Legal/Government

Now what RIAA?? (part III)

Earlier today I asked what the RIAA would do next, and Glenn Brown provided me with the answer just now:

U.S. Declares War on Intellectual Property Theft

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday outlined what it called its most sweeping crackdown on bootleg DVDs, fake designer goods, illegal music downloads and counterfeit drugs.

Attorney General John Ashcroft announced measures to expand and strengthen specialist units to fight intellectual property crimes in the United States and in Eastern Europe and Asia, where many counterfeit goods are made.

Ashcroft, speaking to reporters in Los Angeles, cited a new Justice Department report that estimates intellectual property theft worldwide costs U.S. companies $250 billion a year.

"Theft of this national resource has become an epidemic," Ashcroft said. "This represents a hemorrhaging of the work product of American citizens."

He said the Motion Picture Association of America estimates that 2.6 billion songs, movies and software programs are illegally distributed over the Internet every month.

Great! This is one is named after the ever so successful War on Drugs -- and we have another war on our hands. Ya'know, in other countries war is a <b>bad</b> thing, whereas in this country its celebrated. Talk about a serious disconnect with the rest of the world.

I think the more appropriate headline would be: "RIAA/MPAA acquires the Department of Justice". Seriously -- doesn't this sound like Joe Gratz's comments on the RIAA rent-seeking??

Senators Hatch and Leahy have introduced a bill that would allow the government to bring civil copyright infringement actions against users of P2P file sharing networks. In other words, it shifts the costs of civil copyright enforcement from copyright holders to taxpayers. The direct cost is $2 million dollars – a quick, easy $2 million wealth transfer to rent-seekers from society at large. Perhaps the larger cost is the further erosion of the public’s belief in the separation between government and big business.

This sounds like Ashcroft & Co found some money to carry out this vision. I wonder where the money for this enforcement is coming from?

Posted by Mayhem at October 12, 2004 08:08 PM