TECH: Jesus ALBERTO JUST SAY NO NO NO

Oh WHAT a FU**ING ASSHOLE

Stop the ATTORNEY GENERAL

Wired Covers the FULL STORY HERE

What did he do NOW, you ask?

He caved in to the MEDIA GIANTS... AND those GREAT folks who brought you the
DCMA

To quote Wired:
Proposed Crime of the Century: Attempted Copyright Infringement

**RIAA and MPAA are enthusiastic of course **

The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, proposed to Congress on Monday by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,

would amend current U.S. copyright law to:

• give the government far more power to investigate and prosecute cases,
• would expand the scope of what constitutes a criminal act,
• would stiffen penalties
• including adding a life term for those whose activities cause death.
  

If the attorney general has his way, copyright law will work more like drug laws:

• The government could seize your personal property,
  
• wiretaps in counterfeit cases would become legit,
  
• violators could face lifetime prison sentences,
  
• and, in an ambiguous and far-reaching provision,
  
• the mere attempt to violate a copyright would become a crime.
  

JESUS fu*king CHRIST...

ALL THIS from a man WHO ALREADY broke the LAWs of the UNITED STATES by:

• AUTHORIZING WIRETAPPING against US CITIZENS.
• Authorized and Promoted BREAKING the Geneva Convention against TORTURE.
• FIRED 9 US Attorneys because of POLITICAL interference of the WHITE HOUSE.
• HAS shown CONGRESS he has NO idea what is legal
• Has shown Congress HE isn't in charge of his OWN department
• HAS shown that he can't/won't accept responsibility for his own actions.
  

More:
Among the proposed changes:

The bill would:

• add stronger penalties for repeat offenders
• make it easier to charge someone as a repeat offender.
  
• Expand forfeiture provisions
  
• would allow the government to seize any property used in the commission of a crime -- like
  
• a PC,
  
• a home,
  
• cash on hand -- making copyright law similar to drug laws.

• make it a criminal act to export pirated materials
• as opposed to merely importing it.
  
• Allow the government wiretapping authority when investigating copyright and trademark cases, a power the government does not currently have.
  

• A new "attempt" provision:
• It wouldn't require the actual commission of a violation:
• , the bill could conceivably be expanded, in an extreme case,
• to interpret a computer full of music next to a spindle of blank CDs as an act of piracy.

** An RIAA representative said the organization had not had time to review the bill yet, and could not yet comment on the proposed legislation.

Gayle Osterberg, VP of communications for the MPAA, says that organization is also still going through the bill and hasn't had time to fully analyze it yet. However, she did offer boilerplate support for the process, if not the bill itself.