Congress Critters Create More Bureaucracy To Attack People Who Share

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Geek and liberty activist alike makes my hackles rise when I read this. Granted, I expect nothing less. Lets make government bigger, hurt more people, extract more money and they say they're "protecting" something.

The Senate passed a bill recently that would make the pentalties for ignoring a state-sanctioned monopoly (commonly called "copyright") "stricter". It allows for "inter-acency coordination" and "coordination between the local, state and federal levels" to catch and prosecute people who copy digital information.

This bill, it seems, creates more felony offenses for file sharing and sets the stage BEAUTIFULLY for asset forefieture for file sharing.

Brief writeup http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10052271-38.html?tag=mncol;txt

[KBCraig]

While I believe the work belongs to the author, and the author has the total right to control distribution and receive payment for his work, stricter copyright laws and harsher penalties are absolutely the wrong way to go.

I should point out that I also support Open Source and Free Software, and I believe it's the wave of the future. Music companies have their heads stuck firmly up the 19th Century, and would make far more money if they would think up new distribution and revenue paradigms. That, and turn out products that don't suck.