I can’t be bothered with all this unilateralism democratic consensus bullshit; it’s death by a thousand paper cuts to have to deal with.

Just sign me up as Dr. No for everything that in any way expands the scope of so-called “intellectual property” law.

Copyrights and patents are unjustifiable government granted monopolies and must be abolished completely. Not “copyright reform”, but complete elimination.

p.s. This bill is an excellent example of regulatory capture, where a civil matter of a private organization has literally become an externality to the government as a “criminal” matter. This practically defines corporatism / fascism.

I believe the reason to keep this off of the DoJ’s plate is the cost to the tax payer. Instead of option A: giving the RIAA police powers, I’d rather they just went through the courts and got warrants and subpoenas like everyone else.

Exactly why is this bad? Wouldn’t this mean that the DOJ does the enforcing/investigating , and not the RIAA ?

Copyright infringement was originally a civil court matter, rather than a criminal court one. Subsequent political capture changed this to externalize the task of copyright and patent enforcement to the government (and thus to tax payers).

This is all part of the larger scam to make “intellectual property” pretend to behave like common law property — for real things that have rivalry and excludability, in other words scarcity.

There’s nothing scarce about information; in fact it’s practically free to distribute infinitely to anyone who wants it. “Intellectual property” is just an attempt at rent seeking by dinosaur businesses who have failed to adapt to the changing economic landscape.

There are other ways to make money from intellectual creativity such as music, film, and invention, that don’t rely on corporate welfare (i.e. “intellectual property” monopolies) to succeed.

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.

– Robert A. Heinlein

Every other industry enforces it’s own copyright, why? Because they know their IP the best. Are we going to train a special unit to understand the intricacies of IP in every field? Sounds ridiculous.

Also, I called my senator. Requested a response, still waiting.

Wouldn’t this mean that the DOJ does the enforcing/investigating , and not the RIAA ?

Given that copyright is a reality , i see two options:
- the RIAA has police powers and steps above the law to investigate
- this stuff goes through the proper legal channels

I’d much rather see option #2 then let the RIAA have superpowers to spy, subpoena, and judge/jury/execute americans at their will.

They want to be president and they cannot even use phone technologies properly?

We are doomed. Also, this story sucks.