10 Jan 2005
US To Push Criminalisation of IP Violations

This is just nuts: copyright and patent violations have always been civil matters, and are practically defined as such in the US Constitution. There is no power for Congress to punish copyright infringement, as there is for counterfeiting, for example. Of course, such niceties haven't slowed our politicians down before, so I really see no reason to expect that it'll stop them from entering this morass. You think our courts are clogged now? Wait until every little kids birthday party becomes a felony!

Soon to be ex-Secretary of Commerce Don Evans speaks out on "piracy" just prior to his last trip to China for negotiations. "That means criminalizing the laws as opposed to (having) just civil laws...You've got to start putting people in jail." The article points out that this lust for prosecutions extends from Evans to his successor, the American Chamber of Commerce, and the US Senate.

(link) [Slashdot]

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