Justice Department Wants $5 Million To Bolster Its Efforts As Hollywood's Private Police Force
from the regulatory-capture dept
While the proposed Obama 2013 budget for the federal government is supposed to be about cutting extraneous expenditures, one area where it's seeking more money is to expand the Justice Department's copyright enforcement efforts. You see, this is what happens when you hand the Justice Department over to the RIAA and MPAA. DOJ is seeking an extra $5 million to focus on these kinds of efforts, to hire 14 new employees, including nine lawyers, claiming that it's "had an increase in the number of cases that we're dealing with in IP." Oh really? You mean like the case of Dajaz1? The site that the DOJ illegally held and censored for over a year? Perhaps if they had a few more lawyers on staff, someone would have taken the time to realize that they were supposed to give the domain back within a specified time frame. Or perhaps they could have used those people to realize that the site was posting music sent by the copyright holders. Of course, that's not what would happen. Instead, they'd just focus on seizing more sites and creating more collateral damage. The real question, of course, should be why are we allowing the government to be Hollywood's private police force?
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Filed Under: budget, copyright, doj, justice department, regulatory capture
Companies: mpaa, riaa
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Despite it being an election year, we're losing aren't we? :(
With the blackout only a month ago, the stories that we've been hearing so far sounds like steam for the internet is dwindling.
At this rate, I'm losing hope again...
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Hollywood Cops have style?
;-P
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Re: Hollywood Cops have style?
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Hey, Obama...
Keep this up and the Democrats are going to lose in November.
Even tho Lamar Smith is the jackwagon who started SOPA and a Republican, most of the support for SOPA, PIPA and other bills have come from Democrats...
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Re: Hey, Obama...
Obama - DOJ is the enforcement wing of the Entertainment Industry Party, NDAA indefinite detention, etc
Romney - out of touch plutocrat who will say anything to get into office
Gingrich - out of touch megalomaniac who thinks he's Reagan but makes up his own version of history to justify whatever racist or bigoted ideas spew out of his mouth
Santorum - misogynist who wants to institute religious-based totalitarian policies in the bedroom and the clinic by outlawing abortion and contraception, thinks gay marriage leads to zoophilia and birth control to STDs
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Re: Re: Hey, Obama...
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At least until the "election" is over, then he is on every finance based show on TV, and they fawn over him being right about the economy.
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It occurs to you that you're getting played?
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Gary Johnson?
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Re: Re: Re: Hey, Obama...
Since I hadn't even heard of Gary Johnson, I'm guessing he doesn't have a chance in hell either.
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Re: Hey, Obama...
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Non-consecutively numbered 20's, in a brown-paper sack.
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Priorities, DoJ, priorities
If the DoJ would actually like to, you know, maybe kinda consider doing something for the cause of justice, then perhaps it could at least pretend to prioritize finding the killers responsible for these before worrying about bits flying around the Intertubes.
Oh, I know: it's hard work pursuing these cases, some of which lack substantial evidence. It's grueling, it's unglamorous, it doesn't result in headlines, it can be mind-numbing, depressing, frustrating. It's much easier to seize a website selling fake NFL t-shirts and hold a press conference.
But those of us who PAY for the DoJ would prefer that it spend its resources pursuing murderers rather than acting as the lapdog of the few dying companies that nobody needs, nobody wants, and nobody will miss when they're gone.
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Kinda always wanted my own private army...
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THEN the bitches.
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or an entire Army for that matter...
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No more public dole for copyright holders.
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Re: No more public dole for copyright holders.
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Hey, everyone is entitled to policing.
The fact is that the content creators pay a huge amount of taxes in this country, much more than the folks like Kim Dotcom that you idolize. At the end of the day, the folks in government are going to side with the folks who pay taxes and act like good citizens. If they need some help policing, that's what the taxes are for.
Plus, I seem to remember that you squawked and squawked when SOPA gave the content creators the ability to shut down web sites on their own. You can't have it both ways. If you're going to insist that the content owners pay for their own policing, you're going to have to give them the power to do it. Otherwise you'll need to support the DOJ doing it.
Oh wait. I'm sure you'll find some way to be against any and all punishment for infringers-- while still maintaining that you're theoretically in support of copyright. Sheesh.
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Serious ... Or Trolling?
Trolling, it seems to me, is a form of sarcasm. That is, ironic humor by emphasis. Irony is itself humor by presenting opposites.
Each of these indirections (humor -> irony -> sarcasm) introduces a large fraction of noise into the mix, lowering the proportion of signal.
At some point, you just can't tell. I think "bob" here has crossed the line from seriousness into trolling.
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Re: Serious ... Or Trolling?
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Re: Re: Serious ... Or Trolling?
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Re: Hey, everyone is entitled to policing.
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But it matters little if it's civil or criminal. If someone is able to file a complaint against someone offering a copy for free on the Internet, that person is going either (1) need to call a cop or (2) be able to get at the private information of the infringer. Oh wait, there's a third option that's popular around here: give up altogether because bringing the infringer to court might hurt their feelings or force them to hire a lawyer or actually maybe make them feel bad.
You can't have it both ways. Either the copyright holders get to pry into the private information of everyone on the Internet and-- with proof-- kick them off the web, or you get the cops to do it.
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Copyright holders do that now bob - with due process and under the guidance and direction of a court of law. What's exactly wrong with that? Why should the taxpayers foot the bill for that? Look, if you want to spend you money on playing wac-a-mole with infringers, go for it, knock yourself out - just leave my money out of the equation, ok?
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Despite what the folks around here think, copyright has a very broad level of support throughout society. Did someone take a digital picture from your Facebook page and use it in their advertisement? Copyright is there to help. 100% of the people created something copyrightable and I'm sure that most can imagine some case where they would want to stop someone from reproducing that work.
I don't know what folks keep saying that weakening copyright to make life easier for Big Search's bottom line is the side of the general public. Big Search is another order of magnitude larger than Big Content.
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But I don't mind the government going after real copyright infringement. I have a problem with them taking orders from the big wealthy companies, and I don't think we'll ever see them asking for more reasonable and enforceable copyright laws that don't make every single citizen in the country a criminal, including the trolls here.
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I think you should try to imagine yourself in the content creator's shoes. You work really hard on a project. The film costs $200 million to create. You've paid union wages and health insurance for everyone on the set. Yet some lazy jerk online wants to give it all away for free.
The cops aren't just working for the big corporation but also everyone who works for that corporation. Because if the movie theater doesn't sell those tickets and pop corn, no one is going to plop down $200 million to pay for a crew. Corporations are made of people.
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I thought the life of 1%ers was more glamorous than owning a car in the city.
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Coming up next: 99% of people have record labels and need copyright enforcement.
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Yet somehow you think that enforcing the theft of cars from the 1% is a perfectly okay use of police resources but protecting the copyright isn't. Go figure.
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But if my car is stolen, I'm out thousands of dollars to replace the new car.
If my photo is infringed, I have not lost any money at all. It's simply that someone else has made money off with my work. Chances are they're not going to make enough off of it for me to drag them to court, but if they did that's exactly why we have copyright law. The police are not involved at all.
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But let us go back to copyright infringement. The DOJ has no business, whatsoever, involving itself in civil disputes. Neither do the FBI, the Federal Marshals, the state, county or local police. You call a cop about a civil matter, they'll tell you to file in court, they cannot help you. So while you stand there, steadfast in the belief that the DOJ should be helping private industry, reality is telling you to shut the hell up.
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If you look around, it seems like the DoJ is focused on criminal infringement like TVShack, Ninjavideo, Megaupload, etc. You're OK with that, right?
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LA is not a city because it has no decent mass transit system and everyone drives cars. Update: LA is now a rural living area!
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I contend that more people create digital photos each day than own a car. Soon there will be more cell phone handsets in the world than people. So it's getting quite close to 99% that will soon have recording equipment.
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are you mentally deficient?
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It's entirely possible that Hollywood could make cheaper films (and 99% of them are much less than $100 million.) Countries around the world routinely make films on much smaller budgets than Hollywood. Hollywood is a black hole money pit from hell and legislation is their last hope of maintaining their bloated budgets and 1% lifestyles (you know, owning cars and all that).
Of course, you don't know how much the average movie costs because they don't tell us anymore. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/01/business/fi-cotown-mpaa1
What the police should be doing is investigating their shady and probably criminal accounting practices.
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Yes, please. If they're going to ask for more of my tax dollars to do something, I'd like it to be something worthwhile and long overdue and actually FOR the artists these corps keep holding up as poster children.
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Re: Hey, everyone is entitled to policing.
Creating a task force or arresting car thieves is not a problem, if they are doing the job they are assigned. If they are just picking up or stopping people they don't like, without reason or just cause, as they are doing with "IP enforcement" then yeah, I'm going to have a problem with that.
Secondly, comparing Dotcom to the average content creator is not relevant comparison as far as I am concerned. Let's see what he paid compared to Chris Dodd or Cary Sherman. I can assure you that the average person who pays for their content (and is treated like criminals anyways) pays at least as much as most "content creators".
As for copyright, given its current incarnation, I no more support the people who abuse it as a welfare system than I do the drunk on the corner who blows his whole check on booze every weeks.
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However... Copying is NOT stealing.
Ugh.
At the end of the day, the government should side with the people who voted them in, not the small minorities of people with money.
But, they won't, thus people have almost NO regard for copyright these days.
"Plus, I seem to remember that you squawked and squawked when SOPA gave the content creators the ability to shut down web sites on their own. You can't have it both ways. If you're going to insist that the content owners pay for their own policing, you're going to have to give them the power to do it. Otherwise you'll need to support the DOJ doing it."
You're right, we don't want it both ways...
How about this?
The DOJ AND the MPAA/RIAA go away and stop infringing on OUR rights?!
The REAL rights.
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Re: Hey, everyone is entitled to policing.
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Then why are they giving tax subsidies to movie studios?
Like Interscope records and their whole drug trafficking thing?
for.
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Re: Hey, everyone is entitled to policing.
"If they create a rape task force, are you going to argue that the DOJ is acting as a private police force for women?"
Why yes, the police force IS for women citizens.
"Are you going to say that the cops out arresting car thieves are a private police force for car owners?"
Yes again, car owners are citizens, so yes again.
"The fact is that the content creators pay a huge amount of taxes in this country"
But much less than citizenry in it total, so FAIL.
"At the end of the day, the folks in government are going to side with the folks who pay taxes and act like good citizens." - What a bunch of horseshit. Folks in government realized with the public outcry against SOPA, exactly who has the power when provoked. No amount of "Taxes" and bribes, could match the threat of being voted out.
"the folks who pay taxes and act like good citizens."
Just goes to show your sad, sour point of view about life. We ARE good citizens.
"Plus, I seem to remember that you squawked and squawked when SOPA gave the content creators the ability to shut down web sites on their own. You can't have it both ways. If you're going to insist that the content owners pay for their own policing, you're going to have to give them the power to do it. Otherwise you'll need to support the DOJ doing it."
Your memory is crap. What has been "squawked" about is ANY private/government entity being able to shut down a site/payment processing on just an accusation.
Its akin to me accusing you of being a terrorist, and the US just whisks you away to a private jail and tortures you. (Oh wait that's right simulated drowning is not torture.)
I know, I know, silly us for wanting due process, and expecting our own government to follow the law. - Its pie-rate talk.
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The fact is that the content creators pay a huge amount of campaign contributions in this country,
FTFY
(Hollywood accounting means that they pay very little tax - and copyrights seem to be exempt from inheritance taxes too)
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Re: Hey, everyone is entitled to policing.
Do you mean like Gary Friedrich, the co-creator of the modern Ghost Rider franchise, who isn't legally allowed to tell people he's the co-creator of said Ghost Rider, due to an IP lawsuit brought by Marvel?
Or do you mean like "Fox" and "Universal", who merely pay for content to be created?
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Re: Hey, everyone is entitled to policing.
Seeing as rape and car theft are both criminal offenses, and that women and car owners are both citizens, that's reasonable. It's nothing like what's happening here: having law enforcement enforce civil law. And cut your "1% own cars" bullshit, please. Where I live, 70% of people drive cars as a matter of course in their day-to-day lives, and close to 99% own one.
They'd be paying a lot more tax if Congress closed the many, many loopholes they use to pay as little tax as possible. And with their failure to pass the draconian SOPA/PIPA bills, I can't see Congress and the President doing that and pissing of their Hollywood paymasters more.
Above point aside, the Government did it's job properly when the majority of the people who contacted them about SOPA/PIPA were NOT in favor. After all, this is a democratic nation, correct? It's only sad that the threat of losing votes was required to make them stop, rather then them simply stopping it because it's appalling public policy. And the people would still pay more tax than Hollywood even if they were being 100% honest with their taxes.
The biggest complaint people had in relation to SOPA was how it could have sites shut down or their finances cut off on a mere accusation. Would you like it if SOPA/PIPA gave corporations the ability to declare you are a terrorist and whisk you off to a secret prison indefinitely without trial to be tortured (oh wait, the government already has the power to do this under the PATRIOT act).
Next shill post...
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IP and copyright laws are stupid.
Until they're not stupid, they shall be ignored.
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LOL
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Or the ones that allowed people to literally own other people?
Or ones that prevented people with a different shade of skin colour to get married?
Or ones that made you tip your hats to any passing cows?
Or the ones that legally permitted you to shoot someone, provided that it was from 12 yards away, with a longbow, on the battlements of the castle?
Those laws?
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You spelled freedom fighters wrong.
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Sheesh. Learn how to troll, ya fuckin' n00b.
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Next up: iTunes and Netflix prices soar.
Again.
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Meh
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Priorities...
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On a side note, notice how the acronym RIMDOJ sounds a lot like the word rimjob? Fitting, as the people that head these agencies clearly like to lick ass. Ewwww!
Cheers!
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OT: JotForm Suspended
Jotform, a popular form service has had their .com domain suspended by GoDaddy at request of "a US government agency"
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Proof? What's going on with dajaz1? What about with Roja? Lest we forget the mega mega conspiracy mega. The US are in full totalitarian force, of "Corporate America" and no one will stop them. Why? They are the money.
All the efforts against SOPA/PIPA? Stopped dead in its tracks by the mega fail of the US gov. They have shown, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they will abuse any power they have to protect dead legacy businesses.
I wouldn't say it's pointless to try, but based on all your efforts and the response from your irresponsible government show it's wasted efforts and they're here to keep pushing more ridiculous laws to take away all your rights and freedoms, at the benefits of corporations that cannot adapt, but still have more than enough money to call the shots, and buy corrupted government agencies.
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There fixed it for you.
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With the US population at ~300 million and the Bureau of Labor Statics showing the "entertainment industry" employing ~2 million I'm not sure you'll be forcing us to pick anything...
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Frak You Obama !!! So much for spending money and putting us into more debt.
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i am giving a serious thought to Voting for Ron Paul just to "shake things up".
Strike 2 because he will never win...they won't let him (yes this is choreographed to give us the illusion of control).
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Not biased at all, are you Mike?
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Because hollywood paid good money for those politicians and YOU did didn't?
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Make up your mind
Isn't that an argument for adding more lawyers to the IP division?
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COPYRIGHT = TAX
no longer stimulates invention
no longer protects the rights of the people to have public domain works so they can become part of the process
no longer is about fairness
no longer is about justice
IT IS about money and money only and in this case extreme utter sickening greed.
90% of your losses to civil liberties can be atributed to this crap
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