Thursday, April 27, 2006

Piracy is worse than kiddie porn and it aids terrorists

Bush and company (RIAA, MPAA) are looking to make the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) even tougher. The current version of the bill already makes fair-use a bygone idea and helped delay the disclosure of the Sony rootkit.

The new version that was drafted by the Bush administration goes way to far. It criminalizes even trying to commit copyright infringement, permits wiretaps in investigations of copyright crimes (not like Bush thinks he needs a warrant anyways), and raises the maximum penalty for even unsuccessful attempts at piracy to 10 years. As a comparison, assaulting a cop can get you 5 years in prison, aggravated assault 6, and downloading child pornography 7. It is good to know that our elected officials priorities are in the right place - in the pockets of the companies that pay them.

Since Bush is involved there has to be the obligatory terrorist propaganda. Attorney General Gonzales was recently quoted as saying that the changes are needed because proceeds from piracy are used, "quite frankly to fund terrorism activities." What a joke. Download Lost and you fund a suicide bomber, not that they should need much salary.

Way to go Bush. Looks like he's doing everything possible to put Hillary back in the White House.