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The US Registrar of Copyright herself calls for a mixed bag of reforms

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TaoPhoenix:
Nope. You won't. ;D
courtesy of TechDirt's Mike Masnick:

Congressman Already Claims That He Needs To Overturn Supreme Court Ruling In Kirtsaeng
from the and-off-we-go dept

Now that didn't take very long at all did it? :-\  -40hz (March 20, 2013, 03:54 PM)
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  Amazing, it takes congress years and years to get some things done, but totally screwing up something only takes them a few days or less....   :(
-Tinman57 (March 20, 2013, 05:26 PM)
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Actually, you may have stumbled on a post-modern flaw of the "checks and balances" that the framers never intended - pure malice in Congress.

(Trivia: Anyone know how long it took them to get the copyright terms extended as soon as Disney wailed about the Mouse?)

Sometimes troubling rulings pop up at the circuit levels - there's no sensible reason why a ruling from California should be different in the exact same case as one from Texas etc. So for this scenario, we got:

Circuit court: "Selling stuff violates copyright because of four cent piece of plastic from Hong Kong is in there."
Supreme Court: "No it doesn't. That isn't the law. Now stop making us do your job and gtfo."

(One of many congresscritters gets phone call/email from an Important Constituent from ... uh ... "registered in Delaware"...)
Congresscritter to press: "That didn't go my constituent's way, so sudo here's a new law that says it's the law now." (Total time to pass the law: One week.)

Supreme Court: "It will be a year before we get another case to go overturn your new law. We're going to go over here and throw up our hands now."

 :mad:

40hz:
(Trivia: Anyone know how long it took them to get the copyright terms extended as soon as Disney wailed about the Mouse?)
-TaoPhoenix (March 20, 2013, 06:14 PM)
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The first rumblings to extend started in 1995 IIRC with Disney lobbying everybody who would listen. Then Congressman Sonny Bono introduced the bill. The copyright term extension got passed in early 1998. So I'd say it was a little less than three years.

Like the Sonny & Cher song said: I got YOU babe!"

Actually, you may have stumbled on a post-modern flaw of the "checks and balances" that the framers never intended - pure malice in Congress.
-TaoPhoenix (March 20, 2013, 06:14 PM)
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Interestingly, that actually was something the Founding Fathers had anticipated and attempted to plan for.

Unfortunately, the system of checks and balances has been steadily eroded over the years such that we now find ourselves in an era where all real power and authority has been centralized in the executive. And what's so disturbing is that this change was largely engineered without the consent (and largely outside the notice) of most of the general public. So I guess you could say that it basically took about 40 years to pull off what, for all intents and purposes, was a silent coup d'état.

Those who did most of their growing up in the late 80s and early 90s probably aren't aware of just how different a country the United States now is from what it was less than 40 years ago.

The Al Stewart song On the Border has a section that sums up much of how it feels for many of us who date back before our system of government was overthrown by our very own government.

In the village where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
Still you never see the change from day to day
And no-one notices the customs slip away

Late last night the rain was knocking at my window
I moved across the darkened room and in the lampglow
I thought I saw down in the street
The spirit of the century
Telling us that we're all standing on the border

In the islands where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
It's just the patterns that remain
An empty shell
But there's a strangeness in the air you feel too well
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So be it. This too shall pass. :o

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