Passage of the Pirate Act.
 

I gotta wonder how long can the US throw stones at China or any other country when we now have corporations looking to make 20% of the population into criminals in the good ol' US of A...

http://news.com.com/Senate+OKs+antip...l?tag=nefd.top

I'll post my own views later...

That Orrin Hatch guy is such a jerk off.

Do you guys know that he tried proposing some crap to congress that they should try to pass a law that would allow officials to permit the destruction of any computers containing "illegally downloaded files" or some shit. That guy really needs to drop this topic, and pick up something important. Like feeding starving people in the US, or improving fire and police equipment, and cutting down on illegal guns.

But no, that Hatch jerkoff and the rest of congress is too occupied wasting friggin time on stuff that's not a whole helluva lot important. Look at how much it costs to actually buy music nowadays. Not everyone has 100 bucks to shovel out to buy the stuff they want, so they download it.

Now, I understand that this makes some inherent problems, but it is a solution. The music industry simply gets less money for it. (And movie industry, and game industry, etc etc)

I think a real solution to this problem is not suing people (in fact, that will only make the industry even worse, and will inspire others to continue doing so), but lowering the prices of things. If CDs were 12 bucks, instead of 18 or 20, at least 25% more people would buy them.

All it boils down to is a bunch of bastards making money. Sad what goes on sometimes...

Well, there's two more of me pennies to be read!

On a related note, there's some bill that just got put up in the Senate that makes it illegal to produce technology that "induces illegal copying".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2004Jun23.html

You know, like Kazaa's built in hypno-ray feature that forces you to transfer your entire CD collection to MP3 format.

Or, something like that.

So anyway, good-bye Kazaa... oh yeah, and CD burners, and MP3 players, and VCRs, and damn cassette tapes.

There's a few people trying to point this out, but I have a sinking suspicion it'll pass due to general Congressional cluelessness.

The SC'd be bound to strike it down eventually, but still...

Congress should all go take a look at the world, and see how the people are suffering. Actually no; they should take a look at things here in the US. There are things we could further improve, but, like I said, those jerk offs are too busy with bogging down the US citizens with this nonsense and making a huge paycheck that they couldn't be bothered with real problems.

Again, I say, all this is about is making money. It costs next to nothing at all to stamp out CDs, and around the same for casettes. So why are they so much? The best thing is just to Download those files, rather than spending well earned money on them. Something congress doesn't know about.

Hopefully one of these days congress learns what a real job is, and stops pulling the crap that they are.

If you think music is too expensive, then don't buy it. Yes, the RIAA is incompetent, but that doesn't excuse stealing from them.

That being said, the bill is pretty stupid. As someone already pointed out, software that can be used to make illegal copies also has legitimite purposes. Not to mention that fines of thousands of dollars isn't warranted for downloading music.

Then I won't buy it. I'll "illegally download" if off of the internet. That was my point, and apparently you missed it. The only reason people do that is because of the convenience and the fact that music is so expensive.

So, if it's a matter of just not buying it, then everyone should steal the music.

Think about stuff you say before you say it. Sometimes it might make sense.

Here's the ultimate solution.

1. Congress passes a bill that all computers containing illegal music must be destroyed.
2. CD prices go up to $50 a CD.
3. This forces everyone to download music.
4. Congress must destroy everyone's computers.
5. Congress ruins the U.S.' economy.
6. We now enter another Depression.
7. Congress goes after the RIAA for their bullshit.
8. We all go away happy...or as close to is as we can while in Depression.

That's the 8-step ultimate solution. Here's the 1-step.

1. Go to Canada.

Ford: While I cannot speak for Tobias over there, I personally download music for one reason -- to discover new artists. I have a CD collection of nearly 300 PURCHASED CDs (I'm not including any mix CDs). I would never have discovered probably at least half of the artists in my CD case without the help of Napster, Kazaa, and various other P2P programs.

That said, I do understand that I'm probably in the minority when it comes to downloading. Meanwhile my good buddy on the computer next to me is pirating the hell of KOTOR and Max Payne 2. WOO!

The RIAA's "anti-piracy" (which is really "anti-ways-they-cannot-make-a-monopoly-from") policies are extending all over the globe. You won't run from it. THey were trying to pass a law up in the Great White North, courtesy of the RIAA's Canadian offspring, to fine doctors that had music playing in their examination/operation rooms.

I can't believe this bill passed - not after all the government backlash from the first round of lawsuits. It's looking more and more like corporate 1984 ...

Yeah, but they still haven't gotten to China.