THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: Oblivion on June 24, 2010, 12:34:55 AM
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While they may never be able to truly defeat piracy and drive it from the lurking depths of the internet, copyright protection attack-dog organizations like the RIAA and MPAA have long dreamed of the day when they would no longer have to pay for their own copyright enforcement. Now that dream is on the verge of coming true, thanks to the Obama administration.
After countless lobbyist dollars from the music and film industry and a brief "public review", the administration rolled out its vision to fight piracy yesterday afternoon. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden -- whose blunt speech has sometime left him in trouble -- did not mince words.
He states, "This is theft, clear and simple. It's smash and grab, no different than a guy walking down Fifth Avenue and smashing the window at Tiffany's and reaching in and grabbing what's in the window."
The sound-byte comparing downloads to stealing jewels from New York City's finest jeweler quickly lit up the web. Bob Pisano, interim chief executive officer at the Motion Picture Association of America praised the VP, "It is especially critical that the United States has an effective framework for protecting creative content online and enforcing intellectual property rights in the digital environment."
According to the Obama administration, the RIAA, and MPAA, the world economy is pretty much doomed if we don't start prosecuting pirates at home and abroad. Without such a crackdown, businesses will go bankrupt the coalition argues. Biden states, "Piracy hurts, it hurts our economy."
Interestingly, the statements seem to fly in the face of a recent Government Accountability Office study released to U.S. Congress earlier this year, which concluded that there is virtually no evidence for the claimed million dollar losses by the entertainment industry. That study suggested that piracy could even benefit the economy.
Another noteworthy study from three years back notes that virtually every citizen violates intellectual property laws in some way on a daily basis.
The White House press release was full of buzz phrases, but short on details. It did however indicate that the U.S. government may increasingly monitor filesharing networks and BitTorrent sites and assist media groups in their prosecution/threat letter efforts. It speaks of improved "law enforcement efforts at the Federal, state and local level."
The biggest effort, though, will be devoted to cracking down on piracy websites in the U.S. and overseas. The administration was short on details of how exactly it would convince piracy-loving nations like China to change their ways, but it did say it would try to do so by "being as public as we possibly can" about infringement.
The press release states, "As we shine the spotlight on foreign governments that have rogue actors doing illicit business within their borders, it's the government's responsibility to respond."
Such efforts have shown mild success. After lots of threats against the Swedish government by the U.S., the European Union nation finally tried admins with the nation's largest torrent site The Pirate Bay last year and found them guilty. The trial was later exposed to be a perversion of the justice system, with the judge who gave the verdict have multiple ties to copyright protection organizations. The verdict -- $3M USD in damages and a year of hard prison time for the admins -- is currently being appealed.
The White House's vision is perhaps a prelude to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which will go before Congress later this year. The bill would make P2P or BitTorrent client development a criminal offense if the distributed software was used for infringement. It also implements an interesting provision called "imminent infringement", which allows the government to charge people who they think might be about to infringe with a civil offense (for example if you searched "torrent daft punk"). This is among the first official "thought crime" provisions to be proposed by the U.S. government. The bill also makes it a criminal offense to bypass DRM.
Ultimately, it should be interesting to see how American taxpayers react to President Obama's decision to spend their money on efforts to prosecute them and try to choke out piracy at home and abroad, particularly when the current evidence is inconclusive of its effects. One thing's for sure, though. Top politicians on both sides of the aisle are firmly behind the music and movie industry anti-piracy and money-collection efforts.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18815
So much for your hero, ObaMAO, eh? :smug
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why aren't u fixin the economie oBUMa
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Quick, throw up some Obama Hitler pics.
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It also implements an interesting provision called "imminent infringement", which allows the government to charge people who they think might be about to infringe with a civil offense (for example if you searched "torrent daft punk"). This is among the first official "thought crime" provisions to be proposed by the U.S. government. The bill also makes it a criminal offense to bypass DRM.
(http://i47.tinypic.com/vzzi1g.jpg)
Also love the implication that the US economy will fail without the film/music industry.
If that's true then we already have fallen.
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:lol Criminal offense to bypass DRM :usacry
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The Obama sucktrain just lost its brakes.
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THIS IS NOT CHANGE I CAN BELIEVE IN
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Robocop is coming true. Megacorporations will rule America. :usacry
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Someone post this at WYL, I wanna see Cheebs defending this.
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Twilight: New Moon > Your Rights as a Human Being
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hah at your saviour.
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ah hell naw
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So people have to pay for porn now? I find that morally repulsive.
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I find the whole "type word torrent in google and get arrested" thing insane.
If that passes I give up on freedom
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Giving up on freedom will probably become a criminal offense someday.
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Now that both major parties are pro big business, I don't even know who to vote for.
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yeah, fuck obama in his goatass.
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(http://www.observer.com/files/full/obama_hope.jpg)
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I agree with him that piracy is theft and something should be done about it but the plan that they are working on is one of the stupidest plans that I have seen so far.
What I would like to see instead is forcing the ISPs to collect and save data about their users activity so that it would be possible for the music/film/video games industries to sue the filesharers.
No three warning systems and no banning people from the internet. If an internet user is caught downloading a movie a bill would be sent to him, if he doesn't agree to pay it he can take the case to court.
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Unwinnable wars America is now engaged in:
- Iraqistan
- Drugs
- Piracy
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yeah, fuck obama in his goatass.
*reports one piece piracy*
there are no side hugs in prison prole :teehee
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Nobody cares about Japanese companies :japancry
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Going after major piracy groups is fine imo. It is the whole 'go to jail for searching metallica torrent' thing that I find unacceptable.
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Unwinnable wars America is now engaged in:
- Iraqistan
- Drugs
- Piracy
you made it a hot post, i made it a hot facebook status :pimp
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Obama or Evilore? You decide.
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Now that both major parties are pro big business, I don't even know who to vote for.
I decided a couple of weeks ago to never again put a vote in for the Pubs or the Dems. I don't care that I'm 'throwing my vote away.'
Like my vote or your vote means shit anyway.
Fuck em. I'll stand in line and vote and just hope others join me. The lack of choice in America is appalling.
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Unwinnable wars America is now engaged in:
- Iraqistan
- Drugs
- Piracy
Exactly, I was hoping Bama might end one of these wars, not expand the fucking list.
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Unwinnable wars America is now engaged in:
- Iraqistan
- Drugs
- Piracy
Put that gold on twitter so I can RT it. So fucking perfect.
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Unwinnable wars America is now engaged in:
- Iraqistan
- Drugs
- Piracy
you made it a hot post, i made it a hot facebook status :pimp
I'm gonna call the Obama Internet Post Piracy Hotline and get your ass thrown in a deep dark pit, just watch!
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done :bow
this is like a twitter version of Stockton to Malone
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Unwinnable wars America is now engaged in:
- Iraqistan
- Drugs
- Piracy
Put that gold on twitter so I can RT it. So fucking perfect.
lol, done
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fuck you I did it first
edit:
http://twitter.com/CajoleJuice/status/16908945006
perfect :lol
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Next gen trojans, googles shit for you in the background.
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Thought crime?
Good luck with that :lol
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"imminent infringement" = new tax
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Torrent users coulda stopped this, but we wouldn't pony up for a PAC. :'(
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funny that he writes OVERSEAS, like US law is also the law in other countries. lol. :lol
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Cunts you can believe in
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the only people who have to worry bout this are people who
download movies, which i dont do because of Netflix
download games, which i don't do because of Steam
download mainstream music, which i don't because i listen to obscure heavy metal.
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i listen to obscure heavy metal.
:wag there oughta be a law :wag
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Will Obama sent the interpol after me if I download an episode of the classic American tv show who's the boss?
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So it would be illegal for me to say:
HEY DUDES, WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD SOME SESAME STREET
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*reported for soliciting illegal material on a public space*
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Will Obama sent the interpol after me if I download an episode of the classic American tv show who's the boss?
Depends on if we find "Who's the boss torrent" in your Google search history. Then you're going down.
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:usacry :pimp
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*reported for soliciting illegal material on a public space*
:lol
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[youtube=560,345]rvrYQfjYw1s[/youtube]
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This just reeks of another "Obama's gonna take our guns' fictitious threat.
Edit: Looks like it's Biden's war on piracy.
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didn't biden start this crusade back when he was in the senate? too lazy to look it up
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whoops, looks like I'm voting republican.
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At this point, I'm voting for the first person to make their single issue killing rich assholes.
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At this point, I'm voting for the first person to make their single issue killing rich assholes.
Be the change, Triumph. Be the change.
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whoops, looks like I'm voting republican.
Republicans would just institute mandatory minimum sentencing. In fact, this may be the most bipartisan bill in history when it comes down to a vote.
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I was expecting a crackdown on piracy eventually, but nothing distinguished mentally-challenged to the level of punishing people for simply looking around. Oh well, maybe this will force companies to start adopting better ways of handling media to make it more convenient for the user! no more DRM and all that! right?...right?
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Bubububu Obama is so funneh! Did you see those jokes he made a while back!? He killed out there!
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whoops, looks like I'm voting republican.
Because republicans wouldn't dare go after those thieving internet users, right