Gonzales proposes new crime: "Attempted" copyright infringement

[IChing]

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including "attempts" to commit piracy.

"To meet the global challenges of IP crime, our criminal laws must be kept updated," Gonzales said during a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday.

The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a proposal called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007,

The IPPA would, for instance:


* Criminalize "attempting" to infringe copyright. Federal law currently punishes not-for-profit copyright infringement with between 1 and 10 years in prison, but there has to be actual infringement that takes place. The IPPA would eliminate that requirement. (The Justice Department's summary of the legislation says: "It is a general tenet of the criminal law that those who attempt to commit a crime but do not complete it are as morally culpable as those who succeed in doing so.")

* Create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software. Anyone using counterfeit products who "recklessly causes or attempts to cause death" can be imprisoned for life. During a conference call, Justice Department officials gave the example of a hospital using pirated software instead of paying for it.

* Permit more wiretaps for piracy investigations. Wiretaps would be authorized for investigations of Americans who are "attempting" to infringe copyrights.

* Allow computers to be seized more readily. Specifically, property such as a PC "intended to be used in any manner" to commit a copyright crime would be subject to forfeiture, including civil asset forfeiture. Civil asset forfeiture has become popular among police agencies in drug cases as a way to gain additional revenue, and is problematic and controversial.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719339-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

[treestar]

1. Life imprisonment for anything in this area?

Jon Stewart made mincemeat of Gonzo last night!

[IChing]

4. The law sounds draconian and obsessive.

This guy needs to be impeached.

[Imagevision]

2. It seems Gonzo-boy just has too much time on his hands and no-one to instruct

him on how to use it properly!!

[BlackHawk706867]

3. Gonzales, really is whacked out if he thinks that anyone really cares...

about what he wants! Most want him out of the job at this point, not dictating what new laws that Congress should be adopting...

ww

[Jim Warren]

5. Butter the corporate bread

Of the range of real crimes going unremarked this asshole is yapping like the lapdog he is.

[kenny blankenship]

7. Indeed--anybody still in doubt as to who the real dictator is? It's not Bushco.

they are just frontmen.

[Toots]

33. Out of curiosity what does Bushco mean to you?

Is it just some weird nickname for Bush* or is it for Bush* and Company? What does the co stand for?

[AndyA]

6. Atta boy, Gonzo. Try to create a distraction to take the focus off of your

ineptness as an Attorney General. It won't work, though. Your credibility right now is ZERO. NADA. ZILCH.

Just resign and go back to Texas, there are more than enough corrupt GOPers still there that you should be able to find a nice job where you don't actually have to do anything, just collect a salary.

[BlackHawk706867]

8. This POS like Wolfowitz will never resign... He will have to be removed...

kicking and screaming I'm afraid!

ww

[AndyA]

10. Fine by me. Kicking and screaming works well.

But let's get the show on the road already!

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Gee, if that POS IPPA were passed, we could increase the USA prison population to about

33% of the country. Then the only criminals running free will be this administration and their corporate sponsors.

[Nickster]

17. You got it. That's one of the few remaining domestic industries to remain in the US and one of the

few still growing by leaps and bounds.

[L. Coyote]

11. IF he can recall proposing this ... Ten year in prison, kids, and fork over your laptops.

w/o any recriminations to DoJ for spying on Americans.
Looks like an end-run on how to keep track of political enemies.

What, just put a copyright image in a discussion forum, then spy on everyone
who reads the page, imprison them, and take their computers away from them??

That's how this reads, if liberally (conservatively?) interpreted.

Maybe they can imprison those students who copy my online term papers.

In one class, 9 of 33 students used an essay I published online for their
take home test, and turned it in to the professor I had written it for!!

"You all get an F, plus ten year in prison, kids, and fork over your laptops."

[Swamp Rat]

12. HA! The Orwell estate should sue the living pants off him.

:rofl:

[hootinholler]

16. LOL

How, um, Orwellian!

-Hoot

[Hubert Flottz]

13. The Bushites are pissed at us for using the internet against them

and their anti-American corporate Nazi fascism. You know how they like to get even...if you don't know ask Joe Wilson.

[knitter4democracy]

14. No.

There is such a thing as synchronicity (at least in the fiber arts) when people come out with similar things at the same time. There also is no need to make seizures and wiretaps easier--they're already easy enough.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I wonder if they'll allow sponsorship for laws ..... like for NASCAR racers .....

..... Gonzo can wear this on his suit coat arm:

[Straight Shooter]

18. Ann Coulter still hasn't been charged or served time for her plagiarism.

It wasn't too long ago this subject was in the Internet news.

I agree with above poster, this is a distraction, and it's the worst kind of red herring, too.

[SoCalDem]

19. Create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software. huh???

knock...knock...

who's there?

PC Police.. we're here to arrest you for using your friend's "MS Office CD"

You're under arrest..and you're gonna do LIFE !!!

[EstimatedProphet]

20. Next they will allow prosecution of crimes before they happen

[IChing]

27. pre-criminals=Minority Report

All we need now are pre-cogs.

[Jamnt]

21. One way this can backfire if passed...

Everyone switches to open source software and freeware. Open office here we come.

[gaspee]

22. I would have thought

this bill would have no chance of being passed. Only thing is, our congress is owned by the same corporations who are pulling for this shit.

[bbernardini]

23. I think Negativland says it best:

<>

[Recursion]

24. Only when they start giving out Nobel prizes for Attempted Chemistry n/t

[KamaAina]

25. KamaAina proposes new crime: "Attempted" hijacking of DOJ by political hacks

Guilty! Guilty!! GUILTY!!!

[Supersedeas]

26. And yet who did House of Gonzalez teammate run to when the House of Cards began to fall...

[blogslut]

28. WTF?

That man has to go.

[porphyrian]

29. Yeah, that'll pass.

It'll last about as long as it takes to realize how many of their kids are looking at life sentences.

[bobthedrummer]

30. Kick and a repost of a valuable thread for those that want to hold

the felons holding office and their money laundering black budget networks accountable

Take whatever you want from this parent thread-use it, share it
"International Amercian Products Inc/IAP: A DU investigation thread"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x360539

[Connonym]

31. life imprisonment for illegal software but scott free for war crimes

sounds perfectly fair to me :sarcasm: Maybe Gonzo is just trying to blind us with bullshit to distract us from the real issues at hand. He can't possibly be serious.

[davekriss]

32. Sounds like a great aid to stop...

...the full and free flow of information in our "democracy". I've always said that the neocons intend to shut down unfavorable political use of the internet, not through technology, but by "chill". Someone posts more than the allowed four paragraphs from a copyrighted article and Gonzo has his excuse to send in his SS and seize DU's servers, and possibly Skinner's car and house (the asset seizure component of the proposal). Next day KOS and Urban75 is very circumspect about the posts they allow on their sites. Censorship by Chill.