Quoting starkers, reply 52
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Yes obviously stopping people from stealing IP that belongs to someone else is one step removed from rounding up all the Jews and gassing them.
You've obviously missed the point. Oh well!!!
Eh no. I repeated your argument, simplified it and then showed how ridicilous it is.
Ok, then, so you wouldn't mind living in a society where the government IS law enforcement, judge, jury and executioner??? One where a drunken politician can run over your child and get away with it.... because he IS the LAW?
You see, it sets a dangerous precedent when government makes itself responsible to chase down and prosecute matters that should remain with law enforcement and the courts... both separate departments funded by taxpayer... meaning government does not own or run them. If you would like to live in a society where government runs law enforcement and the courts, however, be my guest and move to Nth Korea or Zimbabwe, though I'd expect to see a change of tune in a very, very short while. Yeah, the atrocities committed there in the name of law and order are nothing short of barbaric... horrendous, even... and you want to give your government more free rein over your police and your courts?
Look, I'm not against publishers/copyright owners pursuing copyright infringement, but let them do it at their own expense using their only own resources... as it was originally intended to be. As it was stated a post #7, the RIAA spent 64 million last year to collect 1.3 million from settled cases... so go on, tell me that you want your government to spend your tax dollars to pursue civil matters for extremely wealthy people and tie up the criminal courts. It won't matter that victims of real crime (burglary, rape, murder, child molestation) can't get their day in court to see justice done... so long as the music and movie moguls are happy it'll be alright, right??? Gimme a f**king break!!!!
It's one thing to be righteous and all high and mighty, but at least get the priorities straight. The US is one of the most over-policed countries in the world (what with state AND federal police, the FBI and CIA, Homeland Security AND the FTA, not to mention all the hick sheriffs and their deputies) and yet it is one of the most lawless (murders, shootings, rape, burglary, gang violence, etc, etc, etc) in the world. Seems to me, you'd want to be getting all that under some semblance of control before chasing some piddling "Robin Hood' file sharer who's stealing from the rich (read filthy stinking rich) to give to the poor... and physically hurting nobody.
I know that I'd like to see murderers, rapists and child molesters behind bars first, but if you think it better to spend the resources to capture and convict file sharers instead, then God help us!!!! All we need is a few more with similar views and we'll be back in Hitler's Germany... Stalin's Russia.
So it's alright for government to play policeman for the wealthy... all at taxpayers expense, right?? OK, then, so what about when the government you empowered decides to extend its sphere of influence to pursuing, persecuting, prosecuting you (with a mandatory conviction) for something it perceives as evil and unlawful... unlawful under the new totalitarian arrangements handed to it on a silver platter by the groundswell of unwitting copyright sympathisers. You see, you don't want to give government too many mandates, given what politicians are, otherwise you set them up to take even more liberties and eventually become omnipotent.
Made my point yet????
Edit:
Oh yeah, and where are all the usual US combatants who say they are over-governed and reckon government couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery? I've read often enough in the past: "Keep government out of health!" and "Keep government out of stimulus packages!" Orright, so how about "keep government out of what should strictly be civil matters"?
And why does this matter to me here in Oz? Because whatever your dickheads in Washington decree, it ends up filtering down to the wankers here in Canberra... and wtf should I suffer totalitarianism.
