— You support terrorism if you download that MP3
If you want to get leverage for draconian laws in the US congress these days, the magic word is "terrorism." Previously the magic word was "organised crime," and it still has some potency, since the two can be combined.
As we all know (ahem) if you drive a SUV, if you want to encrypt your email or want to keep your reading list to yourself, You Support TerrorismTM.
MPAA's Jack Valenti did his best, speaking to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, to make a case for peer to peer file sharing being a support of organised crime and terrorism:
"America's crown jewels -- its intellectual property -- are being looted. Organized, violent, international criminal groups are getting rich from the high gain/low risk business of stealing America's copyrighted works. We don't know to what end the profits from these criminal enterprises are put. US industry alone will never have the tools to penetrate these groups or to trace the nefarious paths to which those profits are put. For these reasons it is entirely suitable and necessary that the Subcommittee ... hold this hearing and illuminate the nature of the problems and the effect on the copyright industries ... "
Then he went on to quote a custom's official who claims counterfeit designer bags can generate revenue for terrorists, concluding with a Very Magic Phrase:
"September 11 changed the way Americans look at the world. It also changed the way American law enforcement looks at Intellectual Property crimes. "
You should expect anyone with an IQ higher than their shoe number to see through such rhetoric, but don't overestimate lawmakers. Representative Robert Wexler (D, FL) responded:
"I can't help but sit here and wonder ... if parents fully understand the ramifications of what it is to steal a movie or pirate a song ... If more American parents understood the connection between the pirating of intellectual property and organized crime, I think then there'd be a much more effective public relations response in our own country to better appreciate the disastrous ramifications."
And John Carter (R, TX) took the cue, bringing the copyright draconism to its illogical extreme:
"I think it'd be a good idea to go out and actually bust a couple of these college kids," Carter said. "If you want to see college kids duck and run, you let them read the papers and somebody's got a 33-month sentence in the federal penitentiary for downloading copyrighted materials."
So there you have it. All the way from unfounded premises, through flimsy "logic" and knee jerk responses to actually sending people to prison for downloading an MP3.
11:55:46 PM 
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