New Congressional Bill Makes DMCA Look Tame 895
An anonymous reader writes "Representative Lamar Smith is sponsoring the Intellectual Property Protection Act. The new bill is designed to give the Justice Department 'tools to combat IP crime' which which are used to 'quite frankly, fund terrorism activities,' according to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Among the provisions is lowering the standards for 'willful copyright violation' and increasing the corresponding prison term to 10 years." More information is also available at publicknowledge.org.
Terrorism! (Score:4, Funny)
Misinformed articles fund terrorism!
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fund terrorism? (Score:5, Funny)
imagine all the extra time they need not spend on system administration:
obviously they would have more time actually planning terroristic attacks!
Would be a thought though: give all the Al Quaida's of this world the newest of newest of computers
with all the newest propriotory software, just to see them fail as a terroristic
club seeing that they spend all their time actually getting their systems up and running.
We would see newsitems like:
ThisJustIn: Bin Laden proclaims next suicide hit to occur moments after Vista finally released.
Roel
Re:Amerika - Why was the parent modded down? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The old chestnut about funding terrorism (Score:2, Funny)
2 Upload torrents to botnet
3 ???
4 Profit!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Trying to tell us something? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:5, Funny)
I'm confident... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:From Wikipedia... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This Law promotes Terrorism (Score:2, Funny)
So, fixed it for ya.
O il (Score:3, Funny)
"Oil, quite frankly, funds terrorism" remarked a slashdotter on the condition of anonymity. "To combat this, we need tougher laws, harshly penalizing those involved in the production and distribution of oil." Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney were unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:3, Funny)
But...but...but...if you download Metalica, the terrorists win. Doesn't everyone know that?
Re:minus profit == fund criminals/terrorists??? (Score:2, Funny)
(1): All people who are not turing over all of their money are criminals who must be punished.
(2): Criminals are the same as terrorists. GWB says so.
(3): Not turning over your money means you will have more money available to you.
(4): (1)+(2) means that (3) is giving money to terrorists.
The bonus of this is of course, that we will now have legally mandated excessive consumerism, just like in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:1, Funny)
JH
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thank you Lamar (What an appropriate name) (Score:4, Funny)
The scariest part is that it works.
personal anecdote:
I'm getting a mattress delivered to my condo today (in Miami). Our management has a strict policy about reserving the elevator several days in advance, and will refuse any delivery not scheduled. So I was talking to the front desk security guard about it yesterday, and the exchange went something like this.
Me: ...I know you guys are ridiculously strict about your service elevator.
Him: Yeah, but don't you prefer it this way? I mean, we can keep track of anything coming in and out of the condos.
Me: Not really. Frankly, how is it any of your business what I'm bringing in and out of my condo?
Him: Well, it's for security, you know? Someone could easily bring in a bomb or something. If it happened to the World Trade Center, it could happen here. We've got families and... (all I remember is a faint buzzing noise from here on out)
Me: (incredulous stare with mouth agape)
... So this guy just told me that we have to schedule our service elevators to protect against terrorism. And he compared some random high-rise condo in Miami to the World Trade Center. Whether that's his personal view, or that of the management, I don't really know or care. I was absolutely dumbfounded that this would be the reason they cite.
And apparently it's okay to bring bombs into my condo building, as long as I schedule it beforehand.
fun and games with asset forfeiture (Score:2, Funny)
Now we know how the FBI will go about upgrading its outdated computer systems.
Re:What the heck is it about Texans? (Score:3, Funny)
1: G. W. Bush
2: Tom DeLay
3: Lamar
4: Cornin
5: Gonzales
6: Enron (Ken Lay)
member57 lists 5 Non-Texas-based entities
1: Robert Kennedy
2: Clinton
3: Pelosi
4: MCI Worldcom
5: TYCO
Based only on number of entities listed, rnturn has more items listed creating a valid 'better than even' situation.
Based on an average entities/state ratio, which I did not take the time to actually calculate, you'll notice that all entities listed by rnturn originate in Texas, wheras member57 lists entities which I assume are approximatly evenly distributed across the country.
Based on this analysis, rnturn's statement is valid and member57's reply, even though the number of entities listed is similar, should, nonetheless, take into account the density of entities as well as their location.
This statement was written by an unbiased, nonpartisan commentator. This statement favors rnturn's statement only on the merits of the argument and is not based on any political bias. Should anyone have reason to question the veracity, accuracy, or bias of this article, please reply to it before it is archived.