October 14, 2008
Washington.
hello im brothergrims reporting from the legal desk. plagiarized from Laura Sydell
Ok so while the congress of the divided states of America was haggling over solving the biggest issue ever to hit the earth - banking - they have found the time to create a new position called Intellectual Property Coordinator - and this position appears to be dreadfully powerful.
the intellectual property coordinator is a White House-level position to be appointed by the president
The IP coordinator will oversee the law-enforcement efforts of some very disparate (in the area of piracy and Intellectual Property infringement) government agencies — the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Department of Justice —
The bill also has a forfeiture provision that will allow law enforcement to seize assets from anyone accused of intellectual-property theft — even before they are proven guilty.
-kinda makes the drug bill of the eighties seem like a parking ticket!-
and it throws in some $50 million to help state and federal law-enforcement agencies.
Opposition
California Rep. Zoe Lofgren said the bill will "divert resources from the drug cartels, organized crime, mortgage fraud and investigating the pirates on Wall Street to do copyright enforcement."
my opinion on the law:
Because intellectual property is so wide spread on the web, its almost imposable to decipher what exactly is illegal for the average user, could i be a criminal becouse i viewed something that was copyrighted and didn't know it. Also this could actually mean that not only would my computer get seized, (possibly more - i cant find the actual law to read it) but some Internet Provider's (as ridicules as it sounds) have noted that they could be at risk under this new law for allowing users to engage in this. sort of an accomplice thing i think.
How does it effect phun: thats not clear to me - much is done here to keep copyrighted material off the board, and rapidshare does a ton to help that, but now that simple single level of separation may not be adequate to protect us if something happens to get by the mod's
well this is brothergrims
bye bye




Reply With Quote


