The Obama Administration has again yielded to a powerful lobby over objections from citizen groups. We have been following the increasing draconian and excessive copyright claims made in the United States. Now, President Obama wants to make it a crime — a change long sought by the Chamber of Commerce and so-called “copyright hawks.”
The changes to the U.S. copyright law would make it a federal crime to engage in “illegal streaming” of audio or video. It is being pushed by
Victoria Espinel, the first “Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.” The problem with this title is it does not indicate any corresponding concern or duty to average citizens who are being abused by law firms and industries in copyright actions.
The Obama administration wants to put copyright violations on the same footing as terrorism and other serious crimes to allow it to use such things as wiretaps to increase the investigation of citizens in this area. As noted in the article below, “[t]he term “fair use” does not appear anywhere in the report.”
Here is the White House proposal: ip_white_paper
The total absence of consideration of fair use and how this could affect ordinary citizens and the Internet is alarming. At a minimum, one would expect some discussion of the issue in seeking expanded criminalization.
Source: CNET
Lottakatz, “too paranoid?” One could get dizzy following that road over-much.
It’s worth remembering that Internet file sharing technology is quite similar to the military in that what is visible to the public is at least quaint, if not obsolete. BitTorrent came about in response to earlier, less complex threats. The technologies underpinning file sharing at the largest scales have since moved on, or have morphed existing technologies beyond the reach of all but a dedicated few. What we see, e.g. torrent sites, is a distillation of this, processed many times over.
Such as geeks at the NSA with nothing better to do. But think of the volume! It never ends, growing each day. Knowing how the govt actually operates, one has little faith they are doing anything other than running in circles and yelling “fire!”
Because you and can still encrypt our personal conversations beyond reach, if we want to. And we can move our domains to friendly registrars that show private parts in response to U.S. subpoenas. And, for now, they cannot lock us up for this speech.
rafflaw said, ” Somehow, the base has to turn his attention to the rule of law. How to do it, is another question.”
This has been the vexing question. Clearly, the ballot box is inoperative. O’ccomplice could have done much, much more and has not. Constitutional lawyer, my great aunt Bertha’s toenail! And whither the mannequin Holder?
So, in addition to WI-style protests, and relentless personal hounding of key administration officials, bankers, and torturers, we must begin looking for a leader within, one who can take up the fractured threads of the middle and lower classes, including the tea people, and bind them together into a solid opposition, one which acknowledges that the very reason we are in this predicament is because we set aside the rule of law.
Because I doubt Secret Service will allow us to employ the tried and trusted technique of shaking the living shit out of O’ccomplice by the neck and shoulders while asking, “what were you THINKING?!?” until he gets it.
The country sorely needs him to get it, and I still hope he does.
Bob,Esq. and Raff-
Don’t bother Our Beloved President with your petty concerns. Don’t you know that the NCAA Tournament is in progress?
So this means what? DHS (DHS owns NSA) and ICE are already seizing and shutting down domains for alleged copyright infringement, prior to any court case or finding of guilt. So now they’re going after users, which means sites are going to be up while users are investigated and wiretapped? How will that work in practical terms? How do you know a BitTorrent user is streaming copyright media? You’re going to have to verify that aren’t you? How would that be done?
Each seed (whole file) sent to a server is broken into very small pieces and each piece is assigned a unique cryptographic hash, an identifying number and that number is supposed to stay with the piece from the original breakdown to the final reassembly. The breakdown and assignment of the hash designators is done by the seeder, the person uploading the file.
The availability of the file is then announced on sites that hosts these announcement files. Persons interested in sharing files via. the BitTorrent method retrieve the announcement and that file contains information including the cryptographic hash numbers. Once in possession of the hash table for a file, the peer wanting to download it uses specific software that searches the internet for the pieces. Some sites are set up pecifically to house BitTorrent pieces and those clearing-house sites are the sites DHS has been seizing. This is my miniscule bit of understanding and it may be wrong.
If you were the original seeder, it would seem to me that you could, if you had the resources, follow your file pieces as they proliferated throughout the Net. Every time someone moved those files if you had the resources to sweep up and sort through every transmission made by a communication device, like say DHS through the NSA does, then you could follow your file pieces to the specific instrument and the person it was owned by. You could then leave the sites up, like those sticky hanging fly paper strips, and pick off the people doing the downloading which is not what is happening now; currently the sites that host the pieces are being seized and only site owners are being rounded up.
Am I even in the ballpark with how BitTorrent works and how files might be tracked? I read about BitTorrent some time ago and rejected it as something I might want to get involved in- too complicated. Am I just paranoid or can/will basic undercover police work be employed in classic fashion to track down file sharers? Will the government, our taxpayer dollars, go to fund an army of workers that have as their job to go to BitTorrent sites with copyright material and become ‘seeders’. Their job being to construct or attract a swarm, track the members downloading the bait files using the power and majesty of all those NSA computers, then wiretap/bust their swarm members?
I always figured that those NSA computers would be used for something just as petty and totalitarian as this. Can I start calling the people I used to argue about this kind of stuff with and tell them “I told you so” or am I being way too paranoid?
Bob,Esq.,
Great movie and great analogy!
Blouise,
Did you ever see the film Crimson Tide?
The part of the U.S. Constitution was played by Gene Hackman…
Capt. [Constitution]: Mr. Hunter, we have rules that are not open to interpretation, personal intuition, gut feelings, hairs on the back of your neck, little devils or angels sitting on your shoulder. We’re all very well aware of what our orders are and what those orders mean. They come down from our Commander in Chief. They contain no ambiguity.
Hunter: Captain…
Capt. [Constitution]: Mr. Hunter, I’ve made a decision. [It’s right there in the 4th Amendment]. I’m Captain of this boat. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP!
James,
Maybe we should take a page out of the Westboro book and protest at every bankster and every government officials home to remind them that they Had a base. James, I also think the egg timer has already gone off in Wisconsin and Ohio and Delaware and other places where the middle class is beginning to fight back. The scary thing about all of this is that they are doing it in the open. Obama is caving to the right on this issue(among many others) and he isn’t being shy about it. Somehow, the base has to turn his attention to the rule of law. How to do it, is another question.
Blouise,
What is there to say? To categorize copyright infringement as a serious crime for wiretapping purposes; while the administration defends the wholesale use of warrantless wiretapping and electronic surveillance?
It’s as if the rules no longer exist anymore.
The fatal precision of this attack on the 4th amendment is in no small part due to the liberals apologizing for the attacker in chief. The GOP on the whole doesn’t care about civil liberties; witness the rhetoric regarding ‘card carrying members of the ACLU.’
So what we have are a bunch of liberal lemmings following Obama over the cliff. Why? Because of those rose colored glasses that refuse to see their alleged redeemer in any negative light.
Bob,Esq.
1, March 17, 2011 at 1:22 pm
4th Amendment?
What’s that?
=========================================================
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” (applies to governmental searches and seizures)
Ok, I know you were being rhetorical but, if you have a few minutes, could you explain a little more in depth where you stand on this matter? I ask because I value your opinion and your insight.
4th Amendment?
What’s that?
rafflaw, when 400 control 50% of the wealth in an age when the detailed comings and goings of people can be obtained by those wishing to know it, there exists a critical point in the system where these folks are going to become targets.
I recommend taking a page from Operation Rescue and occupy these people’s lives 24/7. Ditto torturers and those lawyers who think simply moving words around on a page somehow means Congress declared war. OR is peaceful, if annoying. My sense is x100 the people would turn out.
And they will. Our coal mine’s canary is the price of gas. When it reaches $10, the egg-timer goes ding! and let us hope those at the feet of the driveways of thieves, murderers, and liars remain peaceful.
Because they will be coming.
James,
I think we should prioritize the crime and the torture kings and the banksters are much higher on the food chain.
Rafflaw, serusly. O’ccomplice has a buggy router regarding his priorities.
I will agree to the criminalization of copyright violations when every Bankster who sucked us into this deep recession gets put in jail and every government official who authorized torture or is still authorizing torture, is prosecuted and convicted. When those devils are in jail, then they can have the illegal streamers.
This over criminalization leads one to wonder why the government is so afraid of its citizens?
Fruitless and pointless. The people they claim to be after have already changed their skins three or four moves ago. As usual, only ordinary citizens end up being the actual targets of this misguided power-play.
Despite the claims by Assange of a global spy net in the making, individual users still retain the ability to encrypt their conversations. It’s not easy for the average user, however, and it does require heightened due diligence. But it can be done.
The Internet is still much larger than any one country’s ability to control it, and the people who actually run it (hint: not politicians, lawyers, or LE) will assure it stays open and free. With this generation of smart phones, you can create whole wireless networks owned by no one. This is one way service is being piped into places where the govt tried and failed to limit it. China’s censorship is a joke. If you want it, you can find it.
The response to this intrusion will be to place the issue further out of reach of governments, not the reverse. The fall-out will be the wrong people being charged for clicking a mouse, with no ability for LE to do anything whatsoever about the source of it.
It’s just bits, people. Come back off the ledge. Two minutes after you release your bits to the world, they are Old News, though the bits stubbornly remain. They are free by nature, and no amount of silly made-up laws is going to change that.
Defamation is a serious problem for many people. There are criminal defamation laws in many states but when I tried to report it, they wouldn’t even talk to me.
Good. Modern media (movies, music, television) is nothing but propaganda in support of both the ruling order and an unsustainable, immoral and inhuman way of life. Anything that limits access to this memetic onslaught, makes it more expensive or harder to obtain, even a little bit, is very welcome news.
Bull Shit… Or is that more likely and aptly called Bush Shit…
Here is another one…..
Chrysler sues over use of ad tag line
Chrysler, which used an artful Super Bowl ad to portray itself as the gritty urban underdog of automaking, is now playing Goliath against two local entrepreneurs who see themselves as the up-by-the-bootstraps David of Motor City pride.
The Auburn Hills automaker sued the owners of Pure Detroit on Tuesday, alleging they violated the automaker’s trademarked “Imported from Detroit” tagline by using it on a variety of apparel sold through their shops.
Makes ones heart go bop de bop….
Bingo.
If this were purely about intellectual property theft we would be at war with China. This is about regulation of the Internet and ever-broadening citizen surveillance.
Assange spoke about this trend by government earlier this week when he said “…[the Internet] is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen.”