Copy That Floppy, Lose Your Computer

[Yaron Nahari]

Slashdot have a story (http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/12/10/1522241.shtml) about a new copyright bill that creates a new govt. agency in charge of copyright enforcement. Kevin Way writes Kevin Way writes "In particular, the bill grants this new agency the right to seize any computer or network hardware used to "facilitate" a copyright crime and auction it off. You would not need to be found guilty at trial to face this penalty.

Does property means nothing in US anymore?

[Yaron Nahari]

Just a bump - it sank so fast, that nobody even saw it.:o

[American]

I was reading about this, I think this is about the torrent piracy problem but I can see this can be abused as well.

Hopefully this "movement" will learn how to send emails to our so called elected officials and show some disagreement with this. SO far that hasnt happened.

This is an information war and no one seems to blog or be involved past the RP campaign online.

[RTsquared]

Gotta love the meddlesome hand of government...

[hawkeyenick]

I was reading about this, I think this is about the torrent piracy problem but I can see this can be abused as well.

Hopefully this "movement" will learn how to send emails to our so called elected officials and show some disagreement with this. SO far that hasnt happened.

This is an information war and no one seems to blog or be involved past the RP campaign online.

They send them, the problem is that no one reads them and/or cares

[0zzy]

torrents>government

[givemeliberty]

My mom has usually written hard copies and sent them to our elected reps. Has done this for decades. She said that over the years they have almost always send a hard copy reply. She said over the last several years the replies have stopped coming.

Once they're in office they no longer care what "we the people" think.

[Zydeco]

Disgusting. The state consistently places its own interests above the peoples'.

[Mortikhi]

There is NO NEED for another agency.
The FBI handles this already.

[kylejack]

I see that they're trying to spread these ridiculous and unconstitutional asset forfeiture laws beyond the war on drugs. Unbelievable. Wait, no, its totally believable.

[terryp]

It makes you want to just SLAP people to make them wake. No one worries until
it's in thier backyard, or they drag off thier 14 yr old and them fine them $250K.

[hocaltar]

Seriously hollywood needs to wake up. The reason nobody goes to the movies anymore has nothing to do with piracy. It has everything to do with an overabundance of supply. Our AMC megaplex 24 runs like 16 different movies at a time. 50% of these movies I have never even heard of. Couple that with the artistic talent in hollywood producing trash 90% of the time and $10.00 a ticket and it doesn't take too long to figure out why the youth of the nation doesn't want to spend anymore of their hardearned cash on hollywoods crap anymore.

[jonahtrainer]

It makes you want to just SLAP people to make them wake. No one worries until
it's in thier backyard, or they drag off thier 14 yr old and them fine them $250K.

No kidding. Being trained in the law with a particular interest in criminal defense I was talking with a friend (Masters in Computer Science and big-time computer geek) of mine who works for the FBI in the cyber-criminal investigation unit. I was quizzing him about how evidence is gathered to prosecute those engaged in 'child pornography.' The more we talked about it the more loopholes he was telling me could be used to 'frame' someone by placing the images on another's computer remotely, etc.

I'd sure hate to see a lot of innocent neocons and Bible thumpers going to jail for child porn that was found on their computers. I can't stand Due Process violations.

[angelatc]

The scariest part is that they can just sell your stuff, without even a guilty verdict. Sort of like drug confiscation laws. Why do people put up with this?

[tamor]

As soon as I read "create a new government agency", I knew we were headed for trouble.

[Wendi]

So much for innocent until proven guilty.

Oh, wait. That went away long ago.

[2orb]

There is NO NEED for another agency.
The FBI handles this already.

This looks to me as if this might be something bigger.

If you compare the language in the release, originally brought to our attention by Yaron Nahari, to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America fact sheet for the Intellectual Property Action Strategy, you'll find a lot of similarity. I have not specifically researched the legislation presented by the House Judiciary Committee, but my suspicion is that they will look alike.

Is this the NAU in very poorly fitting sheep’s clothing?


House Judiciary Committee release: http://judiciary.house.gov/newscenter.aspx?A=887

SPP Fact Sheet: http://spp.gov/pdf/spp_ip_strat_fact_sheet.pdf