We used to think the RIAA was behind the attempt by Democratic congressmen John Conyers and Howard 'Hollywood' Berman to ram their Computer Owner Protection and Security Act (ACCOPS) through the US House of Representatives.

Its main point is to turn file sharers into criminals, we all believed, but No ! That's not it at all !

The REAL purpose behind ACCOPS becomes clear when you take note of the fact that it also gives the US Department of Justice an additional $15 million to prosecute copyright violations.

Ray Le Maistre is the London-based editor of Boardwatch and he's got it all figured out.

Good on ya, Ray.

It's nothing to do with the labels or the RIAA. Instead, it's a way for US president George W. Bush's cash-strapped administration to raise a few badly needed dollars.

"At last, someone has suggested how to make loadsamoney from peer-to-peer (P2P) networks," writes Le Maistre, going on:

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which estimates that 60 million U.S. citizens are file sharers, is not impressed by the proposal. 'Throwing the book at music swappers makes great political theater, but jailing 60 million music fans is not good business, nor does it put a single penny into the pockets of artists,' states EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz in a prepared statement. Added EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann: 'Proponents of this bill are casting aside privacy, innovation, and even our personal liberty as collateral damage in their war against file sharing.'

"But think of the money!!

"If the courts applied the maximum fine to all 60 million P2P users in the U.S., the government could collect $15 trillion, one third more than the entire U.S. gross domestic product in 2001.

"That's more than enough to build prisons for all the file-swappers. In fact, there'd be enough left over to launch a fiber-to-the-prison program to enhance their P2P experience."

(Say no more ; )

Looks like it's time to start living in caves again.

It's all very nice that they will be able to levy 250k fines and throw ppl in prison, but where is the money going to come from if they can't pay it?

Yeh, you can give someone a bill for 250k, but that doesn't mean they can go to the bank and write you a check for it. People in Hell want ice water, too.

If someone is in prison for 5 yrs, how can they work to make the kind of money it will take to pay the fine?

I'm just stupid, I don't get it.

Aside from that, you better be really careful how you set up yer box for the internet. If even one lone file is visible, and it's the wrong kind of file, you're dead meat.

The government can't stand something it can't control.

I think the objective that the government is after is to felonize everyone in the US. "No Voters, No problem" is a motto I'm sure is being passed around in DC.

On that specific, I think it might be more to save the Bigwigs the cost of investigation and prosecution. They will let the taxpayers bear the charges for the dirty work and they can always initiate a civil case and grab some spare change once the culprit is convicted.

Big business and a corrupt government try to battle their consumers and citizenry..hmmm...let's see, this brings to mind the Boston Tea Party and King George (no, not "Dubya", the other maniacal idiot with Germany ancestry that ruled England). And we KNOW how that one turned out.
It's Ruby Ridge writ large on the national canvas...but we are capable of meeting any task. We populate the army,navy,air force. We are the geeks writing code for their little software.
Long live the people...tyrants are remembered with a putrid taste in the future citizen's mouth!
BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS! BAN THE BASTARDS!

Digital is right. The bill gives the DoJ a large budget of taxpayers money to go after percieved pirates with, so the RIAA and co dont have to pay for the campaign. The RIAA has lobbied before to ask the DoJ or FBI to run and pay for a p2p prosicution campaign, as usual predicting the collapse of the entire media industry and the rest of the global economy with it if they didn't. Perhaps this is the end result.

Bush is short of money because he doesn't dare raise taxes, and because a large portion of the income is being spent maintaining an oversized military. Or perhaps not so oversized, it appears Bush plans to use it to take over the world one country at a time But that is not the reason for the ironicly-named ACCOPS bill. Its passed because a number of skilled professional lobbyists, some from the RIAA and some from other groups such as the MPAA, have spent months telling people in Washington how the economy will benefit from it, how it will collapse without it, and how money might start incidentially heading their way if they support it.

Others have said it. Only one sure way to avoid the coming online holocaust:

Jetizon all copyrighted material, and stop trafficking in same.

Just walk away, remove it from the computer. The last I checked, they can't arrest you for NOT buying music, as long as you aren't illegally downloading/uploading files at the same time.

Shoot, if they make everything so obscure that you can break the law without even realizing it, maybe it's time to get off the net.

It's all about control.

If I may add one small note to AverageConsumers's post, (forgive me)

DON'T STOP THE BOYCOTT!!!

THAT RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The stated intention of the orginal hacker, the good guys, was to probe for security holes. This is a good example of peer-review or healing actions of community volunteerism.

In the pressure of release dates, certain Software Companies have a bad history inadequate quality control and testing procedures (think of it as a pharmo company releasing a dangerous drug too early without the FDA due diligence.)

These companies made a mistake, and then demand that the FBI and tax dollars become their own private police force.

This issue needs to be constantly reinforced, that the FBI has better things to concern themselves with than petty jaywalking misdemeanors.

Notwithstanding the fact that the FBI is incompetent and hopelessly corrupt. And Mob-infiltrated. Perhaps THAT is the point, that the Perfect Beast of Entertainment was always an unholy matrices of Mob Union and MCA/ASCAP/Vegas/FBI sweetheart kickbacks.

One thing is clear, those of us opposing these RIAA criminals are articulate, involved, and dedicated to fighting this tyranny from the gov and big business. I don't know the numbers, but they are growing day by day, and we have long memories. That's fine, you RIAA people and those in the government on your payroll have your power lunches and lawyer meetings. This war will NOT be over until the public wins, and outs you for the corrupt criminals you are!

boycott the bastards! ban the bastards!

I know it's fun to blame Bush for everything, but this is absurd. Democratic congressman have no interest in helping his administration. The Democratic party is closely aligned with Hollywood, so they are protecting their interests by advancing this bill. It is also worth noting that trial lawyers, who stand to gain from all of these lawsuits, are the biggest contributors to Democratic election campaigns. The sad fact of the matter is that both major political parties side with the RIAA (at least for now).

I have been boycotting RIAA and MPAA since the fall of napster. I don't listen to the radio, except when i cannot control it (friends car), i couldn't for the life of me tell you one person thats "popular" right now and a song they sing. I have friends that don't care about the boycott... i am having thoughts about why they are my friends. The government is no more corrupt today then the day it was formed, and that is totally corrupt. republicans or democrats or (insert party name here) are after money and power... it's the american dream..amplified in what we call a government, what i know to be a uncontrollable blunder of cataclysmic design.

What i am trying to say here, is it's not a boycott anymore, it's away of life. till RIAA closes it's doors then listen and support indie music.

btw: i also am boycotting the MPAA... no good movies anyway.

CodeWarrior: I wanna buy you a drink...

and not just because your username happens to be my C compiler of choice, either

unfortunately I think you may be overly optimistic. Historically, "they" usually win. We are all fighting, but what good does it do when the electoral system is a joke and the delicate balance of the republic is broken beyond repair?

The truth is, you can't even find independent music if you want to these days. Or at least, not if your preferred genre is not "popular". The RI@@ and Clear Channel own us. I wish there were one radio station in the whole damn country that played one goa song ever.... but there ain't and never will be. *sigh*

I make music... but it would be a stretch to call it good. Anyway I can't make it available online without paying a lot of money. I don't have money; heck, I can't even pay my rent. mp3's use bandwidth. bandwidth is expensive. meh.

You know what I say.. let us pick one day, and do massive downloading. Tie up the systems download whatever you want, music, porn, movies, files EVERYTHING. and then what is the government gonna do, arrest everyone? I mean hello.

A couple things:

Dont steal, the government hates compitition

It seems to me that when the government tries to completely invade on rights, BAD things happen. King George III lost one of the most prosperus and richest lands in the world, Louis XVI got his head choped off...Nero was murdered, Hitler commited suicide, Napolean was exhiled, Oliver Cromwell and his posh died and kicked out of UK, oh lets see who else, oh ya Russia, well we all know what happened with the TZARS and then the Soviets...I am not fluent on Asian history so please forgive me there. If you want to go all the way back to Sumer, Ur and Mesopotamia I can. But I think the point is clear.

Remember that Hitler was elected in free democratic elections.

One other thing. In one of the other post forum "rooms" I stated that I should run for Senate [well atleast someone from on here]. And I am really serious, freedom for all and equality cause I think it is plainely obvious. VOTE JONLE1 FOR SENATE

Yeah, I've only read the first couple of posts. As far as the wee tiny 250K judgements, that would probably fall on the families of the "violators". If the RIAA wants to take out some violators, then they should start with big ones, like the priests who take a vow of chastity, yet can't seem to keep their hand off of the altar boys. And for the "no voters, no problem" idea, it's very true. Sounds like a plan, but if I wanted to live in a communism, I'd throw on my big furry hat, and commie-coat, and haul ass to Siberia. Now that I've read them all, I think that a "Fuck The System Day" should be organized and carried out.

..besides, just 'cause you OWE money don't mean you GOT money! And what about the cost of lawyers to collect all this? Remember the tobacco "settlements?"

the system eats its own. i just read that in texas, the attorney general of that state just plead guilty to tax evasion and other crimes and was given 4 years in prison. one thing he did apparently was illegally get money from that tobacco settlement to one of his cronies.

the system eats its own. i just read that in texas, the ex-attorney general of that state just plead guilty to tax evasion and other crimes and was given 4 years in prison. one thing he did apparently was illegally get money from that tobacco settlement to one of his cronies.

This war will have casualties on both sides but RIAA will eventually fall if the people don't let this nation become "of the Entertainment industry, by the Entertainment industry and for the Entertainment industry. If this does happen,they have our government on such a tight leash that they no longer have the power to close down the Entertainment industry if they start to go above the law.
Eventually they will overrun the government and rewrite the constitution to where RIAA & MPAA rule on high as cooperative dictators.

to randal2k,

I applaud you! Perhaps you will join with me on boycotting the RIAA in issues of an even more obscure nature?

I have added to my list of things to boycott, harddrives, blank VHS tapes cassettes and CD's, and cd burners. I've even gone so far as calling vendors of computer equipment and after letting them know how much equipment I needed, refusing to make a purchase because of the boycott on the RIAA. I have lined up an upgrade in internet service to a competitor of "Time Warner" that will begin at the end of this month. Also the last movie I bought/paid to see was Braveheart.

It makes me feel a little less weird to know there is someone out there like me. THANKS!!!

I forgot to add,

This really isn't that difficult of a Boycott, as most of these innovations were even available to me until I was in my mid 20's. It isn't like I have to walk to work or anything.

Why boycott the Blank CDs, CD-RW drives and especially harddrives? RIAA is against the first two. I still buy CDs and DVD but only from places that sell used or overstocked. That way it won't be my money going to riaa

NeghVar,

The reason we are boycotting these items is the RIAA gets a sweet little pay-off for these.$2 for a CD burner,two cents for a blank CD.

I freely admit, I get especially wishy-washy when I see 20 copies of "Braveheart", (new in cellophane), stocked in my local pawnshop. I'm thinking to myself as I take the merchandise to the counter, "I'm leaving a hole in that shelf". I trust that these perilous situations will take care of themselves.

I'm sorry in advance for posting that one. I'm leaning over the line a little there.

Another thing, judges can be short fused. If one of these judges sees his court being tied up with hundreds or thousands of cases which he or she thinks are frivilous, and are obstructing the work of the court, it may not go as well for the riaa as they think. after all, this is going to interfere with the "real" cases that have a constitutional right to a speedy trial!

then I guess blank CDs are a neccesary evil for me. I work in a computer shop and we burn CDs of drivers and windows update quite often