Swap a song, go to jail

Oh yeah, this will fix it. Overcrowd the already overcrowded jails with song swappers. Maybe they'll learn to commit violent crime while in the Big House...

My favorite part of this:

The Conyers-Berman bill would operate under the assumption that each copyrighted work made available through a computer network was copied by others at least 10 times for a total retail value of $2,500. That would bump the activity from a misdemeanor to a felony, carrying a sentence of up to five years in jail.

Now, there is no way this bill would ever make it to law, much less pass any kind of constitutionality test in court... But it still sickens me that these Congressmen, with their brass ones firmly in the grasp of the RIAA and MPAA, have the audacity to write bills like this, when there are so many other IMPORTANT things wrong with this country.

And I thought "Minority Report" was science fiction...

I would love to know the number of mp3's on the Congressional Offices network.

as ynOt said...

"My favorite part..."

The Conyers-Berman bill would operate under the assumption that each copyrighted work made available through a computer network was copied by others at least 10 times for a total retail value of $2,500.

Maybe that explains why our government is trillions of dollars in debt.

Let's see.... copy a song 10 times, that's $2500, that means each song is worth $250 originally. So your typical album must be selling in the record stores for about $3,000. No wonder CD sales are down.

Makes sense. With that kind of logic, no wonder we have all those $600 hammers and $1200 toilet seats the government is so fond of.

tanstaafl.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-1026715.html - Same news on Zdnet.

ZDNet had some wording for the law that worried me; "But if the ACCOPS bill were to succeed, prosecutors would not have to prove that a copyrighted file was repeatedly downloaded. Conyers' proposal would require them to prove only that the file was publically accessible. " Define "pubically accessible". If some numbnut sys-admin does not secure his network and you can get to copyrighted material, does that make him a felon or just stupid? What bugs me about these laws is that they are written so vauge it opens people to all kinds of legal action.

Edit for my wonderful spelling:
You know, I need a program that monitors what I am typing on forums and lets me know if I am typing something stupid. :P

I sure hope it's not pubically accessible, as that would be a severe violation of privacy

Presumably that's an implementation of plug and play networking?

pca

What bugs me about these laws is that they are written so vauge it opens people to all kinds of legal action.

It keeps the lawyers in the money... Lawmakers are usually former lawyers, they know how to take care of each other.

that cracks me up about these politicians.
I guess I have said this before, but they all call themselves 'lawmakers'.
They never bother clearing up their own mess. They say it is the job of the courts to clarify and apply the laws, which sound very noble, all the while ignoring the joe schmoe that gets his life ruined while fighting a lawsuit.

Bitter, me? Never

In reply to:

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It keeps the lawyers in the money... Lawmakers are usually former lawyers, they know how to take care of each other.

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I always thought it was a conflict of interest when the group of people that make the laws are the same group that enforce the laws.