Monday, 10 December 2007

Rants

Civil Forfeiture may come to your computer, thanks to Congress


Read the proposed law. It seems obvious. Sure looks like they've been bought:

* Any computer or network hardware used to "facilitate" a copyright crime could be seized by the Justice Department and auctioned off. The proceeds would be funneled to the agency's budget. The process is called civil asset forfeiture, and typically the owner does not need to be found guilty of a crime for his property to be taken.
Yes folks, all the fun of the drug war, now coming to copyright enforcement!

Oh yes, the proposed law also creates a new federal agency
Probably the most extensive part of the PRO IP Act is its creation of a new federal bureaucracy called the White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative, or WHIPER.
...a federal agency to enforce CIVIL law.

Before I would have said they're crazy. Now...

Naming names: The guilty are:
Lamar Smith R-Texas, House Judiciary Committee minority leader
Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chair of the copyright law subcommittee
Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)

Via: Slashdot

UPDATE (Related) 071211 17:50:
Now (in Atlantic v. Howell) the RIAA is arguing that that making personal copies of songs from one's CD onto one's computer is an infringement.
That contradicts the arguments they made to the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster. Story is here.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Rants at 18:11:37 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Adam Schiff took $1.1M from lawyers and big media. Big media companies leave him alone because he is a copyright extremist. Let's make sure everyone searching for Adam Schiff sees the truth and not the puff pieces in the LA Times / Pasadena Star News.

If we don't do some real political damage to these BAD ACTORS, we'll have to sit through a 1 hour lecture on intellectual property before every Blu-Ray flick!!!!!

Posted by: Qzaki Webmaster at 02/24/08 20:20:57 (jWDb1)

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