Battleangel

(Digg) Oh for ****’s sake, don’t use the p-word. (see the GNU list of Confusing words and phrases)

Hollywood Reporter - Widening its war on copyright pirates, the Bush administration asked Congress on Thursday to enact new laws for protecting intellectual property and make it easier for authorities to put violators behind bars.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference on intellectual property crime that the laws were needed because piracy is getting easier, the money it generates finds its way to other illegal activities — including terrorism — and the nation’s economy depends on the copyright-enabled industries.

“I think legislation is absolutely necessary as we are at a critical point as the technology is changing so quickly,” Gonzales said. “Because of the changes in technology, it’s so much easier (to pirate) now. What that’s doing is encouraging large-scale criminal enterprises to get involved in intellectual property theft, and that involvement is used, quite frankly, to fund terrorist activities. It is a great concern to the Department of Justice and the administration.”

According to the article, proposals include:

• A change in the law that would recognize a copyright in a criminal case before it is filed with the Register of Copyrights so authorities don’t have to prove that thousands of works pirated over the Internet are all copyrighted;
• Expand the forfeiture and restitution requirements so that equipment, goods, records and other items used or intended for use in piracy are forfeited to the government and to hold pirates criminally libel for restitution for damages to the rights-holder;
• Make it a crime to attempt to infringe a copyright;
• Increase the amount of jail time for repeat offenders;
• Clarify that importing and exporting infringed goods is illegal;
• Allow authorities to obtain a wiretap for suspects in intellectual property crimes

Where should one start with this? Even to attempt to infringe is proposed to be made a crime. How about thinking about it? How about a thought police? This proposal is so far reaching and broadly worded it makes even the Patriot Act seem quaint. And notice how terrorism is brought up twice. This is a claim that has never been substantiated, ever. And in any case it does not apply to the form of infringement that is actually happening out there. I don’t believe for a moment that this will be directed at large scale counterfeiters AS THERE ARE ALREADY LAWS IN PLACE TO DEAL WITH THEM. No, this is aimed at the little people and, like they themselves admit, to keep a failed business model alive. If America indeed depends on that model then American is bust too and needs to wake up and realize it. Needless to say, this will have consequences that reach far beyond the borders of the U.S.
The numbers just don’t add up regardless of how you look at it. If record companies aren’t selling their products because people are downloading them off the Internet (like THEY claim), how exactly are “terrorists” making a buck in the U.S. today? What do they know about business models that the RIAA / MPAA don’t, that enables them to compete with a free product? It must be magic. Or a load of corporate fascist BS.