Threat Level from Wired.com: "In a letter to the Judiciary Committee, the groups said granting the Justice Department the power to file civil lawsuits on behalf of Hollywood and others is 'an enormous gift' to copyright holders.
'Movie and television producers, software publishers, music publishers, and print publishers all have their own enforcement programs,' the letter (.pdf) said. 'There is absolutely no reason for the federal government to assume this private enforcement role.'"
6 comments:
This seems to me like a huge misstep with people trying to extend traditional copyright even further, rather than solving the underlying problems. On the other hand, I would prefer to see the government handling enforcement than all these private industry groups which repeatedly fail to be transparent, lawful, or ethical. THe government may or may not be better at enforcement, but at least we have a feedback loop for it.
I disagree with this completely. The government has more then enough on it's plate. Heaping on being the RIAA's attack dog is not really a good idea. RIAA and it's brethren hurt people more then they help.
I agree with Ethan in saying that having the government take action on this is probably a good step though avoiding some of the issues that are creating the problems in the first place. Intellectual property has become a huge issue since technology has gotten so advanced and it's only going to get harder and harder to crack down on infringement. I think it's important to enforce these laws especially since younger generations are, in my opinion, not as understanding of why it's wrong because they're so immersed in piracy.
It is not a good idea to have the government track down pirates. One, it is too expensive. Two, it is too difficult to enforce. Three, it is counterproductive to the best interests of society. Exchange of information and technology is what inspires creativity and innovation. Without such, with a censored landscape, we become stagnant.
The RIAA is only pushing this through because it is becoming too expensive for them to continue their scare tactics. They seek to make the government (and the taxpayers) foot their bills for them. I point you to the RIAA Lawsuit Decision Matrix for a humorous corroboration.
The whole debate about copyright law wouldn't bother me if someone could convince me that it is not about money, and this article failed to do so.
What a perfect example of special interests buying legislation. Why is the government trying to intervene in such a hot topic issue? Because record companies and film studios are paying to get legislation passed so that they don't have to pay to enforce their copyrights, the taxpayers do. Will making it a government body make it unbiased? Probably not, if the producers can pay to have the law passed, what will keep them from paying to get the rulings they want.
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