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You’d think that Attorney General Albert Gonzales would have a lot on his plate these days, but he’s apparently spending his time coaxing Congress to pass a bill that ratchets up the penalties for infringing copyright. Included in the bill, known as the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, are a lot of scary-sounding provisions, including proposed life sentences for people who use pirated software, greater power to wiretap suspected infringers, and enacting penalties against anyone who “intends” to commit copyright infringement. And then there’s the proposed crackdown on concert bootlegs:
Require Homeland Security to alert the Recording Industry Association of America. That would happen when compact discs with “unauthorized fixations of the sounds or sounds and images of a live musical performance” are attempted to be imported. Neither the Motion Picture Association of America nor the Business Software Alliance (nor any other copyright holder such as photographers, playwrights, or news organizations, for that matter) would qualify for this kind of special treatment.
Because like Gonzales, Homeland Security doesn’t have enough on its plate. Anyway, we can see this legislation–if it does go through, that is–turning into quite the mess, especially with the RIAA’s slippery definition of “authorized.” And we have to wonder: Why the specific focus on live recordings–does Gonzales just really, really hate jam bands, or is there something bigger we’re missing?
Gonzales proposes new crime: “Attempted” copyright infringement [CNet]
Just so we are clear on this concept: Music bloggers and internet radio operators are in most cases also registered voters. The names of those elected officials that took money from the RIAA are public knowledge. If you want this to stop, take action. Let’s ask Barrak Obama and Hillary Clinton why they took money from this trough at their next campaign stop. Let’s make the RIAA an agenda item for the 2008 campaign. Let’s get the DMCA and the Copyright Board’s last decision rolled back by act of Congress.
Thank god Gonzales is in hot water, or else a formerly GOP congress and senate would have actually given a damn.
“and enacting penalties against anyone who ‘intends’ to commit copyright infringement”?
Yeah, this would not last in a city court for more than hours.
When this goes down, I have bought my last cd, dvd, gone to my last concert, you name it.
Just remember, kiddies–on the first Tuesday of November every four years we vote for President of the United States, not the prom king. Sympathy votes for the very special kids can only have disastrous consequences.
democracy doesn’t work.
he should ask his stepson jared about piracy.
hah.
Wheeeee! Thank God for Canada, where this stuff is all pretty much legal, y’all. Why intelligent Americans persist on living in a country with such ridiculous laws against copywright infringement, drug use and same-sex marriage is beyond me.
TurdsAndWhey – Do you actually think this crap would be different under a Kerry or Gore administration?