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Bill Would Criminalize Attempted IP Infringement 211

Posted by kdawson from the intellectual-property-precrime dept.
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."
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Bill Would Criminalize Attempted IP Infringement More

Bill Would Criminalize Attempted IP Infringement

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  • FP? (Score:5, Informative)

    by dosius ( 230542 ) <bridget@buric.co> on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:03PM (#20051077) Journal
    Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty" ? Oh wait, that went out the door back in the 50s with McCarthyism.

    -uso.

    • FP? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by westlake ( 615356 )
      Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty" ?

      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)

        by tomhudson ( 43916 ) <barbara,hudson&barbara-hudson,com> on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:41PM (#20052125) Journal

        "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)

          by pyrrhonist ( 701154 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2007 @01:19AM (#20053395)

          you're charged with a different crime - "attempted burglary, not borglary

          Borglary - the act of assimilating all of someone's stuff into your own collective.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by geobeck ( 924637 )

          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...

          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

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jZnat ( 793348 ) *
            There's something called first degree murder (the first example) and second degree murder (arguably, the second example, but it could also be covered by intentional homicide or something like that instead due to the situation).

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by geobeck ( 924637 )

              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?

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by plague3106 ( 71849 )
            Well, the reason is that we have a belief that the punishment should fit the crime. If you stole something from me, you've harmed me in some way. If you attempted to steal something, you didn't harm me as much, but you did do something wrong.

            Its the same reason we don't put people to death for stealing a candybar.

    • Re:FP? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by srmalloy ( 263556 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:53PM (#20051613) Homepage
      But after all, isn't stopping file sharing an integral part of the War On Terror? If we cease our eternal vigilance against these evil people, our American way of life will be destroyed by the flood of shoddy knockoffs of CDs and DVDs. And after all, isn't a little bit of presumed guilt worth knowing that your next purchase of a music CD is, as it should, going straight into the coffers of a legitimate recording studio, rather than to some pirate or -- *gasp* -- the musician.

      --
      And remember, boys and girls -- "We had to destroy your freedom in order to save it."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Wansu ( 846 )

        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.
       

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by FiniteElementalist ( 1073824 )
      I'm concerned with what is their justification for doubling prison terms in terms of proportionality of punishment. Let punishment fit the crime, etc.

      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

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by jamstar7 ( 694492 )

        m concerned with what is their justification for doubling prison terms in terms of proportionality of punishment. Let punishment fit the crime, etc.

        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...

      • Here's the rationale for "slow on the uptake" people. When the laws were originally written, the copywright material was valued in then current dollars. With inflation, those copywrights are worth far more than double their original valuation. So now the penalty must be at least double what it was back then. Similarly with the value of human lives being decreased, the payout for having a relative die in war is reduced. Thats how we can afford to keep killing Americans in Iraq. Are you starting to get the p
        • When you replace "we" with, "people in charge of the law and, by extension, the money-makers who control them" your post stops being wryly humourous and starts being.. the truth, pretty much.

    • Re:FP? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheVelvetFlamebait ( 986083 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:39PM (#20052109) Journal
      That's different. You are still innocent until proven guilty, it's just that now you can be found guilty of intent to pirate. They still have to prove that before they can dish out any punishment.
    • Maybe they should put a banner on the entrance to the Capitol. Something like, "In this house we obey the laws of the US Constitution!"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tftp ( 111690 )
        To have the Supreme Court then explain that those laws apply only within that particular building, and only to people who physically painted the text?
    • In 100 years, every American is going to be forced to give up 50% of their income to the Department of Media, which will be the department created by VIACOM, who will buy up every media company and become a mega-monopoly. The only movies that will made would be "Speed x", "Rush Hour y", and "Rocky z", where x, y, z are integers > 0. Anyone who refuses to pay will be put to death. To me, this is the direction I see America going.

  • Really now... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo ( 1000167 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:03PM (#20051079)
    Do they give the Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry?

  • open secrets (Score:4, Informative)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:09PM (#20051133)
    Heres the open secrets link to his finances:

    http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.as p?CID=N00003689&Cycle=2002 [opensecrets.org]

    • According to the codified portions of Chabot's donations on OpenSecrets, he actually did not receive much money directly from the TV/Movies/Music industry. According to Chabot's 2006 Industry Breakdown [opensecrets.org] it was his 19th greatest contributor, giving $31,000.

      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)

    by Vexler ( 127353 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:10PM (#20051147) Journal
    Read the title again: "Bill Would Criminalize Attempted IP Infringement".

    That wouldn't be "Gates", would it?

  • Fear (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Joebert ( 946227 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:11PM (#20051151) Homepage
    Every time I read somthing like this, I'm driven further away from wanting to participate in the exchange of ideas outside of a physical conversation with someone.

    I'm afraid of being locked up & not being able to understand why I'm locked up.
    • Oh, you'll understand why ... you just won't know the specifics.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Firehed ( 942385 )
      Don't worry. This doesn't have a catchy acronym; it won't get voted in.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by PCM2 ( 4486 )

        Don't worry. This doesn't have a catchy acronym; it won't get voted in.

        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)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:20PM (#20051261)
    I call "dibs" on IP 127.0.0.1
    Any IP infringers out there...be warned...that's MY IP you're infringing upon

  • Not law yet (Score:5, Informative)

    by ianare ( 1132971 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:20PM (#20051265)
    Keep in mind this bill is not passed into law (yet ??). So there is still time to try to stop it! [eff.org]

    Ya I know, online petition is not the best way. Write to your representatives if you can.
    • Already did. I'm not being criminalized for being 70% deaf and needing to watch DVDs on my PC with headphones.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by QCompson ( 675963 )
      Write to your representatives if you can.

      Also, send them lots of money in the form of campaign contributions. They seem to really like that.

    • Re:Not law yet (Score:4, Insightful)

      by CrimsonAvenger ( 580665 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2007 @12:14AM (#20053023)

      Keep in mind this bill is not passed into law (yet ??)

      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.

  • Methinks the time is ripe to question copyright [questioncopyright.org].

      • Re:I just gave them a link from my copyright piece (Score:4, Insightful)

        by misleb ( 129952 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:30PM (#20051999)
        You know, I only recently came upon this idea (not original, of course) of questioning copyright during a recent discussion here on slashdot. At first I was just making a logical argument like one might in a formal debate... sort of playing the devil's advocate. And it suddenly stuck me that it was more than a debate exercise. It really made sense. Copyright and patent laws as we know them are fundamentally broken. You can't own information. It is totally absurd. I mean, I still believe in giving credit where credit is due for ideas and ensuring that creators are not plagiarized, because that would be fraud (what copyright should be about), but there is absolutely no moral or logical basis for the ownership of information. People seem to think that they have a right to make money off of their ideas. And that is just absurd. They have the right *try* and make money off of their ideas, but nobody else is obligated to ensure that their business model is profitable. If you decide to make some information public, it is out there. You can't control it.

        -matthew
        • ... where, at one time at least, discoveries were freely shared through publication in peer-reviewed journals. The way of academia was supposed to be that knowledge was free for all.

          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)

            by kebes ( 861706 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @11:16PM (#20052485) Journal

            Unfortunately, the academic world I grew up believing in no longer really exists;
            It still exists. Maybe it's "fighting to survive"... but it is not dead. In fact many academics are carrying-on with the tradition of working towards open sharing of information. For instance a large number of academics are actively pushing for Open Access [wikipedia.org] to all scholarly content. It will no doubt be a long struggle, but progress is already being made, such as preprint archives (e.g. arXiv [arxiv.org]), a growing number of open-access journals (e.g. PLoS [plos.org]), and even some big-name traditional journals are now offering authors the option to pay for their articles to be open-access.

            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."

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by moeinvt ( 851793 )
          What the hell are you trying to say?

          "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

        • 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

  • 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.

    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?

    • 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

  • IP was ours first! INTERNET PROTOCOL. Get your own! Intellectual Property my ass.

  • Criminalize wasting tax dollars? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HitekHobo ( 1132869 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:38PM (#20051475) Homepage
    Between the DMCA, the BSA, the RIAA and the MPAA, we have legislation and watchdog groups to cover every imaginable form of piracy. The courts are already having to deal with lawsuits over pathetic amounts of money to make an example of people. Do we really need to have federal agencies doing the investigation as well and make room in the criminal judicial system as well?
    • The system needs more criminals. Ideally, every average citizen would be considered a criminal. That makes them much easier to control. You can tag them, harass them, tell them where they can live, where they can work, who they can socialize with, you can dictate their life to them. Look at "sex offenders" and you'll see where politicians and corporations would love to see everyone.

  • "Attempted" Infringement (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hardburn ( 141468 ) <hardburn@wumpus-ca[ ]net ['ve.' in gap]> on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:41PM (#20051503)

    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.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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.
      "Copyright Infringement Paraphernalia"

  • Check those citatations! (Score:3, Informative)

    by westlake ( 615356 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:53PM (#20051609)
    The Cornell link has a small but dangerously misleading typographical error:

    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)

    by twitter ( 104583 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @09:56PM (#20051645) Homepage Journal

    From the bill:

    CONSPIRACY- If two or more persons conspire to commit an offense under paragraph (1) and one or more of such persons do any act to effectuate the object of the conspiracy, each shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.'.

    This paragraph is more disturbing to me - language like that can be used to rope in just about anyone.

  • IDIOTS?


    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)

    by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:01PM (#20051691) Homepage Journal
    Why can't we just have a copyright system that is handle in civil courts? Why does everything have to be a crime now?

    • Re:Why does it have to be criminal? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by QCompson ( 675963 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:24PM (#20051933)

      Why can't we just have a copyright system that is handle in civil courts? Why does everything have to be a crime now?
      "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

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sigma 7 ( 266129 )

        "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.

        • Having fewer laws but broader and vaguer definitions is even worse; it invites selective-enforcement by police. Suddenly, unbeknown to you, burning a back-up copy of your Duran-Duran CD falls under the same "stealing" law, and carries the same penalties, as smashing a window and burglarizing a music store.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by vux984 ( 928602 )
            Whoosh!

            Apparently you haven't read 1984, or it would seem, even heard of it.
            • Oh please. I certainly didn't take his reply as a direct rebuttal to my comment, although I can see how my reply could be misinterpreted (and I admit it was likely superfluous).

              But feel free to assume whatever you would like. Simplistic, childish slashdot replies are fun, I'll give you that. Whoosh!

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Sigma 7 ( 266129 )

            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

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cpt kangarooski ( 3773 )
      That's a good question, but do be aware that some copyright infringement has been criminal in the US since the late 19th century, so it's not that new.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by OrangeTide ( 124937 )
        Oh sure. We've all seen those FBI warnings on VHS tapes. But I don't understand why it has to be criminal. I suppose I could understand if copyright violators were exploiting small individuals who did not have the resources to pursue every case in civil court. But it doesn't seem that way in reality, as a "little guy" who produces a fair number of copyrighted works a year I really don't have the ear of the FBI to search and find people copying my works without license, I have to do all the detective work my
    • Did you notice the name of the bill? Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act. Isn't crime enforcement the opposite of law enforcement? Did we suddenly get surprisingly honest politicians?

  • Make those college students pay! (Score:3, Funny)

    by quizzicus ( 891184 ) <johnbanderson&gmail,com> on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:08PM (#20051757) Journal

    In most cases, the bill appears to simply double existing penalties.
    Good. Because $750 per song was just a slap on the wrist.

  • Republicans (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
    Republican. From Ohio, maybe the most corrupt [google.com] den of Republicans exposed in the past few years.

  • Please follow EFF Link (Score:4, Informative)

    by PaddyM ( 45763 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:11PM (#20051803) Homepage
    Hi,
    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.
  • Remember the movie Minority Report? Well, it's HERE!
    • There is a major flaw in your reasonning: in that movie, they had an imperfect way to tell that someone was about to commit a crime, but at least the persons in charge were believing they were doing the right thing.
      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)

    by syousef ( 465911 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:49PM (#20052227) Journal
    ...and the standard of proof would be any politician holding or running for office.

  • Applies only to people (real ones) ? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LingNoi ( 1066278 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @10:54PM (#20052295)
    ... I assume this bill will only apply to people and not companies as it says..

    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.

    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..

    The bill allows "a judge to dole out damages for each separate piece of a derivative work or compilation, rather than treating it as one work," wrote Derek Slater, "for example, copying an entire album could translate into damages for each individual track, even if the copyrights in those tracks aren't separately registered."
    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?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by hardburn ( 141468 )

      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?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by StikyPad ( 445176 )
      Why stop there? Each variable is a unique piece of IP!
    • ... I assume this bill will only apply to people and not companies as it says..

      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
      • True but who is to blame in a mega-corp where it is impossible to pin down who did what?

        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.

  • Corrected link... (Score:3, Funny)

    by martyb ( 196687 ) on Monday July 30, 2007 @11:08PM (#20052415)
    FTFS:

    ...people could now be charged with criminal copyright infringement even if such infringement has not actually taken place.

    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)

    by sxpert ( 139117 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2007 @01:54AM (#20053563)
    It appears that every day the US are inching slowly but surely towards a police state, all this to help a bunch of mafioso keep a stranglehold on the entertainment market
    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)

    by Jorgandar ( 450573 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2007 @03:45AM (#20054217)
    If everyone on slashdot took 5 minutes to write to your local congressman/woman, this would create enough noise for them to notice, it's not OK to be doing this anymore...here is my letter:

    "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. "

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mcvos ( 645701 )

      If everyone on slashdot took 5 minutes to write to your local congressman/woman

      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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