Ashcroft creates task force for copyright violations

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that it had created a task force to evaluate prosecutions of copyright violations, including Internet piracy, and make recommendations about how existing efforts can be improved. "The task force will determine how best to meet the evolving challenges that law enforcement faces in the intellectual property arena," said David Israelite, deputy chief of staff to Attorney General John Ashcroft and chairman of the task force.

Although Congress has pressured the department to use the powerful No Electronic Theft Act to jail file-swappers, no such prosecutions have taken place. Wednesday's announcement also comes as proposals are circulating in Congress to give the Justice Department the power to levy additional civil penalties on copyright infringers.

[HughT]

defenders of hypocrisy and plunder

The US, self proclaimed defenders of democracy and freedom (should read hypocrisy and plunder) are doing it again. They are looking into ways to protect the corporate interests' rights to violate personal privacy and freedom, monopolize, destroy competition and stifle technological advancement and do it at the expense of the tax payer and consumer. Is it any wonder that the US is hated throughout the world? At least the EU and Canada are showing some faint signs of fighting for the rights and freedoms of consumers but we will see how long they stand up to the US bullying and intimidation.

[Pachilles]

File-swappers are the Jews under Furor Ashcroft's thumb

File-swappers are the Jews under Furor Ashcroft's thumb.

All of this copyright-violation prosecution garbage has gone way beyond reasonable. It scares a few newbies away from sharing; charges a few big violators; and puts a bad name on anyone who downloads anything.

The music industry needs to wise up, and get with the times; and the government/politicians need to stay out of it.

Government is supposed to be "of the people and for the people", not "of the companies and for the companies"... that are too stupid to massage their business plan/bottomline enough to keep with the times.

Canadian government has the right idea... it's not their business to nose in. When the government comes in to break up a monopoly, it hurts, but it's for the best all around in the long term. But when government comes in to back up a multi-billion dollar (near monopolistic) industry, and attack millions of individuals, there's something wrong in the wind.

I personally don't have a strong enough interest in music. I rarely find the need beyond what a radio offers. Is recording music off the, freely broadcast, radio a copyright issue? I don't see radio/cassette-recorder owners being attacked. Maybe it's just because it's a lower quality, and harder to exchange. Isn't that what computers are SUPPOSED to do? Increase convenience and abilities?

What next? Movie downloaders? TV show downloaders? Electronic book downloaders? Documents? Informational websites?

Where do we draw the line?

Make the recording industry increase the quality of their product to give downloaders a place to get better music/movies than available online. Maybe lower the price, or raise the number of songs on a CD. I can fit 10 times as many songs on a CD than what is commonly sold, simply because they are MP3 format. They can make music CDs especially for computers and/or MP3 players.

When VHS came out, did it kill the TV/movie industry? No, because they produce better quality, and more recent offerings. Make the RIAA push for quality, not push people away.

[Dave Howe]

DOJ???

I must admit to a fair amount of confusion here.

Here in england (and I thought over there in the US) Copyright violations are civil, not criminal law (obviously, counterfitting/piracy is criminal, and circumventing a protection measure would be illegal under the DMCA, but casual copying is still not piracy (which is defined as making copies for sale) or counterfitting (making copies for sale presented as original, legal copies)

When did copyright enforcement become a criminal matter in the US?

copyright violations

I would like to know who I talk to about an individual I know who is copying movies on to DVDs and selling them on eBay? Any help will be appreciated

Thank you.
Chris

Don't you have anything better to do...

If someone is selling DVDs on Ebay that are pirated, Ebay will take care of it. They have people that are paid to take care of stuff like that. Also may I recommend that you get a life. Maybe take up bowling or something.