Topic: 10 years for pirating Windows?

[Pugnate]

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719339-7.html

[WindAndConfusion]

The 10 years thing isn't the controversial part.

* Create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software. Anyone using counterfeit products who "recklessly causes or attempts to cause death" can be imprisoned for life. During a conference call, Justice Department officials gave the example of a hospital using pirated software instead of paying for it.

Read: if you work at a hospital, you have a pirated copy of Microsoft Office you use to view patient records, and someone dies from a drug interaction, you get life in prison.

* Permit more wiretaps for piracy investigations. Wiretaps would be authorized for investigations of Americans who are "attempting" to infringe copyrights.

Nevermind that they do this anyway, illegally and unconstitutionally.

* Increase penalties for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anticircumvention regulations. Criminal violations are currently punished by jail times of up to 10 years and fines of up to $1 million. The IPPA would add forfeiture penalties.

Read: use VLC to skip through the ten minutes of commercials at the beginning of a DVD you paid for, get 10 years in jail and lose your house. After all, you were using your house for the criminal purpose of not watching commercials. With communism software.

[nickclone]

This is why people pirate more and more, they feel like they're being treated unfairly and want to fuck the system.

[scottws]

This sort of thing is one of the very reasons I've been turning on the Republicans.  It isn't rule "by the people, for the people."  It's rule by the corporation, fuck the people.

[Cobra951]

Put that together with this.  The big picture is beyond frightening.

[Cobra951]

This sort of thing is one of the very reasons I've been turning on the Republicans.  It isn't rule "by the people, for the people."  It's rule by the corporation, fuck the people.

But if you read the article, you'll see an ironic twist.  It seems that democrats are more draconian about IP protections ("Hollywood and the recording industry") than republicans, or so it says here.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, there's no reason to love the Republicans in these regards, but no reason to love the Dems, either.  Both of our parties are hideously fucked at this point, and believing in the political system here is more or less asking be to bent over and raped.  If we let this continue, this is the kind of stuff we're going to see more and more in the coming years.

[WindAndConfusion]

Cf Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, media skank. Incumbent since 1992. Impossible to remove. She is deep in Hollywood's pocket and Hollywood is deep up her ass.

[Quemaqua]

You and I couldn't agree more on this topic, apparently.