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Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding YouTube Videos

Mike Masnick
techdirt.com
Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:17 UTC
Image

3 Idiots, except this isn't a movie
from the not-understanding-the-technology dept

Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. A few weeks back, we noted that Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons had proposed a new bill that was designed to make "streaming" infringing material a felony. At the time, the actual text of the bill wasn't available, but we assumed, naturally, that it would just extend "public performance" rights to section 506a of the Copyright Act.

Supporters of this bill claim that all it's really doing is harmonizing US copyright law's civil and criminal sections. After all, the rights afforded under copyright law in civil cases cover a list of rights: reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works or perform the work. The rules for criminal infringement only cover reproducing and distributing -- but not performing. So, supporters claim, all this does is "harmonize" copyright law and bring the criminal side into line with the civil side by adding "performance rights" to the list of things.

If only it were that simple. But, of course, it's not. First of all, despite claims to the contrary, there's a damn good reason why Congress did not include performance rights as a criminal/felony issue: because who would have thought that it would be a criminal act to perform a work without permission? It could be infringing, but that can be covered by a fine. When we suddenly criminalize a performance, that raises all sorts of questionable issues.

Comment: Sott.net came across this totalitarian proposal through brasschecktv.com, so we thought it would be appropriate to embed their take on it here... while we still can:

The Anti-Brasscheck Act: Embed a video, go to jail

Legal eagles, public servants

If more than 10 people view a video you post to your site from YouTube in a 180 day period and that video turns out to be an infringement, three US Senators (named above) would like to put you in jail for five years.

No, I'm not kidding.

They want to turn a minor civil issue into a serious criminal offense.

They want to kill the world of embeded videos.

Otherwise, this is a great law.

Can you imagine the chain of idiocy that had to take place for this law to be put before the Senate?

Someone had to think of it. Someone had to write it down. At least three idiot Senators and their clueless staffs had to think it was worth the time and effort to put forward.

The financial industry has committed a multi-trillion dollar fraud. The TSA is completely out of control and getting worse every day. Corporations have completely corrupted the legislative and legal process...

...And these idiots want you to do hard time for embedding a YouTube video.


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Stormtrooper

US: SWAT team busts into house over student loan default

Sahil Kapur
American Broadcasting Company News 10
Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:04 UTC
Acting on orders from the U.S. Department of Education, a S.W.A.T. team broke into a California home Tuesday at 6 a.m. and reportedly roughed up a man - all because of his estranged wife's defaulted student loans. She wasn't there.

Yet, Kenneth Wright of the city of Stockton was grabbed by the neck by handcuffed before he and his three young children were put in a police car as the officers searched his house, he told ABC News10. He said he was in his underwear the whole time.

"They busted down my door for this. It wasn't even me," Wright told the local news station. "All I want is an apology for me and my kids and for them to get me a new door."

Local police were reportedly not involved in the incident.
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Radar

US drone strike kills 23 in Pakistan


Press TV
Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:20 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The US has conducted another unauthorized drone airstrike in Pakistan's troubled northwest, leaving at least 23 people dead and several others wounded.
Officials say the US drones have fired five missiles into North Waziristan close to the Afghan border.

Meanwhile, Pakistani medics reported that the missiles fired by US drones have contaminated the environment with unknown chemicals.

They say most of those wounded by US drone airstrikes in North Waziristan are hospitalized for various skin, eye and respiratory diseases caused by chemicals.

The US often carries out such attacks on Pakistan's tribal regions, claiming that the militants are their target.

But locals say civilians are the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned US strikes.
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Penis Pump

US: Blogger Says He Has X-rated Photo Involving Rep. Anthony Weiner


The Associated Press
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:30 UTC
Image
© Craig Warga/News
Embattled Rep. Anthony Weiner attempts to come clean about Twitter pic scandal on Monday.
The conservative blogger who reported that a photo of a man's crotch had been sent from Rep. Anthony Weiner's Twitter account to a woman college student says he has an X-rated picture he'll publicize if the New York Democrat attempts reprisals against him.

Conservative activist Andrew Breitbart of the website BigGovernment.com tells NBC's Today show he considers the image "an insurance policy" against attacks from Weiner, who on Monday admitted the crotch photo was of him. The married Weiner also acknowledged he had engaged in inappropriate contact with six women over three years through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and occasionally over the phone.

Breitbart told NBC Tuesday that if Weiner wants to open himself to further investigation, "there are a lot of women" who could come forward. Asked directly if he considered the purported unpublicized picture an insurance policy, Breitbart replied, "I don't like to think of it that way."
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MIB

COINTELPRO: British prosecutors suppressed key evidence to protect undercover 'environmental activist'

Rob Evans & Paul Lewis
The Guardian
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:19 UTC
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© Guardian
Mark Kennedy didn't seem any different from the other activists – but in fact he was an undercover policeman.
CPS opens inquiry after claims prosecutors withheld undercover police officer's surveillance tapes from defence lawyers

Prosecutors have been accused of suppressing surveillance tapes covertly recorded by the undercover police officer Mark Kennedy, the Guardian can reveal.

Leaked documents indicate the Crown Prosecution Service may also have misled the public and even the courts when the trial of six environmental campaigners accused of planning to break into Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire collapsed earlier this year.

Two days before it was due to commence, the trial was abandoned by the CPS, which told the court that "previously unavailable information" had come to light that undermined its case against the activists.

However, the supposedly new evidence - the Kennedy tapes - had in fact been in the possession of the CPS for more than a year.
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Document

Hitler's first draft of the Holocaust: unique letter goes on show

Ed Pilkington
The Guardian
Wed, 08 Jun 2011 03:13 UTC
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© Beverly Grant/PA
Adolf Hitler with fellow army dispatch runners in 1916. He was still working for the army in 1919 at the time of the 'Gemlich letter'.
Army document is only written statement detailing Hitler's wish for systematic removal of Jews from Germany

A document understood to be the only existing written statement by Adolf Hitler in which he set out his belief in a systematic removal of Jews from society has been acquired by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles.

The four-page letter, typewritten on faded brown paper and bearing Hitler's signature, was shown in public for the first time in New York, in what is likely to be seen as a key artefact in the historical record of the Holocaust. It will go on display at the centre's Tolerance Museum in Los Angeles.

The centre's founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, said it was one of the most important documents of the period, showing the development of Hitler's antisemitic thought, and proved he had in mind a governmental solution to the so-called "Jewish Question". "This is the most important item we have in an archive of more than 50,000 objects," Hier said, adding that it would be used to educate future generations and to counter Holocaust denial.

Though Hitler alluded to his plans to exterminate Jewish people in speeches and indirectly through his closest henchmen, his thoughts on the subject can be found nowhere else committed to paper.
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Cult

More war please, we're British: William Hague calls for UN security council to act against Syrian regime

Barry Neild
The Guardian
Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:56 UTC
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© Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images
William Hague said the UN security council had a 'responsibility to speak out' against President Assad's crackdown. What he neglected to mention is that fact that Assad is up against an organised and ARMED insurrection.
Foreign secretary says draft resolution is in circulation among council members following crackdown on protesters

Britain is to push for a UN security council resolution condemning a crackdown on anti-government protesters in Syria.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, told parliament that the security council had a "responsibility to speak out" and warned of new European Union sanctions unless demands were met.

Hague said diplomats were circulating a draft resolution to secure the necessary support from the nine council members.

He said the proposals would bring action taken against Syria in line with measures imposed on other countries in the region facing political upheaval. However, they fell short of the no-fly zone mandated against Libya under a resolution passed earlier this year that launched a Nato bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
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Arrow Down

Barack Obama suffers shock poll slump as Mitt Romney draws level

Ewen MacAskill
The Guardian
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:53 UTC
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© Charles Dharapak/AP
Barack Obama, appearing at the White House with Angela Merkel, played down the prospect of a double-dip recession.
Barack Obama's hopes of re-election to the White House next year took a knock on Tuesday with the publication of a poll showing him in a surprise dead heat with one of his Republican rivals, Mitt Romney.

The bounce in the polls that Obama received after the death of Osama bin Laden in early May has disappeared. The new poll shows public unhappiness with the slow pace of recovery from recession.

Romney's jump to parity with the president is remarkable given that, until now, there has not been much enthusiasm even among Republicans for him.

Only last Thursday did he formally declare that he will be seeking the party's nomination to take on Obama.
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Question

Are the Libyan 'rebels' actually an advance invasion force controlled by NATO?

Chris Stephen & Nick Hopkins
The guardian
Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:44 UTC
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© Eduardo De Francisco/EPA
A Libyan 'rebel' fires a machine gun at Gaddafi forces in an area west of Misrata. Nato, for obvious reasons, denies issuing formal red lines to the rebels.
Rebel leaders in Misrata feel prepared for battle but say they have been told not to cross certain 'red lines'

Tension between Libyan rebels and Nato commanders is growing over the military tactics being used to put pressure on Colonel Gaddafi's forces.

Rebel leaders in Misrata say they are being urged not to launch further pushes against regime troops to the east of the city, and claim they have been told not to cross certain "red lines", even though they feel prepared for battle.

The frustration on the ground has been heightened by their belief that Gaddafi's troops are demoralised and depleted after nearly three months of conflict.

While coalition officials insist they have not issued any direct orders not to attack, they concede they are worried about civilians being caught up in further chaotic fighting, and do not want rebel troops being accidentally hit in bombing raids by Nato warplanes. These continued on Monday and Tuesday, when Tripoli experienced what were perhaps the heaviest daylight bombardments by Nato since the air strikes began in March.
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Yoda

Aisha Gaddafi sues NATO for war crimes after airstrike kills her 4 month old daughter

Kim Willsher
The Guardian
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:38 UTC
Image
© Mohamed Messara/EPA
Aisha Gaddafi with supporters of her father in Tripoli in March.
Aisha Gaddafi claims air strike that killed four members of her family, including her daughter, constitutes a war crime

The daughter of Muammar Gaddafi has launched a lawsuit for murder following the death in April of four members of her family during a Nato air strike.

Legal papers were submitted to the prosecutor's office in Brussels on Tuesday by the French lawyer for Aisha Gaddafi.

During the bombing raid on 30 April the Libyan leader's son Saif el-Arab, 29, as well as three of his grandchildren were killed. Ms Gaddafi's four-month-old daughter Mastoura was one of those who died.

She argues the coalition forces that carried out the attack are guilty of "war crimes", stating the air strike did not target a command and control post held by troops loyal to her father, but was a private residence in Tripoli where members of his family were living.
      Read More...
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