, he is chasing the wrong fish here.
If you come up with an idea to say, make cheap energy through some form of funky technology (insert some form of wind, wave, whatever) and think that the chaps down the road in China, India and a bunch of other countries won't make knock off versions of it WITH FULL SUPPORT OF THEIR GOVERNMENTS then you are totally kidding yourself.
Just the same as if one of those countries jumped in with the exact same technology, I can assure you that the US government would be totally backing US to manufacture the same idea but in their own backyard rather than just buying tons and tons of the stuff from overseas.
While I agree with protecting your own IP, this whole process is dominated by protecting one small part of the overall industry and not the industry as a whole. That's why I think Obama in this is either being kidded or is hoping that his speech will float above the bullshit filters of most voters.
Re:First rebellion (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but more likely than not many of the key parts (with the most valuable IP) - the processor/SoC, digital tuners, etc, are made by a US company.
I wish that was the case, but unfortunately, it's not. With a few discrete exceptions (Motorola and TI still provide a lot of the digital processing chips, for example), most of it is made overseas as well. This certainly includes the user interface processors, memory, A/D conversion, and most of the "glue" chips, which are made by NEC, Hitachi, Samsung, et. al.
Don't take my word for it, open up that box and look at the chips for yourself.
Not that I agree with draconian IP laws, and I'm no fan of the RIAA/MPAA, either. And I certainly believe that software patents go beyond dumb and descend into insanity.
There's a world of difference between protecting genuine innovation, and just granting "unlimited gouge rights" to the first guy who races to the Patent Office with something obvious (think: One Click Shopping, "Look And Feel" with a "Help" button to the right, etc., etc.).
Rampant Piracy (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds better in the media then ' we bilked you people out of lots of money last year.. and we want more this year"
Re:Same song (Score:4, Insightful)
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Is there anyone here who honestly expects democrats to be the exact opposite of republicans on every issue? Especially when a small fraction of the voters care about said issue, and against that there is millions of dollars of campaign contributions to be had? I hate ACTA and its sponsors too, but come on, national politics are always about the lesser of two evils. It strikes me as pretty foolish to act like because we don't have a saint, we have the exact same sinner.
Re:First rebellion (Score:4, Insightful)
So in fact draconian intellectual property laws are antithetical to prosperity.
Isn't any draconian law antithetical to prosperity?
I think the interesting question in this case is where the line is between "draconian" and "impotent". You'd think there would be a huge area in between, but we don't seem to be able to find it: a few people are getting penalised absurdly for relatively minor infractions, while millions of people continue to break the law at the expense of legal rightsholders and get away with it.
Re:Copyright or Patent? (Score:4, Insightful)
SOP in politics these days. Just quietly stitch the unappealing laws into legislation that really does need to be passed.
Re:Not Trolling ... (Score:5, Insightful)
3 candidates I can think of off the top of my head that would have not taken this kind of stand in favor of big business:
- Ralph Nader, because he's built his entire career on going after corporate chicanery.
- Ron Paul, because he as a general rule doesn't want the federal government to either support or oppose a particular industry or business model.
- Dennis Kucinich, because he's consistently advocated the use of government power to put a check on big business's abuses of their power going back to his days as mayor of Cleveland.
Notice how seriously anyone in the mainstream media took either of their campaigns (for instance, asking Kucinich about UFOs rather than health care or Iraq).
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:1, Insightful)
You are right. However, the recent Republicans really aren't Republicans anymore. At least not how I define them. They have drifted far from the values of small government, low taxes (like JFK), personal responsibility, etc. of years ago. The entire system has drifted left and "progressively" moving away from the Constitution. Really sad.
Re:Let's Do Something (Score:3, Insightful)
I know that Obama is more tech-savvy than any President prior and is trying to do everything he can to boost the current US economy
Your naivette is refreshing, but I would not like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Having an ipod doesn't make you tech-savvy. Neither does having a cool campaign website or having a twitter feed. The man's just as clueless about the nuts and bolts of tech and tech policy as any other career politician whose education was in the law and not in engineering. The only branch of government that's historically had any semblance of a clue about tech has been the military, and even then, they farm most of the heavy thinking out to academia and defense contractors, those being the people who actually understand this stuff by virtue of having created it.
That's why any government involvement in tech policy should be approached with caution. In the case of the military, it's tapping an existing source of knowledge, and it happens to have some good side effects in the civilian world (medicine, materials science, computers, etc). In the case of legislation, it's awfully close to the Indiana pi bill.
Re:First rebellion (Score:5, Insightful)
Anybody who expects the democrats to be on the right side of the issue on patent and copyright issues is fooling themselves. I wish it weren't so, but progressives haven't yet figured out that maximal patent and copyright is a really bad thing. OTOH, the Republicans aren't any better. So at least until one or the other party gets a clue, this isn't an issue upon which we can really base our voting choices. If you care, the place to work this out is in the primary races--run against the incumbent yourself, and make copyright/patent balance your issue. You won't win, but you might raise some consciousnesses.
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:5, Insightful)
an ex-ussr european here. do the two parties in usa _actually_ differ ?
one seems to be a communist part no. 1, and it is pushing for more milk to workers in dangerous conditions.
second one is a communist party no. 2 and advocates increasing the wine dosage for those who donate blood.
and they are identical in every other way.
Re:First rebellion (Score:3, Insightful)
Um, Raleigh and the whole RTP area is about research and education, not manufacturing. Hell, there are three major universities and a bunch of smaller universities in the area. It's not set up for manufacturing. That's just how the US. Manufacturing is done is some places, and research in others. The two usually don't overlap. Or perhaps you would expect a smelting plant next to Princeton University? Or a car manufacturing plant on 5th Avenue in NYC?
Re:Coffee party (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to raise a "tu quoque" argument here, but of course the Tea Party is precisely the same thing, just a part of a different political machine (the same one that brought Sarah Palin into the limelight).
Which brings me to Rule #1 of understanding any political organization: follow the money.
Re:Is anyone really surprised by this? (Score:0, Insightful)
The fact that this post is modded Flamebait show how much we have forgotten as a nation. Capitalism brings and has brought us unprecedented economic freedom and prosperity and now half the country would be satisfied with the high-taxes, high unemployment, and nanny state the Democrat party is crafting for us.
Well Don't Blame Me... (Score:2, Insightful)
I have the clean conscience of being able to say I didn't vote Democrat in the election that put the sock puppet in Oval Orifice.
'n' "I told you so!"
nya, nya...
"Won't Get Fooled Again" eh boys?
Re:First rebellion (Score:2, Insightful)
Really, I ignored his "facts"? Manufacturing, as a percentage of the US economy, has decreased for 50 years. In 2006 manufacturing accounted for only 12% of the economy. In 1993 it was 15.9% of the economy. In 1953 it was 28% of the economy.
That's more than a 50% decline in percentage of the economy. So, tell me again just how healthy the manufacturing sector of the economy is....
Re:I really despise obama now. (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow. So Obama does something that is actually fully consistent with his pre-election promises, and that throws you into rage; while the many times he reneged on what he said was fine and peachy?
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:5, Insightful)
Hows that hope and change? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sides with the RIAA.
Wants DNA collected with all arrests.
Shuts Down Federal ACORN Probe into Corruption & Voter Registration Fraud.
Kills further moon projects.
Raise gas prices to $7.00 a gallon to "protect the environment".
He is either evil or stupid.
Re:First rebellion (Score:4, Insightful)
So at least until one or the other party gets a clue, this isn't an issue upon which we can really base our voting choices.
Still, it's funny looking back on Slashdot comments from 2008 and realizing how Obama's supporters had bamboozled themselves into thinking he was going to be "different" about this issue...
Re:Afro-American Racism Against Whites and Asians (Score:3, Insightful)
*blinks* You voted for the guy from Chicago who only managed to get elected to the lower offices by DQing his opponents and getting his buddies to release confidential court records of his opposition opponent as the not total sell out? What color is an orange in your universe?
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:5, Insightful)
They have different mascots and each has their own set of fans whose primary distinguishing characteristic is hating the other side's fans.
Re:First rebellion (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure why you think that since you can't see factories from your area that they aren't any around. First, you live in the RTP. Research generally means white collar, learning type of work and not manufacturing. Second, drive about 4 hours to Greenville and visit the BMW plant sometime. Drive a couple more hours to the Honda plant that's also in SC. There is plenty of manufacturing around even if you can't see it from your porch.
Re:I really despise obama now. (Score:4, Insightful)
So you didn't look past just "change"?
Obama was definitely vague on some points of his platform, but he was just as specific on the others. IP was one of those [blogs.com]. After he was elected, it became even more clear on short notice - change.gov has been around for a while, and has some rather explicit statements [change.gov] on the subject.
productivity != production (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:2, Insightful)
And Clinton bombed a small country while trying to distract everybody from his sexual harassment practices.
Re:First rebellion (Score:2, Insightful)
It is not a prevarication with statistics. It's a number showing the lessening of the importance of manufacturing in our economy. That manufacturing is a much smaller slice of the pie now than it used to be means that manufacturing growth, if it can be called as such, has been at a much slower pace than the rest of the economy. The fact that the entire pie has grown shows just how far manufacturing has fallen when the slice of the pie is now less than half of what it used to be. If manufacturing had grown at the same pace as the rest of the economy for the last 50 years its slice of the pie would be at least close to the same percentage of the economy it was 50 years ago. It's not.
The above fact is so obvious it shouldn't need to be said, but it seems the obvious is often denied.
Re:First rebellion (Score:1, Insightful)
um.. who in turn outsource those programming jobs to india.
Re:Afro-American Racism Against Whites and Asians (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't care where he copied it from, it's Insightful as all hell. Looking at the North Carolina primaries vs. Clinton, the lowest number I found for blacks was 87% for Obama (Blacks age 30-44). Overall it's 90-96% of blacks in favor of Obama.
The worst was where they asked if "race is important to you." Whether you said "yes" or "no" didn't affect the outcome, meaning the racial voting patterns were entirely subconscious.
Sure, blacks were perfectly entitled to vote for Obama in the general election. McCain+old+crazy+Palin+crazy = terrible campaign. But the OP is right, in the primary versus Clinton, only 40-70% of whites voted for Clinton. 95% of blacks voted for Obama.
Clinton ran an incredible campaign, too. She took the "Hope" that Obama talked about and made it real. But the blacks couldn't see past their crack pipes to do the right thing.
Reality (Score:3, Insightful)
To be realistic - and fair - we are never going to see an American president coming out clearly and strongly against the interests of major industries; at least not until American society and its constitution are fundamentally altered - as in a violent revolution. I can't quite see how that is going to happen, but of course, you never know.
Much as I like Obama for his intelligence and what still looks a lot like sincerity, idealism and honesty, when I heard him talk about changing things, I could see that he had set himself up for a major challenge. Like it or not, America is not governed "by the people, for the people", and the president only has the power allowed him by the noble classes that everybody in America assures me don't exist (the fact that you can enter "nobility" in America by becoming immensely rich is not an argument against this - that has always been the way throughout history). Change will only occur as and when they want it.
Re:Afro-American Racism Against Whites and Asians (Score:3, Insightful)
One of the things I really enjoyed about the Obama election is that it brought the crazies and the racists out in the open.
Re:I really despise obama now. (Score:2, Insightful)
Taxation without representation (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't forget the military!
If all you have is imaginary intellectual property, the only way you can really protect it is by force. Well, and trade sanctions, but those won't mean much soon...
Too true, and too tragic considering the birth of the USA as a nation if they should dictate taxes for others to pay and force military action if they refuse.
Though I'm not sure how easy it is to be the #1 military power when more and more manufacturing capability is outsourced.
Re:Not Trolling ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not Trolling ... (Score:3, Insightful)
As soon as Obama was inaugurated the 24/7 American Patriot Dissent Machine renamed itself as the 24/7 American Obama Patriot Machine.
Any dissent which days before was front and center on every blog, newspaper, cable news outlet, protest headquarters, faculty meeting, etc effective immediately became vile racist treachery and that had to be denounced if uttered in relation to Obama.
Many moderate supporters of Obama such as myself were bitten by this turn around. Opinions and views that just weeks earlier had been "metro and cool" when Bush was president were suddenly cause for outrage, mocking and hyperbole if aired now that Obama was president. Where we were recently (according to our "betters") the educated and sophisticated "independents", we suddenly were finding ourselves as a group being denounced from the very same media for simply daring to air the same uncertainties that were so popular to talk about under the last administration.
And so a new generation of everyman has learned a sharp lesson about the "cool" metro left, a lesson last learned in the late 70's:
Don't trust them as far as you can throw them. For despite the front of being "tolerant" and "compassionate" and "inclusive", in reality they are absolutely ruthless. They make the likes of Karl Rove and the Freepers and Fox News look like tame puppies in comparison. One needs only look at the locked down, utterly bizarre world of the average University Campus to see a microsim of the outcome of the progressive lefts policies.
And this "moderate" who got many a +5 insightful on this site in the lead up to the election arguing for Obama, will *never* fall for the siren song of progressive left should it ever arise again.
Re:It could have been worse... (Score:3, Insightful)
Um... you got that backwards:
And should a government fail to protect these rights:
I'm just sayin'.
Re:First rebellion (Score:3, Insightful)
First: kudos for the Godwin. I guess this thread just wouldn't be complete without Hitler.
Second: this thread had nothing to do with (not) protecting manufacturing jobs, it had to do with protecting American technology and media. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive?
Third: it really had nothing to do with Americans "consuming IP", it had to do with other countries paying for the IP they already consume.
But to bite on your tangeant... it is ironic that the people complaining the most and voting against large tax increases tend to be those who could use their benefits the most, not those who would pay the bulk of it. Honestly, how do we fix the problem that a growing segment of the population does not have the knowledge or skills to justify the standard of living that they would like to have? (and that's no slight on any "blue collar" worker, just a statement of fact that one can't expect to be paid a huge premium over Chinese workers in the same field and yet shop almost exclusively at Walmart to save a few bucks).
Europe has already tried dealing with some of these issues - and their solution was "social democracy". But in the US we wouldn't dare even think of something with the name "social" in it, because the Republicans have done such a good job convincing the people most in need of it that it's somehow inherently evil and "un-American"...