Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown

Originally posted by jdills1196

Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown

www.dailytech.com

It also implements an interesting provision called "imminent infringement", which allows the government to charge people who they think might be about to infringe with a civil offense (for example if you searched "torrent daft punk"). This is among the first official "thought crime" provisions to be proposed by the U.S. government. The bill also makes it a criminal offense to bypass DRM.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This sure does sound like the first step take start a dictatorship on the internet. To be honest I find the whole idea simply absurd and inconceivable.

So now people will be charged just by typing mere keywords in a search engine that alone don't say much?

What's next?

People that type "Nuke" in Google will be charged as terrorists?

Where in the hell the privacy of people went? Where the rights of people go?

Besides this shows that government is indeed a corporatist that is working for the benefit of companies and completely abusing the privacy of it's citizens.

Anyway.... welcome the Brave New World!


I'm out before I get charged a insurgent or something...

reply to post by and14263


Celebrities are too lazy now and days :| (Like I know what I'm talking about, I'm a mid to late 90's kid XD)

reply to post by Doc Velocity


Thanks. I suspected this was the case, and it really helps to know where you're coming from. I hear you say some really wise things, but it's the way you sometimes say them that made me wonder.
I asked because its honestly been hard for me to tell, to know how to respond to your posts because in my experience, it's usually the people who are majorly "for" one actual candidate or another, vehemently either GOP or DNC, who tend to ridicule and belittle each other, who, quite frankly act exactly like their polar opposites, who don't care about the real principles but just that their party's in office or in charge and then blindly ignore the very same things they screamed about when the "opposition" was in office.

So I tend to shy away from getting involved in discussions with those who fall into this category because there is just no intelligent or fruitful discussion there. I'm sick to death of the Hitler comparisons and hearing about communists and socialists and liberals too, so much so that I tune out immediately if someone starts throwing these labels around with venom. To me that's usually indicative of a closed mind.

And I know that the vast majority of the people in this country fall in the middle. Some who feel lost might cast their lot with one side or the other because...well they're lost, and all they hear is the loudmouth radicals (on either side, remember that). But more just really have no leadership and tend to totally shy away from it altogether. But I refuse to let the loudmouths on either "side" co-opt all the attention or lead this country. They're damaging it. There is a right and good way to phrase the arguments without resorting to childish finger pointing and parroted talking points. I think a lot more people would listen. Aside from that, I'm with you on the revolution.

Thanks for helping me understand.

Now, getting back to the topic at hand, I so agree with the people who have posted about priorities. But that's plutocracy for you. The money gets the attention. Let's hope most of this ad campaign is lip service and appeasement for now.

[edit on 24-6-2010 by ~Lucidity]

Musicians get their "inspiration" from the world around them and their experiences within their surroundings. A majority of that is about their experiences with other people. To then take those experiences which are Shared and then charge for them is pretty much a ransom. That is pirating in itself but those pirates make the Corporate Machine billions of dollars so that type of pirating is ok.

If you people even Think of reclaiming those shared experiences you will be charged with the thought crime.



This country has become a joke, a parody of it's former self.

[edit on 24-6-2010 by HeinousOne]

its coming very soon. everything you do on the internet will be watched and as soon as you say or do something they dont like you're gone. they will lock you away and throw away the key. the government doesnt care about you they just want you to be their stupid little drone. people that are smart enough to obtain their music, videos, and other media without paying for it are a risk.

This is going WAY to far.

More draconian #^!!$#(^ from those who didn't/can never do - jack squat for the success of IT.

All i can say is what i have been saying for years. They have no business enforcing anything on the internet. It's not theirs. It's ours.

Originally posted by and14263
reply to post by ChrisCrikey

 

It hurts recording artists for sure but maybe it will transform some of these 'recording' artists into 'performing' artists in order to recoup their loses. Oh wait, three gigs a week is too much like hard work for the average rockstar.

It doesn't hurt any artists, it hurts the people who want to get rich from being an artist. Why should someone earn millions just because they write a good song? What's wrong with just making enough to earn a living? Let's face it if they did 5 gigs a week and charged £100 a gig, they would be earning a fairly good living off that!

reply to post by thomas_


I agree with you, but according to the government the internet isn't a private place, but according to some warez websites, feds aren't allowed to access their websites (Sorry this reply took so long, I was really hoping to find a page and copy and paste it, but I cannot seem to locate one )


Edit: I found it, but I also found out it is fake Like that'd fool a fed... Silly pirates

[edit on 24-6-2010 by jdills1196]

This is pretty easy for them to implement. Google obviously would be saving top searches, and despite probably them stating so, I would think a multitude of information also, such as I.P addresses and the like.

I play World of Warcraft and despite never giving me email address that I use for WoW out, I am constantly being non stop bombarded by fake phishing emails for my WoW details. I have no clue how (and ive never been hacked in WoW so obviously my account email has been leaked by ... dare I say it, Blizzard themselves)...

But Google is so huge and popular now, and its a simple process to find I.P addresses that connect to your site, i.e Google that this would be a no brainer.

The thing is, if sites like Google are willing, for a price or forced by law to delve information out...

reply to post by Aoxoa


Google may comply, but other search engines won't.

Maybe so, but when faced with jail time or compliance... Alot of people comply

Also most pirates just do not know any better. However the Hardcore ones will probably never be paying for anything, since with the internet they can get them for free.

In my opinion CD keys for online games was one of the best moves for gaming companies ever. Well done move on their behalf as in this day and age my gaming experiences are always online. Single player is old and out of date.

As for Music Artists, yes they deserve income for producing it, however I feel most cds are way too expensive, but it doesn't worry me too much since I use Winamp Shoutcast (not advertising it) to listen to hundreds(thousands) of music stations, that are not limited to mainstream.

There will always be a new way to replace this if they shut it down.

I was hoping a post like this would come up since I am not old enough to put up my own thread yet.

If you have a laptop 2 years old or less, the reason you don’t have the old XP mixer with line-in and wave-in is because the RIAA and MPAA have pressured the computer manufacturers to remove that function. You are no longer able to use the old mixer.

When I found this out about my computer, I was furious. I do not pirate and do not download copyrighted materials but I have use of the wave-in and line-in functions on my computer. I called my computer manufacture and asked why the functions are missing. I was told it was the sound card manufacturer who disabled the function. When I called the sound card manufacturer, I was told the sound card had the capability of wave in, etc but the computer builder decided to disable it. When I called the computer company again, I was told Microsoft disabled the function. When I finally got through to Microsoft, I got no answer at all.

The arm of the RIAA goes deep. I have had to deal with them and they are vicious and immoral.

Don’t for a minute underestimate their power to obtain legislation to invade your computer without your knowledge. It is going to be an infringement of Article 4 of the Constitution. (Yes, that very same document that many consider outdated and just a rag. ) This is the document that protects your rights. Yet when the RIAA gets their claws into this legislation, there will be government intrusion of your computer in your home without warrant. Big Brother will be here and living large.

If you think they can’t enforce the laws because there are too many, think again. They hire scumbag lawyers to file massive John Doe lawsuits. Then they subpoena your ISP and serve you with summons. They might want you to go to Washington, or Seattle, wherever the scumbag files suit to fight it. Then you will be blackmailed into paying whatever sum the scumbag and RIAA feel like charging you to avoid an $80,000 per song penalty like Jammie Thomas-Rasset who accumulated 1.9 Million dollars in fines for 24 song infringements.

Yes it can and will be done, you can mark it down . I don’t know how to fight back. If I did, I would.

There is already cases of computers being intentionally damaged by people trying to stop piracy. They will load up viruses for you to file share. This is much more of a crime. Now they will attack your computer if you even think about file sharing. Who is going to prosecute them?

Sooo, just dont type torrent in a well known and powerful search engine and we should be OK. Jus go straight to the torrent sharing website. Maybe that would work. Or jus search and get your torrents from a public library or something then put them on a flash drive. Or.. maybe searching through a proxy server may work. But that is still crumpling to there control.

Originally posted by ChrisCrikey
I am very anti-piracy

Me too. I'm tired of being ripped off by the media corporations who set pricing at irrational levels. At theatres that charge top dollar for sub par movies. At being forced to waste money on garbage because of a name.

You and me both, against piracy.

but that does sound like very bogus to me and will never hold up in court. I'm aware because of past topics here that the majority of ATS users have no problem with pirating music and videos and that was something that really turned me off to this site. I almost didn't come back because of it. While I don't agree with this crackdown (if it is accurately being portrayed) piracy is theft and there's no getting around that.

I cant steal a picture with my eyes. I cant steal a sound with my ears. Yet, this is all that is occuring. And most likely, if I see something I like or hear something I desire, I pay those money hungry slobs the treasure they ask.

The experience is better than the content, most of the time.

Theft should be prosecuted. Go ahead and flame me. I know what it feels like and how much it hurts a recording artist.

Baloney. Recording artists are at the mercy of these multinational multibillion dollar corporations, and if they were free to spread their music, no one would take it illegally, because it would be worth the money. I don't know anyone who disagrees with that. Well except maybe cretins who do so simply to profit themselves, and they're no better than the mass media corps.

I know, I'll start selling my ideas to big companies because Im forced to, meaning I get little income, and they get a crapload of money. Yeah, poor them.

reply to post by earthdude


Yup, also DRM is bad and is known to cause software issues.

Originally posted by ChrisCrikey
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

Think what you will but as a former semi-pro musician I'm telling you it hurts...at least it hurt me and other bands I've known. Smaller acts really do count on the sale of CDs.

It's a slippery slope to shade your morals according to how much money you think the artists and the industry should be making. It's okay to steal from the rich, is that what you think?

If you make terrible music, don't blame the loss of income on piracy.

Man...

What a logic.. oO

The stupid part about any law that tries to control the internet or stop file sharing is that the instigators of such laws always underestimate two things - peoples need for entertainment and hackers.

People need entertainment of one form or another. In the past we could buy the stuff because there wasn't much of it. We watched the free tv channels and purchased the occasional album, the rest of the time the radio surficed. Now things have changed. We have tons of channels, which means we often have to pay for all sorts of different ones just to watch a show we like. We have so much music to choose from that buying it all would require a second job. Then there are films. Why should i pay 10 pounds to go and watch a film, only to discover i wasted half an hour of my life on a piece of garbage i would have been ashamed to make myself? Why not offer them cheaper but streamed online at the same time as the release date?

Lets put it this way, i have a collection of CD's, a lot of CD's, hundreds in fact. Are you honestly telling me i should have to buy them all again in MP3 format? Screw that. Yeah i could rip them myself but that would take forever, i could just download them for free in a quarter of the time. Then there is the sampling of music. What if i think some music is alright but i don't want to buy a whole album? What if i think 1 pound for a track is a little much because while it's ok it's not going to knock my socks off. What if some of my old CD's are rather badly scratched and i want to download the tracks to replace the loss, only i use free sources to do so?

Surely the prices should be set by the consumer, that way the artists are encouraged to make better stuff, in turn they are rewarded by donations for their work and they make most of their money from live gigs and merchandise. I promise you that no amount of downloading will replace live gigs.

Then we come to hackers, the friendly internet warriors who get so much negative press attention. Hackers will always find ways of circumventing the system, it is what we live for, it is what motivates them. You put up a wall and a hacker will find a way of digging under it or going over the top, or preferably avoiding the all altogether lol.

These methods trickle down to the average computer user. Consider how only a few years ago hardly any of the average computer users would know what usenet was, hardly any of them knew what an IP address was and how their computer could be traced. Many are now aware of these things and are actively seeking ways around them. Hackers of course provide helpful tutorials, tools and services. Some tools are free, others are paid for but in the end they all do the same thing, protect the consumer.

This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

A little rambling but hey i'm in a good mood, peace all

Has anyone actually read the document that the OP is talking about? I mean the plan from the White House?

Infringement of Intellectual Property Enforcement

I don't see "imminent infringement" in there anywhere. Can someone help me find out if this is even true? Or just another Internet rumor?