US government backs $1.92M Thomas verdict
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Last night I had an email from a friend pointing me to http://www.scribd.com/doc/18593475/DOJ-Brief-in-defense-of-ThomasRasset-Award.
The same link is also on the Pho list, which I subscribe to.
It seriously alarmed me because I don’t want my daughter, who’s just turned 13, to grow up in a world where music is a commodity and in which a handful of corrupt companies, who believe they own it exclusively, are willing to go to any lengths, including terrorising people they depend on, and who have no way to defend themselves, to protect their ‘property’.
In Canada, where we live, my daughter is safe.
For the moment.
So far, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled — on the face of it, at least — by Canada’s Edgar Bronfman jr) have been unable to achieve here what they’ve achieved in America, where they’ve succeeded in turning schools, universities in particular, into corporate-controlled sales and enforcement divisions.
They all-but own the Department of Justice and they’re integral to an organisation set up by Hollywood and Big Music.
It’s called the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities, and it’s used to impose the will and desires of the corporate entertainment cartels on teaching institutions across America.
The Big 4 labels have been able to use legislation they bought and paid for to force American schools to actively work for them, employing US teaching institutions as marketing divisions, and staffs and administrators as sales and copyright enforcement agents, the bill for it all footed by American taxpayers
Either that, or watch federal and state educational funding go down the drain.
Nor are things any better in US civil courts, which have become no more than tools to be used by the Big 4 foreign-owned or -controlled music labels to successfully paint people such as Jammie Rasset-Thomas and Joel Tenenbaum as hard-core criminals and thieves, when in fact they’ve done nothing more than infringe on copyrights, a purely commercial transgression.
Jammie, a determined young woman who’s the Brownfield coordinator of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians in Minnesota, has been told she owes a staggering $1.92 million dollars for allegedly sharing 24 songs online.
Joel, a physics doctoral student, is, however, lucky, comparatively speaking. He owes a mere $675,000 for 30 songs.
The Big 4 now want to be able to launch the same kind of terror campaign in Canada, where it’s legal for people to download (but not upload) music as long as it’s for their own use.
And the enfeebled Stephen Harper government is a hair’s breadth away from allowing them to do exactly that.
The only reason it hasn’t so far caved in is because of relentless pressure from online activitists.
‘ … support of the constitutionality of a $1,920,000 jury verdict’
This morning, “Hey Jon, check this,” says a Reader’s Write, going on »»»
Obama Admin Supports $1.92 million verdict for 24 Songs http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2009/08/obama-admin-supports-192-million.html
Obama Admin Supports $1.92 million verdict for 24 Songs. One thing that has not changed in Washington – or has maybe changed but for the worse – is the Administration`s support for excess in copyright policy and enforcement.
The US DOJ today filed a brief in support of the constitutionality of a $1,920,000 jury verdict for downloading and sharing 24 songs in the Jammie Thomas case. That`s $80,000 per song – or more than 80,000 actual damages. HT to Ben Sheffner, who provides the relevant links here.
The link points to Howard Knopf’s blog, Howard being a clear thinking Canadian copyright lawyer.
He posts, “One thing that has not changed in Washington – or has maybe changed but for the worse – is the Administration’s support for excess in copyright policy and enforcement.
“The US DOJ … filed a brief in support of the constitutionality of a $1,920,000 jury verdict for downloading and sharing 24 songs in the Jammie Thomas case. That’s $80,000 per song – or more than 80,000 actual damages. HT to Ben Sheffner, who provides the relevant links here.
“All because actual damages can be ‘hard to quantify’ and there’s a need to deter.”
[Sheffner is an American copyright lawyer who until very recently boasted on his blog that 
in the early 2000s, he worked on the infamous Grokster case [on the Big Music side], and that Warner Bros Records was also one of his company`s clients. He’s an ardent and vocal supporter of the Big Music copyright regime who suddenly appeared out of nowhere to report on their activities.]
Howard goes on »»»
Well, the same can be said about damage caused by drunk drivers, negligent surgeons, bad and/or dishonest lawyers, defamatory publications, etc., etc., etc.
It’s time for this myth about “hard to quantify” and “need to deter” to be shattered, or a least cut down to size.
Actual damages in copyright cases are no harder to quantify and perhaps easier than in countless other circumstances where there is no statutory minimum damage provision.
One can begin with patents and trade-marks. This was a windfall to the US entertainment industry in 1976 and was exacerbated in 1998. Only Canada, amongst major countries, has been misguided enough to have adopted a similar regime.
In fact, the real reason why content owners fought so hard for this is because actual damages in copyright cases are often negligible.
Nobody can seriously suggest that every “unauthorized” download or every counterfeit DVD correlates to one – let alone more – lost sales.
A $10 fake Rolex doesn’t result the the lost sale of the $5,000 real thing.
Yet, trade-mark owners have dealt with their enforement issues without the need for such a contrived and catastrophic remedy as statutory minimum damages that can take away a person’s house and their abiltiy to to get an education, feed their family, etc.
We can only hope that the US Supreme Court cuts this draconian and dreadful provision down to size. And that Canada gets rid of its knock-off version of one of the worst aspects of American law at the earliest possible opportunity.
Don’t hold your breath, Howard.
Nor is it only the corporate music industry we have to worry about.
The major Hollywood studios are equally dangerous to the interests of ordinary Canadians, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between the two, their interests in gaining complete and total control of how, and by whom, ‘product’ is distributed online, being virtually identical.
They frequently collaborate with members of their enforcement units, the MPAA and RIAA — largely populated by fired or retired ex-police and other brands of law enforcement officers — often sharing information and resources.
But for the purposes of this post, the most of the spotlight is on Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.
‘Raids’ and ‘operations’ funded by US taxpayers
In America, the Department of Justice is home to a frightening number of lawyers who used to work for, and who continue to owe allegiance to, the RIAA, owned and operated by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.
They routinely meet with people in US police and law enforcement agencies, and members of the mainstream print and electronic media, with whom they collaborate closely.
Incredible though it may seem, these purely commercial units actually accompany police officers and FBI agents on ‘raids’ and ‘operations’ they initiate, and which are financed by US taxpayers, and provide detailed and in depth ‘background’ and ’statistics’ to reporters in the traditional press, who repeat the data as though they’re accurate and factual and emanate from reliable sources.
The RIAA also conducts lavish entertainment extravaganzas featuring top corporate music industry stars, openly attended by US politicians.
Typical of these was the recent ‘fundraising’ bash thrown by the Big 4 enforcement unit for Joe Crowley.
Barack Obama has been dubbed Barack Obushma because of the way in which the corporate music industry has been able to penetrate the Department of Justice.
However, it’s unlikely he personally is even aware of the terrible injustices being perpetrated in the name of his administration.
He has to him far more important things to worry about, such as the economic collapse of America and meanwhile, while his attention is thus divided, Hollywood and Big Music are being allowed to consolidate their positions of power and control within the US government.
Because if the RIAA is, to understate the situation, influential in the DoJ, the same can be said with the movie industry and the office of the United States Trade Representative.
Impartial review? Not even nearly …
Is the DoJ impartial in supporting the constitutionality of the $1,920,000 ruling against Jammie Thomas-Rasset?
Of course it isn’t.
Did it carry out a fair and impartial review before releasing the brief?
Of course it didn’t.
And anyone who believes anything to the contrary is living in a dream world.
Mid-level managers in the DoJ, USTR and FBI have been carefully indoctrinated by the RIAA and MPAA on just how critically important their industries supposedly are to the economic well-being of America.
Alleged losses suffered, backed by statistics created as occasion demands by Hollywood and the Big 4 themselves, reflect directly back on the well-being of America and Americans, they say.
The Great Equaliser
Rants such as this won’t achieve much, especially coming from an old guy running a tiny blog from an island off the coast of mainland British Colombia in Canada.
It needs people with stature such as Howard Knopf, famous Ottawa law professor Michael Geist and politicians such as NDP digital media spokesman Charlie Angus, to stand up for ordinary Canadians to make sure the same kinds of practices which are now routine in America aren’t legislated into being here in Canada.
Thanks to the net, the Great Equaliser, we have a voice which can’t ignored.
Now we have to use it to force the people we elected to represent our interests, and not those of the Korporate Kopyright Klans.
UPDATE: Says Ray Beckerman on Recording Industry vs the People »»»
1. The US Department of Justice (a) continues to debase itself by misstating the law in its unseemly haste to provide cover for the RIAA, and (b) sinks to a new level of debasement by arguing that an award of 228,000 times the actual damages satisfies due process standards. Its awareness of the frivolousness of its constitutional argument is betrayed by its urging the Judge to reach the same result — the setting aside of the verdict — on non-constitutional grounds, the “common law” ground for remittitur that the verdict is “shocking to the conscience”. A complete answer to all of the legal points argued by the DOJ’s frivolous brief is found in the amicus curiae briefs which we filed in SONY v. Tenenbaum and SONY v. Cloud.
2. The RIAA’s brief is another in the long line of frivolous briefs they have filed, arguing that the size of the verdict can be measured against all of the damages the plaintiffs have suffered from all of the copyright infringements since time immemorial, and wallows in speculation — unsupported by any actual evidence and based solely upon two inhouse lawyers’ opinions — as to how much actual damage Ms. Thomas-Rasset’s alleged 24 downloads caused.
3. Both the RIAA and DOJ briefs take the “ostrich” approach to the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence regarding due process standards for “punitive awards”.
4. The defendant’s brief correctly observes that the court was under no obligation to tack on an injunction to its ludicrous $1.92 million money judgment.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Pho list – Does p2pnet promote violence?, July 31, 2009
all-but own the Department of Justice – Jenner & Block – running the DoJ?, April 26, 2009
Howard Knopf’s blog – Obama Admin Supports $1.92 million verdict for 24 Songs, August 14, 2009
American copyright lawyer – Jammie v the RIAA: $3.6 million, June 18, 2000
impose the will and desires – RIAA, MPAA, letter to US schools, March 24, 2008
Jammie Rasset-Thomas – Did Jammie share 1,700 songs?, July 14, 2009
Joel Tenenbaum – `The RIAA are a bunch of rotten bastards`, August 3, 2009
determined young woman – Jammie Thomas-Rasset: file sharing thief, June 10, 2009
sharing 24 songs online – Jamie Thomas-Rasset`s $1.92 million playlist, June 19, 2009
mere $675,000 – Joel Tenenbaum`s $675,000 playlist, August 8, 2009
penetrate the Department of Justice – Obama / Biden: tools of the RIAA?, March 22, 2009
‘fundraising’ bash – RIAA loves Joe Crowley, July 10, 2009
United States Trade Representative – Hollywood, Big 4 labels, laud WTO China ruling, August 12, 2009
Recording Industry vs the People – DOJ Asks Court to Avoid Constitutional Question in Capitol v Thomas, August 15, 2009
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August 15th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Jon, this is exaggerated and over-blown. These are companies that are doing no more than other companies which are trying to maintain a foothold in a marketplace which is degenerating because of the activities of a small number of people who do not believe in paying for value received.
August 15th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
oh yeah, I see. Just like the Bell Canada model of business. More money and no value.
August 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Your posts have always been ill-informed, but now they are becoming dangerous.
The Harper Government is doing everything it can to develop fair and just copyright regulations, as it is proving with its online Copyright Consultations ( http://copyright.econsultation.ca/ ) which, to remind you, even you have written about.
This kind of unreasoned editorial serves no one and nothing. Instead, it takes attention away from genuine efforts in both America and Canada to bring intellectual property and copyright matters into this century.
Please do yourself and your readers a service by confining yourself to the few subjects and topics which you are qualified address and if you cannot do that, it is time for you to retire and take P2Pnet offline.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
” companies which are trying to maintain a foothold in a marketplace which is degenerating because of the activities of a small number of people who do not believe in paying for value received. ”
First off, Movie revenues are off the charts, while at the same time those same movies are the most downloaded.
No degeneration of revenue here.
Second, Several independent studies have proved that file sharing has no impact on recorded music sales.
AllofMP3 proved that people will pay for music at a reasonable rate and without DRM. Instead of embracing it
it was shut down for showing an embarassing truth.
Third, the RIAA members have plenty of money to throw at extremely expensive lawyers, and giving their own
executive a LOT of cash, while ‘forgetting’ how to contact the artists that they owe money.
If the labels were really losing that much they already would have gone under, since the file sharing
phenomenon has been around well before Napster brought it into the light. Claiming that file is the
sole and most major reason the labels may be losing some steam is at best, intellectually dishonest propaganda,
at worst, an outright lie.
Fourth, taking the software industry as an example, The photo manipulating app PhotoShop has been around almost
as long as 486 computers. It is now and has always been one of the most bootlegged apps in internet history, and yet
it is still around and still being developed. If all that downloading was really that destructive this app wold have
disappeared into the pit of history a long time ago.
“small number of people who do not believe in paying for value received. ”
This is another propaganda statement.
We ALL believe in paying for Value received.
We don’t believe in being given a false perception of that value, only to find that it was not as portrayed,
( the CD or movie is actually crap ), and not being able to get our due return ( money back for a dissatisfied
CUSTOMER ).
There is plenty of evidence that if there is real value, it does get paid for.
that is the truth hidden under the lies the likes of you spout day in and day out, until
the Goebbels principle kicks in and makes the lie seem the truth and the truth seem the lie.
DIAF.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
“Your posts have always been ill-informed, but now they are becoming dangerous.”
@ Readers Write post #3……..
The real danger here is people like you, whom dont wish to inform themselves, but freely accept the BS
that the cartels push. When shown actual facts you pretend that we are wrong, and we should be
ashamed to spout such non-sense.
Well this is how i see it, I would rather be wrong believing the facts than be right believing the BS that you believe.
“Live long and prosper”
August 15th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Here we go again! What about the constitutional amendement against cruel and unusual punishement or excessive fine? This is black and white in the constitution! Hello!
I am disapointed to learn that the OBama administration carry this kind of shit. So if it is a republican or a democrat governement same shit right?
Well! The US Constitution allows us to dismiss the government if it become abusive.
Clearly this federal government is now repetitively breaking the law, violating the constitution and trampling the supreme law of the land. The illegal spying on US citizens, the jailing of people without trial, the rendition, the assassination, unconstitutional law that they try to enforce such as the DMCA, the infringement and tactic such as coercing people to give up their right to a trial by jury, the corruption and manipulation of justice shery picked up judges and jury members, the routine corruption of representatives senators and government official, finally the corporations who now control the government. What is the difference with communism?
It is now time to rise up, fight for our freedom, clean up the government and destroy the rogues corporations who do not contribute to the common good starting with the music industry/movie RIAA/MPAA members.
We shall close these businesses and declare them illegal association of gangsters.
This will hapen eventually but the longer we wait the more painfull it will be.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
if obama can’t think other than bad and good he needs to clean his mind because there is also a solution that is good for both sides!
i know artists need to be paid but i don’t think that the consumer needs to jack for that, not directly anyway.
times is changed and now artists need to make money with concerts and movies with the cinema, it is a change and a change isn’t always bad and i think that this change is not a bad change! IT’S A IMPROVEMENT !!!!! i wan’t that everyone that has a internet connection needs to pay a fee every month and that money gets spread out baised on a list of most downloaded copyright content!
and torrentsite’s may not profit they may hold money that is needed to keep the site up at least 50% for tpb or so and little site’s like 70% there is need for corporation
share-
it’s faire
August 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
At the Harper shill above who said:
“The Harper Government is doing everything it can to develop fair and just copyright regulations, as it is proving with its online Copyright Consultations ( http://copyright.econsultation.ca/ ) which, to remind you, even you have written about.”
You sir are a shill. Nothing more. The Harper gov is doing F all. Industry Canada is a joke with their useless puppet CRTC, useless puppet competition bureau, useless Heritage Canada, and useless consulations.
Open your eyes to te bullshit C-61 they tried to pass off w/o consultations, their open doors to the industry with useless plaigorized and fabricated-PAID-FOR corporate spew put out by the Confernece Board of Canada.
You are a shill working the comment area trying to make harper seem like king. Well harper is king! King of greed for the corporations and the screwing of the people like te US has screwed their own people.
Take yourself, take harper, take his gang of industry thugs and just fuck off with your useless corporate-Harper will save the day bullshit, you shill.
And let the door hit you on the way out.
Harper and his thugs are a joke, a sham, and i forgot to mention OUT next time around.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Dreddsnik:
Damn, thanks for that — Saved me the effort of troll-smashing him/her/it.
If they don’t ‘get’ it by now, they won’t, because they don’t WANT to, so don’t waste your time trying to help them learn.
I learned MY lesson the hard way, when “Sam I Am” continued to intentionally ‘misunderstand’ everything I/anybody else said, claim that stuff like the history and original reasoning for PERMITTING copy’right’ in the first place were “beside the point”, and turned every discussion into a personal attack about where I lived, etc.
That’s why I troll-smashed him every time he came around.
But at least he was ballsy enough not to hide behind “reader’s Write” like these shills.
So don’t waste the time, Dredd — just swat them down like the sad little trolls they are, and then leave it alone.
(That’s my new motto, folks — pick your battles.)
But congratulations on the great response, does my heart proud, truly.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
lol @ 3rd RW:
“Your posts have always been ill-informed, but now they are becoming dangerous.”
Yes, Jon is a danger to society.
We must band together to have him shut up and put away.
Jon, the terrorist.
Think of the kids!
August 15th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
” I learned MY lesson the hard way, when âSam I Amâ continued to intentionally âmisunderstandâ everything I/anybody else said, claim that stuff like the history and original reasoning for PERMITTING copyârightâ in the first place were âbeside the pointâ, and turned every discussion into a personal attack about where I lived, etc. ”
Yeah, he’s good for Ad-hominem, but thats about it.
But I wouldn’t take the words of a glorified light man too seriously.
I know no one else here does. He doesn’t have a legitimate horse
in this race. It’s just fun for him to bash people.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
An interesting opening paragraph here (kind of fits in with, Jon “the danger” Newton):
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/FrankfurtBookFair.pdf
“A few months ago I was watching a movie, âGiordano Brunoâ, the story of
a âhereticâ condemned by the Vatican and burned at the stake in 1600 for
his beliefs….”
/me gets the lighter fluid. Jon “the heretic” Newton, is a danger!
You must get the most fascinating fan mail.
August 16th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Personally, I’d be flattered if the corporate media oligarchy considered me “dangerous”, myself.
It IS always “dangerous” to buck the system.
Dangerous to the SYSTEM ITSELF.
The corporate media oligarchy has nothing to offer:
Not superior technology (as I’ve discussed before).
Not creativity or artistic merit (Milli Vanilli and other manufactured ‘talent’ notwithstanding.)
The rampant — and increasing — cronyism between them and various governments (so-called IP ‘law’) is rapidly discrediting the notion that businessfolk actually want a “free” market — which is a good thing, because they longer we in the West lie to ourselves about our supposed “free market” system, the less we’ll be willing to engage in corporate oversight, or punish corporate malfeasance.)
Personally, I gotta thank the RIAA for waking me the hell up on this score — I mean, if the corporate media oligarchy hadn’t killed the REAL napster, the REAL mp3.com, cozied up to government, and basically declared war on it’s own customer-base, Lawrence Lessig, the various ‘pirate’ parties, and the ‘free culture’ movement itself would probably never have happened.
I mean, if this bullshit keeps up, people might even start asking why the corporation — a mere business model — is considered a “person” under the law. Maybe if they start asking questions like that, we wouldn’t be so surprised by stuff like Enron, or the fact that “Picher Oklahoma” had to be completely abandoned because it’s uninhabitable, due to toxic waste mining companies just didn’t want to bother to dispose of properly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma
(Hint: the mining companies didn’t give a shit about “exteranlities” like poisoning an entire town, so it’s not all that surprising that the corporate media oligarchy wants to destroy the public domain and unleash CopyFascism just to protect their all-precious profits.)
August 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
i commend you Jon.as i’ve said before,i’m so impressed that you continue to let ,even those who would see all our rights taken and squashed by the movie and record bunch!i especially was impressed but the very knowledgeable coment that the (governments?) of thetwo countries are working on a fair agreement about copyright(sorry had to go toss my cookies at that word)fair repayment for music? yup i agree totally! insane greed ? i think not!ya know ifthey had approached thing differently we all know things would be so different now .but they had to show they were totally in control and club all into submission.i’ve really come to hate the word copyright ,and would love to see it wiped and put into the indivduals hands .if you want it then you have tobe responsible for it !!and as for the guy at the top down south,don’t think he isn’t aware of what’s happening in his adminestration.he’s too smart a cookie not tobe .it’s just he think of bigger fish to fry so he leave it to the second to look after and riaa joe is right in there.so we up here seem to have to be prepared to pay the price.new laws based on the usof a model. i still wonder which they do quicker our politicions,knees at zipper or bend and drop when approached by there southern counter parts in lobby or government. be well Jon.you site serves a good purpose,no matter what some thing!
August 16th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
@ #3 “The Harper Government is doing everything it can to develop fair and just copyright regulations, as it is proving with its online Copyright Consultations ( http://copyright.econsultation.ca/ ) which, to remind you, even you have written about.”
Yeah, sure, we all believe that our voice will count as much as the mafiaa’s dollars. Sure, they will honestly listen to the public feedback and stand for the public interest, not for the lobbyists. Canada is not Australia after all, Stephen Conroy is an error specific to the down under. It’s not France either, where when Stallman wanted to talk to the PM to give him a petition signed by 60000 people against the ancestor of the HADOPI law his request was turned down. When the European Parliament and the French Parliament voted against the HADOPI law, their vote got screwed too (and more than once). It’s not the US either, where a $60000 fine for sharing a song is deemed “normal” by the governement whose motto is “change you can believe in”.
But Canada must be really different, they put online a simple website and then the problem is fixed :p I’m sorry but I’ll need a little more than just a website put online for PR purposes to believe that people’s voice will be taken into consideration.
“This kind of unreasoned editorial serves no one and nothing.”
Since when telling the truth serves no one?
Nice article IMO, and I failed to spot any factual errors. If someone does please do point it out.
August 16th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
” Nice article IMO, and I failed to spot any factual errors. If someone does please do point it out. ”
Won’t happen.
Fear mongering and namecalling are much easier than having to come up with pesky little things
like ‘Facts’ and ‘Truth’.
You sound like one’a them thar uppity book-larnin’ people.
( yes, i’m joking, just in case someones joke detectors are malfuntioning. )
August 16th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Old guy – Tiny Blog.;-0
Liked this one Jon. Extremely factual without expressing over the top opinion.
So – the question needs to be asked. What are WE going to do about it?
As our rights, civil liberties and daily activities are eroded by ever growing legislative encumbrances, do the couch potatoes care enough to do anything about it? Yes that’s you and him and her and that other guy peeking over your shoulder.
Have any of you written to your local member or congressman?
Have any of you started a Blog to spread the word?
Have any of you gone up to your next door neighbour and said – “Hey dude – the Government is about to be taken over by the media corporations of America – did you know that?”
Homework assignment.
===============
Everyone print out ten copies of this story and put it into ten home letter boxes at random locations at least a kilometre from your home.
Feel free to put additional copies on school and community notice boards.
And no – posting a comment here is not enough. I doubt politicians read all the comments on this blog.
But maybe, just maybe, if enough copies of this article get deposited in mailboxes across Canada, then just maybe one of them will be read by the mother, father, brother or sister of a Politician who can make a difference.
Don’t think about – hit that print button now.
Ten pages – ten letterboxes.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:34 am
I’m a Canadian and I’d like to say that I’m disgusted that in the first time in history of a Western democratic free marketplace has corporations’ losses every translated into national policies to terrorize citizens! For example, it’s only due to the pressure and influence of lobbies for the corporate agenda that the American government has made it national policy to give U.S. custom agents the power to force all domestic and foreign travelers coming into the United states to open all the contents of a person’s laptop computer! Custom agents have the right to detain people who don’t comply and/or seize a person’s computer for an indeterminate amount of time! And why has this new unreasonable search and seizure of computers been enacted? It’s not about security, Homeland security wasn’t asking for these powers, it was the entertainment industry! The entertainment industry wanted the U.S. federal government to search people’s laptops for illegal movies and music! It has nothing to do with terrorism! In the age of the Internet, why would a terrorist carry around plans for an action of terror or information on bomb making on a laptop when they could just E-mail this information to their operatives in secured encrypted E-mails!
No the only people who were pushing for this power to search and seize laptops at all U.S. border crossing and airports was the entertainment industry! And this is just the beginning, this is a precedent but in an age of an economic recession, any business sector hurting enough in sales could pay off politicians so that laws are passed whereby the power of the state becomes the protector of corporate profits! If enough people steal bread than the bakers and bread lobbies could payoff enough politicians so that police can stop people at will (whether walking, driving in a car, riding a bike, etc.) who are carrying bread and/or are eating bread and force people to show proof that they actually bought that bread! Even though there are laws against stealing, the bakers and bread lobbies want even harsher laws on the books to make examples of people who steal bread! Even though a loaf of bread may cost 75 cents to make and the price to customers is $1.85, if some person is caught let’s say driving and a policeman pulls this person over. If this person has 3 loafs of bread and can’t prove he bought the bread (either really did steal the bread or bought it but can’t find the receipt), the state will the power to seize this person’s car because it was carrying stolen goods! Also the bakers and bread makers can sue this person $25,000 per loaf of bread that was stolen and up to $15,000 per bagel!
Now does this bread story make sense? So why should the entertainment industry be allowed to influence (or bribe) politicians in order for the state’s law enforcement system to become an arm of corporate greed, making sure that every person possessing an electronic version of a movie or a song has been bought legally? I’m sorry but this kind of verse Orwellian future where the state becomes a dictatorial entity by default through corporate fascism must be stopped! Corporations by law aren’t a person, as such a corporation can’t vote as a person during an election thus corporations must be not allowed to gain access to politicians for influence peddling–period! Regardless of the country, an average citizen can’t get access to politicians but lobbyists for corporations and those with lots of money not only have no problem gaining access to politicians but politicians pass laws to favour these wealthy people and corporations! Until this systemic system of political corruption is fixed and laws are enacted that make it illegal for corporate influence peddling than not only will things not change but people as a whole will lose all their rights except the right to purchase products and services!
August 17th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Sorry, I made a type-O mistake in my above post, in the first sentence of my first paragraph the word ‘every’ should be ‘ever’.
August 18th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Larry…. Ummmm you’re 200 years too late with the Bread story…… Australia is populated with the descendants of the original circa 1700 UK bread thievery gang.
And no, it wasnt a $15,000 fine – it was deportation followed by indentured servitude.
But good point. ACTA is here. ACTA is bad.