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
Obama is evil.
@Jonathan —
I appreciate your effort on keeping your readers informed.
But I would MUCH more appreciate it if when reporting issues like this that you include:
* Government Officials Contact information
* phone number
* name
* email addresses
* websites
* Reference numbers / Reference Titles – so your readers know how to properly refer to the issue.
Because it doesn’t matter how upset I get about an issue, I don’t have any way to act on it. If you would kindly include this information in future posts, then if I get upset I can call and voice my objection.
Right now I just get frustrated and upset. Please make it possible for your readers to ACT.
I realize that you are not trying to be an advocacy group. I am merely asking that you complete your posts with the information you already have that your readers need.
For example, if I want to call to complain about this issue I would first have to search for the white house phone number.
Then my call would go something like this:
White House Operator: “Hello this is the White House”
Me: “I am calling to complain about that thing that Victoria Espinel is pushing that criminalizes copyright violations”
WHO: “could you be more specific?”
Me: “Well, you know that paper published some time this year, by the copyright hawks, that the Chamber of Commerce likes.”
WHO: “uhh o.k.”
Me: “How about just telling Obama to stop listen to the Chamber of Commerce and the RIAA?”
WHO: “Thankyouverymuchgoodbyesir” (click)
White House Operator 2: “Another one for the confused bin?”
WHO: “Yep. Want to go to lunch now?”
You all seriously thought Obama was going to be any different than he is? I would have thought it would have been obvious to all but the most stupid or the most ideological.
When he told Joe the Plumber he wanted to spread the wealth around he meant he didn’t respect private property nor property rights. If those rights aren’t respected then individual rights will not be respected.
What do you expect? His actions follow logically from his views, which are hard left. I think it obvious to anyone without ideological blinders, the left in this country has no respect for individual rights (left includes liberal republicans like Bush, Boehner and other republicans of their ilk). In other words all who are not classical liberals.
Government has the power to wire tap, private companies do not. Socialist/fascist/communist, it makes no difference, they all deprive individuals of their rights at some point.
Obama is a joke/mistake who is a fiction created by the left stream media and their willing flunkies in all walks of life. The unfortunate part is that the rest of us will be paying the price for years to come.
A big thanks to all the ideologues on both sides of the political spectrum who made his presidency possible. If you right wingers hadn’t put Bush in office, we would never have had Obama. Thanks to both libs and cons.
OS,
I think even a pig would follow the rule of law.
Does anyone know if the Nobel Committee can get their money back? To use an old southern country boy expression, that is what they get for buying a pig in a poke.
Jill, Thanks for the link. Srsly, it’s like year 10 of the Bush administration. The sockpuppet is no longer a brain-damaged fool but the game plan seems unchanged.
Bah, Humbug!
so we have an attempt to protect private property being used for supposedly nefarious purposes all the while being lambasted for protecting private property.
And one wonders why you even bother? What do you think happens in a country which does not protect or respect property rights?
“they’ll take my mp3 player when they pry it from my cold dead hands” said pete while holding player above head in his best charlton heston voice.
Dang it, forget about html tagging.
“We’re talking about the same business interests that also tried to outlaw home recordable {insert media of choice here}”
I have to disagree with anyone who says that this has any meaning other than trying to keep an obsolete business model making money by force of law. We’re talking about the same business interests that also tried to outlaw home recordable . The two key differences are that this time they’re backed into a corner, and have much more clout with those who make the laws.
Never attribute to evil what you can attribute to stupidity.
Jill,
thanks for the story on Joya. I also was not aware of it. I tend to listen whenthe ACLU speaks. This is a Bush-type manuever to block someone who wants to tell the truth of the situation in Afghanistan. I thought we believed in free speech in this country? I guess I am wrong…again.
“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.”
What would it be like if we really did go to war over copyright? War with China.
Jill – thank you for posting; I had not heard about the story.
I agree with the ACLU statement that the government is practicing ideological exclusion in order to silence criticism. Hopefully this somehow brings even more attention to Joya’s message.
From Noam Chomsky in the NYT in the article War, Peace and Obama’s Nobel:
He likes to criminalize speech by Afghani women who oppose the war too! “For Immediate Release –
The United States has denied a travel visa to Malalai Joya, an acclaimed women’s rights activist and former member of Afghanistan’s parliament. Ms. Joya, who was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, was set to begin a three-week US tour to promote an updated edition of her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords, published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Joya’s publisher at Scribner, Alexis Gargagliano, said, “We had the privilege to publish Ms. Joya, and her earlier 2009 book tour met with wide acclaim. The right of authors to travel and promote their work is central to freedom of expression and the full exchange of ideas.” Joya’s memoir has been translated into over a dozen languages, and she has toured widely including Australia, the UK, Canada, Norway, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands in support of the book over the past two years.
Colleagues of Ms. Joya’s report that when she presented herself as scheduled at the U.S. embassy, she was told she was being denied because she was “unemployed” and “lives underground.” Then 27, Joya was the youngest woman elected to Afghanistan’s parliament in 2005. Because of her harsh criticism of warlords and fundamentalists in Afghanistan, she has been the target of at least five assassination attempts. “The reason Joya lives underground is because she faces the constant threat of death for having had the courage to speak up for women’s rights – it’s obscene that the U.S. government would deny her entry,” said Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a U.S. based organization that has hosted Joya for speaking tours in the past and is a sponsor of this year’s national tour.
Joya has also become an internationally known critic of the US-NATO war in Afghanistan. Organizers argue that the denial of Joya’s visa appears to be a case of what the American Civil Liberties Union describes as “Ideological Exclusion,” which they say violates Americans’ First Amendment right to hear constitutionally protected speech by denying foreign scholars, artists, politicians and others entry to the United States.
Events featuring Malalai Joya are planned, from March 20 until April 10, in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and California. Organizers of her speaking tour are encouraging people to contact the Department of State to ask them to fulfill the promise from the Obama Administration of “promoting the global marketplace of ideas” and grant Joya’s visa immediately.” (see at Jeremy Scahill tweet)
Lottakatz, 100% agreed on all fronts. And it cannot last. The system is not sustainable. Unless these people flee the planet and somehow manage to take their ill-gotten gain with them, it seems these folks have the furthest to fall. And they absolutely play with fire because the tables could very easily be turned on them.
But it takes uniting. And we’ll have none of that in 2011, unless it’s the shared prospect of working until hauled away in a pine box. That happens to be my retirement plan at the moment. I was sucked dry by the depression just as I was getting back on my feet. None of the people I know personally have escaped serious financial harm. Three lost houses. Michigan Folk. And none are even close to “getting back on track.”
What gives me hope are the people turning out in WI and other states, because you do not have to have voted to protest to effect change, and this is the fundamental lesson of democracy my conservative friends keep refusing to learn, and deliberately so.
The power remains with the People.
James in LA, I’m not into BitTorrent and like that so I don’t have cause to get personally exercised about this latest bit of government muscle-flexing. I actually have downloaded various encryption software and have the links to a couple of secure routing services in my ‘favorites’ file but, just screw it.
I’m a contrarian, if I want to post scatological insults about our corporate masters or the President or various politicians on sites that have a less courteous give and take, I do it. I could be traced to any particular comment in about 1/10th of a second by anyone with minimal skill at such things. My economic history is a virtual open book to anyone that my bank gives records to. It’s really kind of non-personal for me. My objections are primarily ideological.
What I’m increasingly agitated about is the naked aggression the government has taken and is taking against we-of-the-have-not. The magnitude of disparity in justice and privilege and the way it’s reinforced and protected at every level of government and by all major parties is breathtaking. They don’t even have the good manners to hide it, we are not worth the time and effort it takes to conceal this vast corruption. I’m very angry at the insulting nature of the relationship.
In that regard I do take it personally because it’s become abusive and as part of the class ‘citizen’, or peasant, or worker, or serf, whatever, I am the abused. I don’t take kindly to that.
Bob, Esq.,
Thank you, kind sir. I see that my original reaction was not far off base.
Your observations are, sadly, right on target.
Our leaders seem to be writhing on the floor in some sort of mindless fit as if the document which they swore to uphold and which contains the sanest guidance towards good government doesn’t even exist.
Critical to understanding this issue is that the studios and labels (and to some degree book publishing houses) represent a failing and dying business model – these sorts of laws and treaties are being written by their lobbyists in order to prop them up. They may die upright, but they will die, and be replaced by something else. (We don’t know what that “something else” will be, but we do know that they don’t have lobbyists…)
The days of selling millions of physical records/cassettes/CDs are gone, and all the labels that are based on that model are in deep do do. It’s nice of the Administration to whore out the nation to serve their limited, short-term interests.
Another huge problem is that there are a set of technological “locks” that are being put in place along with the criminal enforcement. The openness of our technological tools (computers and the internet) have created huge benefits for the world. Yes, you can use a computer and the internet to “steal” a movie or plan a terrorist attack, but you can also use them to find cures for diseases, without asking the permission of a pharmaceutical company. Imagine if pens and paper in the 18th century all checked in with the king to confirm that what they were being used to write was allowed…
James,
I am guessing that you are right about the Secret Service!!
I think the people in the street will be the best method, but I don’t know if it will be quick enough to recalibrate Mr.Obama.
HenMan,
Be nice to the NCAA tourney! I am addicted to it as well.
YouTube (owned by Google- big money player) is violating copyright laws every second of every day but you don’t see DHS seizing their domain, and you won’t. We have read about 12 year olds being sued for a quarter mil by a recording industry label or movie company or RIAA, will we now read about kids being hit with felony charges?
There is a two tier justice system in this country and this is IMO just a new tool in the arsenal for the government/corporate suppression of the peasantry. The proliferation of laws, the criminalization of every aspect of human interaction is simply to make us all felons-in-waiting.
We’re seeing six year olds arrested at school not because there are felonious six year olds but because the nations children are being conditioned to fear authority and be subservient. Not only subservient to an actual law, but to any rule by any state sanctioned authority or institution. Not only the letter of the law or rule but any permutation of a rule no matter how ridiculous. It is training in the self anticipation that any act COULD BE unlawful and meant to have the individual self-limit their actions accordingly.
This was the darker thread in Orwell’s book, the crushing of the human soul to the point where people thought of themselves as always on the verge of breaking the law because the law was so whimsical at any given time one may well be on the wrong side of it while doing nothing differently today than one did yesterday. That after a sufficient conditioning of the populous the citizens did the government’s job for them, the citizens modified and circumscribed their behavior to a point that the government didn’t have to actually watch them. It didn’t matter if the view-link was on or off, people behaved as if it always was on. One ceased to be a person and became, by their own actions, a specimen always being observed and found wanting.
This wasn’t something the Republicans were clamoring for, this didn’t bubble up, like the fetid stink of swamp gas from the House, this is a gift from the President. I wonder if this was something discussed at the meeting between the President and the COC? Is the further strangle hold by big business on the Internet, with the government as their enforcer, part of the quid pro quo for business to (possibly, maybe, if they feel like it and it’s not too much trouble) trickle down a few jobs?
I’ve had it. Screw this. Kucinich 2012- even if I have to write him in, weather he’s running or not. Wouldn’t be the first time, won’t be the last.