Pirating Microsoft Windows will get you a life sen

[HaKKa_Few]

STORY PULLED FROM www.theinquirer.net

Pirating Microsoft Windows will get you a life sentence

Killer application. No taxation without representation

By Nick Farrell: Wednesday 16 May 2007, 07:24
THE LAND of the Free is considering bringing in a new thought crime which is thinking about software or music piracy.

Details of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, will criminalise "attempting" to infringe copyright.

It means that you can go to prison for one to 10 years for trying to copy a music CD and failing. In another move you could get life in prison for using a pirated copy of Windows on your home PC.

It will be possible for the FBI to get a wire tap to see if you are using pirated software. Anyone who uses counterfeit products who "recklessly causes or attempts to cause death" can be sent down for life. The Justice Department says an example of this will be a hospital which uses pirated software instead of paying for it.

Homeland Security will be allowed to use its terrorist search powers on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It would notify the RIAA when its sniffers detected "unauthorised fixations of the sounds, or sounds and images, of a live musical performance" are found.

Other copyright holders will not get the benefit of this service. According to News.com, it is unclear how these new laws will be received by the Democrats. While you would think the fact that Gonzales is as popular amongst them as the Boston Strangler, they have a lot of chums in the entertainment industry who think that pirates should be sent to the gas chamber.


Nice to know that the world's richest country has such a great sense of perspective.

READ MORE HERE news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719339-7.html

[puppiesonacid]

I say microsoft and the RIAA and the INjustice system should all go to hell. Yeah great perspective america.

[acow]

:bowdown: i am protected thank god for canada

[HaKKa_Few]

acow, YOU ONLY THINK YOUR PROTECTED
Things will change very quickly now . . .

PULLED FROM CBCNEWS Technology & Science
Copyright law changes could leave consumers vulnerable

Last Updated: Thursday, January 11, 2007 | 9:39 AM ET
The Canadian Press



Ever recorded a television show or a movie so you can watch it later? Or ripped a CD so you can listen to it on your MP3 player?

With changes to Canada's copyright laws expected as early as next month, these mundane 21st century activities could theoretically be open to prosecution — unless the Conservative government steps in with expanded "fair use" or "fair dealing" protections for consumers.

Close observers of the file say all signs point to a new regime that will improve safeguards for major music, film and media companies and artists for unpaid use of their material, but neglect to make exemptions for personal use of copyrighted content.

'About as market interventionist as you can get'

"We're dealing with an industry minister [Maxime Bernier] that's tried to extricate government from the telecom area with a very strong deregulatory focus," said Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.

"Yet the kind of copyright reform that is being contemplated is about as market interventionist as you can get."

Amendments to the Copyright Act are fraught with problems, since there are so many players with contradictory views.

Exacerbating the situation is intense pressure from the United States, where Canada is considered a rogue when it comes to copyright and intellectual property. It still hasn't ratified a 1997 World Intellectual Property Organization copyright treaty.

Sources say the new legislation is ready, but Bernier and Heritage Minister Bev Oda are struggling on final wording. Two of the most controversial issues are called digital rights management and the closely related technological protection measures.
'People just assume it's free'

Graham Henderson of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, one of Canada's top lobbyists for stiffer copyright controls, notes that a variety of digital services have taken off in the United States and started to make up a large percentage of music revenues.

"In Canada, that's not happening and it's not happening because we have a culture here where people just assume it's free," said Henderson.

"It's a big black market effect and so instead of 25 per cent [of the market], it's eight per cent here. People are simply abandoning the marketplace altogether, and they've made the decision they'll just download the music and worry about how the artist gets paid later."
Exemptions for consumers urged

But what does this mean for the consumer who legitimately buys a song or a film, and wants to use it on several different devices?

Consumer advocates, such as Ottawa-based lawyer Howard Knopf, are urging the government to protect Canadians with wide exemptions in the Copyright Act for "fair use."

As well, a group of Canadian musicians, including the Barenaked Ladies and Broken Social Scene, have come out against the technological protection measures, arguing they actually stifle creativity and their relationship with consumers.


THINGS WILL CHANGE BRO, THE WORLD DOES NOT LIKE OUR ROGUE WAYS

[Drako069_Few]

SHIT!!! Im so screwed.

[munkyFew]

don't drop the soap drako =P

[Drako069_Few]

Well if I dont post anything for a few years you will know why.

[Mobius_Few]

Build a cheap box filled with all your old HDD's full of music and keep that particular box off-line ... nothing to see when the "sniffers" cant see it. I suppose if the legislation really goes through, we'll have to swap tunes the old fashioned way via burnt CD's and/or flash drives.

[KAZ_Few]

What is a CD ?

[Humpa_Few]

censorship disease