Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown

[TM2-Megatron]

It's mostly been Canada in the news with regards to digital copyright enforcement measures, but I guess now it's time for the American government to get another turn at bat.

This seems like a horrendously bad move for the Democrats... I have to say, many of Obama's decisions and stances have been dissapointing since he took office... but I guess that's only to be expected, as the politicians who tend to dissapoint the most are usually the ones with so much hype and hope for change surrounding them. Though, in all honesty, I figured he wasn't as left-wing as a lot of people gave him credit for after he said that he believed marriage was only valid between a man and woman. So while this isn't entirely surprising, it's still quite dissapointing.

The more interesting parts are bolded. It's a shame that the current Administration, the RIAA and MPAA can all now be cited as touting the same line of BS. How they can justify criminalizing the bypass of DRM, I have no idea. I know why the industry wants it done (so they can charge people multiple times to have the same media on different devices), but why on Earth can't the government see this for what it is? Why do they go along with it? How do you even enforce that? If you want to rip a movie/CD or dump a DS game which I've legally bought, who are they to say you can't?

I hope this terrible bill gets the response it deserves... Americans really shouldn't sit back and allow the government to pass something that would turn virtually the entire population into criminals. Yes, piracy is wrong; and yes, it should be curbed. But to infringe the fair use rights of consumers (consumers who legally buy the content being pirated) to do so? Sorry, but that's bullshit.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18815

Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown
Jason Mick (Blog) - June 23, 2010 10:37 AM

"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." -- U.S. VP Joe Biden

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.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

Well this fucking sucks

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Violating someone's privacy is obviously something the government has never heard of. I mean, seriously? They look at the things you type in the search bar?

Also, "Piracy hurts, it hurts our economy" is bullshit. Of course, a small percentage of sales is affected, but they should think "If you can't beat them, join them" just for once. If they slightly increase the price of empty discs (CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/etc), the money loss of people pirating on a daily basis is easily solved. Heck, they could even earn more money by doing that.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Since when has piracy every been a problem to the government? I highly doubt they're doing this for the "sake of the economy". They were probably just tired of Warner Bros. whining about their 2% loss in sales.

Also, really? They're going to bust us just for almost pirating something? That's like immediately putting someone who searches "bomb" on the known terrorist list.

 

[Defiance]

..Using our tax dollars to hurt us? I just don't know what to say, other than part of me will die if Obama gets reelected..

 

[TrapperKeeperX]

I'm a Democrat and I find this very useless and I'm disappointed. I want him to legalize Same Sex Marriages for All 50 States there are more important thing than Massive Piracy Crackdown! Civil Rights issues are bigger than this issue.

 

[zachpl]

He won't get reelected.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

If anything this is just an all talk thing to scare pirates. We've had these "scares" happening at-least twice a year now.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

This is a civil rights issue

 

[Lushay]

Lol, how do you stop an almost pirate? That's like bringing the hammer down on someone who looks up the word "pirates" and accidentally winds up staring at a truck load of torrents.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Since when has piracy every been a problem to the government? I highly doubt they're doing this for the "sake of the economy". They were probably just tired of Warner Bros. whining about their 2% loss in sales.

Also, really? They're going to bust us just for almost pirating something? That's like immediately putting someone who searches "bomb" on the known terrorist list.

Imagine what would happen if you searched the term "sex bomb", they would think you are a masochist, a terrorist, a pervert, etc.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Knowing the Republicans nowadays they'll probably go all out against any bill he pushes, and for once I'm thankful for that. And the full Democratic party won't be backing this, I assure you.

Piracy won't kill the economy, even games that get millions of downloads still have great sales.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

If anything this is just an all talk thing to scare pirates. We've had these "scares" happening at-least twice a year now.

It won't help him get re-elected, though. If he's willing to bow down to lobby groups to this extent, whether just a scare tactic or not, it's going to turn a ton of people away from supporting this administration. And rightfully so, as it only further proves that whether you're talking about Democrat or Republican, neither really give a crap about the average person. And both care more about pleasing their corporate overlords than they do supporting those people who put them in their goddamn office.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

^Or somebody who types in "facials" and sees...something that isn't related to beauty services.

 

[berlinka]

FUCK! I just typed "Rick Astley torrent" in the Google search bar... Am I already in trouble now?

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Knowing the Republicans nowadays they'll probably go all out against any bill he pushes, and for once I'm thankful for that. And the full Democratic party won't be backing this, I assure you.

Piracy won't kill the economy, even games that get millions of downloads still have great sales.

Something tells me that they don't realize that piracy has been around since computer games and floppy drives have existed.

 

[Raika]

Pirates? You should be more worried about Assassins, you silly man.

 

[Rydian]

And the very first line proves they don't know shit.

"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." -- U.S. VP Joe Biden

Stealing is bad because you deprive the person of what you stole.

When you pirate something, you're making a copy, the original is left alone.
Nobody is deprived of the original object.

The people making the decisions don't know what's actually going on.

 

[hey_suburbia]

This is nothing new.

The Bush Administration did the same thing in 2005:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search...t_id=1001477589

Again in 2007:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9736941-7.html

 

[gamefreak94]

WHAT!
They act like we are going to the store or the gaming company themselves, and stealing the games. Piracy does is not stealing its making a copy and getting that copy unlike taking something. I know piracy is bad but this is BS. Obama hasn't done anything he said yet. I guess when he said its time for a change he meant for the worse.