On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 07:55:02AM -0500, Jerry wrote: > > Laws to protect copyrighted or patented goods certainly exist. > Unfortunately, they are poorly enforced. There is no universal > "standard" for copyright infringement, etcetera. The best way to > protect copyrighted material is stopping its pilferage at the source; > ie, making every entity in the chain of its illegal usage responsible.
If there are problems with enforcement, creating new laws will not magically fix that. What SOPA and PIPA do is essentially let people with intrinsic commercial conflicts of interest to bypass the checks and balances of the legal system to have competitors and innocent bystanders shut down without due process or actual proof of wrongdoing. These aren't just poorly worded bills; they're poorly conceived bills. MasterCard opposes the bill because its executives and legal staff believe it will legally force them to cut off millions or billions in revenue generated by perfectly legal operations every year. Google opposes the bill because its executives, engineers, and legal staff believe it will require them to *spend* millions or billions every year in dealing with enforcement of spurious claims by parties with no actionable cause to make their claims. > > Theft is theft no matter how a socialist/fascist tries to color it. Copyright infringement is copyright infringement -- and not theft -- no matter how hyperbolic your choice of phrasing. Castigate people for the unlawful act of copyright infringement if you want to, but please do not conflate two separate bodies of law by equating one illegal act with another. This abuse of terms is largely the fault of media conglomerates and their lobbying organizations (e.g. the RIAA and MPAA). The more you repeat these abuses of terminology, the more they are emboldened; I think it was the RIAA representative at the SOPA hearing yesterday who literally equated copyright infringement with *murder*. Don't be like that jackass. -- Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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