Our society is awash with threats to personal liberty and free expression, most of them championed by multinational corporations and eagerly promulgated by our elected representatives. Yesterday Living In the Future looked at ACTA, coming soon to a nation near you. Today we look another piece of flotsam floating down the oligarchic cesspool: PRO-IP.
The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 (otherwise known as H.R. 4279) aims to do several things. It would increase the penalties for IP infringement, allow forfeiture of assets connected to said infringement, and create a seperate Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement within the Office of Attorney General. Under PRO-IP, possession of just one file of dubious heritage would be a felony resulting in forfeiture of one’s computer equipment, and may God have mercy on your soul should they decide to go for a distribution charge.
If this sounds like a replay of the highly successful War on Drugs, it should. The same tactics – outrageous mandatory minimum sentences in violation of the 8th amendment, civil forfeiture in violation of the 5th, and a national policy office in violation of all common sense – have been in play since the mid-80′s. Since then, drug prices have fallen through the floor while quality and availability have shot through the ceiling, American cops carry automatic weapons in the trunks of their squad cars, inner-city violence is at an all-time high, suburban youth are drowning in dealer culture, and a syndicate of cocaine rings are close to taking over the Mexican government, all of which proves that the concept works and should be tried again.
The War on Drugs was intended to increase the power of our then-nascent police state, consign a large portion of an underprivileged and potentially revolutionary ethnic group to grow old in prison, and influence Latin American politics with loads of cash. PRO-IP will use the same tactics to accomplish much the same thing. Law enforcement will not only be granted sweeping powers to investigate IP violations, but given the financial incentives to do so. Alternative political speech will be suppressed, and foreign governments will be persuaded with aid money and trade deals to tow the line. We can expect numerous mistaken raids on server farms, internet neophytes rotting in jail for the IP equivalent of stems and seeds, and embarrassingly clueless technobabble emanating from the IP Czar’s desk on a regular basis.
Why is this a threat to free speech? First and foremost, PRO-IP can be used to stifle criticism of government or business, as this almost always involves referencing the offending organization’s IP. The state of Oregon has already attempted to do this through the DMCA. Further, and unlike pot vs. oregano, the difficulty telling the difference between a legal file and an infringing copy will lead to spotty enforcement and an atmosphere in which everyone presumes themselves guilty of something. Finally, it provides yet another nebulous law with which to entrap political social, and economic dissidents as – again – everyone will be guilty of something.
PRO-IP has already passed the House by a 410-11 landslide, which can’t have anything to do with the money Big Media has been pumping into Washington (although the bill’s sponsors read like a who’s who of Big Media friendlies, including Mary “Mickey Mouse Law” Bono Mack, Howard “ACTA” Berman, and Robert “World IP Day” Wexler). Senate approval is a different matter, but the bill enjoys wide bipartisan support and a democrat congressional majority. This leaves libertines in the unenviable position of hoping George W. Bush casts a veto for freedom.
Aside from hope, there are a few other things that can protect you from PRO-IP. Encrypt all your data, all the time. Obfuscate all your internet activity, all the time. Wipe the free space on your drive and all caches regularly. Only use open source tools to do all of this. Secure your router and computers with strong passwords. Most importantly, write your congresspeople and urge them not to abet the refinement of the American police state at the behest of the entertainment industry.
[...] the DMCA, then ACTA, PRO-IP, and now this(NY Times): Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable have agreed to purge their servers [...]
[...] power with an IP czar, the law is a reckless extension of government powers reminiscent of the War on Drugs, and is likely to be abused with equal abandon. I wonder how much it cost [...]