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life imprisonment for using pirated software

life imprisonment for using pirated software

Postby Xstream » Sun May 27, 2007 10:57 pm

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual-property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including "attempts" to commit piracy.

"To meet the global challenges of IP crime, our criminal laws must be kept updated," Gonzales said during a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday.

The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a proposal called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, which is likely to receive the enthusiastic support of the movie and music industries, and would represent the most dramatic rewrite of copyright law since a 2005 measure dealing with prerelease piracy.

The IPPA would, for instance:


* Criminalize "attempting" to infringe copyright. Federal law currently punishes not-for-profit copyright infringement with between 1 and 10 years in prison, but there has to be actual infringement that takes place. The IPPA would eliminate that requirement. (The Justice Department's summary of the legislation says: "It is a general tenet of the criminal law that those who attempt to commit a crime but do not complete it are as morally culpable as those who succeed in doing so.")


* Create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software. Anyone using counterfeit products who "recklessly causes or attempts to cause death" can be imprisoned for life. During a conference call, Justice Department officials gave the example of a hospital using pirated software instead of paying for it.


* Permit more wiretaps for piracy investigations. Wiretaps would be authorized for investigations of Americans who are "attempting" to infringe copyrights.


* Allow computers to be seized more readily. Specifically, property such as a PC "intended to be used in any manner" to commit a copyright crime would be subject to forfeiture, including civil asset forfeiture. Civil asset forfeiture has become popular among police agencies in drug cases as a way to gain additional revenue, and it is problematic and controversial.


* Increase penalties for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anticircumvention regulations. Criminal violations are currently punished by jail times of up to 10 years and fines of up to $1 million. The IPPA would add forfeiture penalties.


* Add penalties for "intended" copyright crimes. Certain copyright crimes currently require someone to commit the "distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period of at least 10 copies" valued at more than $2,500. The IPPA would insert a new prohibition: actions that were "intended to consist of" distribution.


* Require Homeland Security to alert the Recording Industry Association of America. That would happen when CDs with "unauthorized fixations of the sounds, or sounds and images, of a live musical performance" are attempted to be imported. Neither the Motion Picture Association of America nor the Business Software Alliance (nor any other copyright holder, such as photographers, playwrights or news organizations, for that matter) would qualify for this kind of special treatment.


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Postby rippinchikkin » Wed May 30, 2007 11:06 am

moved from bin / rippinchikkin
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Postby trubbleshute » Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:15 am

Kind of scary, I'm 99% sure that all my software is legal.

I try to use open source as much of the time as possible (it's free, I'm poor).

There are some programs out there that people should just buy. In college when Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out, people were copying the game. I thought that was horrible. It's a game with about 100 hours of play time, just spend the $50.

Then there are some programs that just cost too much money to the average consumer to drop down (I'm looking at you, Office 2007). I've been using OpenOffice for a while now and I've been extremely happy.
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Postby blodger14 » Sat Jun 23, 2007 1:03 am

100 hours of gameplay doesn't sound all that long to me, but $50 is like
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Postby Computerwiz2489 » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:01 am

I'm all anti piracy but this is ridiculous. Piracy should be viewed no more or less than shoplifting, and even shoplifting crimes arn't this punishing.
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Postby jbullard » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:30 am

I agree that a lot of software is way overpriced which in the end does not constitute piracy but makes people take a second look. I use to be big into getting any and all software for free and occasionally would buy something. I eventually got out of this habit and tried to start saving money to purchase stuff that I wanted.

But the thing that ticks me off is producers like MS. By the time an average person saves enough money to purchase an OS or Office from them, they are normally about to release something else. Most of the time this happens after that person has already purchased it.

I agree that these crimes should be viewed as shoplifting or we as software developers need to do a better job of protecting our rights without causing the wallet in your pocket to burn. Did you see that other article about Digital Watermarking? I think this law will coincide with MS's new technology.
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Postby augie » Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:16 am

I guess they'd better get the dope dealers out early to make space for this horrendous 'crime'. Oh, let's build some new prisons to house the 'criminals'. Let's see if the MPAA/RIAA want to chip in for building new jails. I think not.

BTW, Gonzalez's rep is down the tubes, who cares at this point in siding with him, he's a political virus now.
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Postby Nativedude » Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:21 am

pirating software causing death, haven't heard that one before
I can possibly see if a hospital was using pirated XP and Microsoft released a patch, but the last time they did anything like that all that happened was an annoying popup and you couldn't download things from MS.com
I don't see that causing death

Also, hmm more wiretaps and computers being seized, no surprise there

I'm all for anti piracy too but some of these steps are a little too much and the wiretaps don't even deal with piracy
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Postby Computerwiz2489 » Sat Jun 23, 2007 5:51 am

Nativedude wrote:pirating software causing death, haven't heard that one before
I can possibly see if a hospital was using pirated XP and Microsoft released a patch, but the last time they did anything like that all that happened was an annoying popup and you couldn't download things from MS.com
I don't see that causing death

Also, hmm more wiretaps and computers being seized, no surprise there

I'm all for anti piracy too but some of these steps are a little too much and the wiretaps don't even deal with piracy

I guess if the disc is shattered you know, could cause injury on those high speed drives... maybe that's what he's thinking?

Might I add that this is the perfect time to be a student (for me at least)? Vista Biz for $70 from your univ. Can't get any better than that :whistle
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Postby Nativedude » Sat Jun 23, 2007 7:23 am

LOL yeah I guess pirated software could cause a computer to explode sending shrapnel everywhere
that could cause death

Those student discounts really do help too,
More local schools need to get that, that would really help out those lower income families
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