Anti-Piracy Bill To Cost Taxpayers $47M To 2016

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Only $10M - $12M a year? What a bargain! :rolleyes:

According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate released this week, between 2012 and 2016 PROTECT IP will cost the U.S. taxpayer tens of millions of dollars. “Based on information from the Department of Justice (DOJ), CBO estimates that implementing [PROTECT IP] would cost $47 million over the 2012-2016 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary funds,” the report states.
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Of course, those whose IP is being protected will be happy to have a special tax levied to cover this expense, right? ....right? Bueller?
 
Phew, I'm glad we get to foot the bill. I can't imagine big corporations being able to fend off threats without the aid of the taxpayer.
 
My thought process: I pay taxes. Music/Motion Picture industry gets my money. I can pirate an equivalent amount of their products because I paid for them! torrent torrent torrent
 
Skolar said:
My thought process: I pay taxes. Music/Motion Picture industry gets my money. I can pirate an equivalent amount of their products because I paid for them! torrent torrent torrent
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Not sure if your post was meant in jest, but I actually agree to a point. If this bill gets passed, I'll only torrent even more.
 
panhead said:
US Government; of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations. :mad:
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Just read a story today where a corporate lobby group paid to have a positive spin added to their products in CA school textbooks. Sigh.
 
I love how the people who stand to benefit from this have invested nothing to get it.

So glad I don't buy CDs anymore.

Hey while we're at it, let's sneak the tax money into the price of the product on the shelf. Then let's inflate it to offset the potential billions lost in piracy. The average cd will cost more than some cars. Maybe then, the government and the RIAA can finally be happy.
 
That tax should go toward buying everyone whatever software or music they want. Perhaps if the tax goes into grants for software creators and artists... skip the enforcement.
 
panhead said:
US Government; of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations. :mad:
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corpsml.jpg
 
I don't like the fact they're implementing stuff from this since I stand to personally lose out on stuff because of it, but I can't blame Congress for stopping illegal activity and enacting the will of the corpo - err, people.

I don't get why you're all griping so much about the cost of the act, it's like a drop of water going into a bathtub. By comparison, we spent $118 B in Iraq/Afghanistan in FY2010, we have a $750 B trade deficit for 2011, hundreds of billions in toxic assets owned by the Fed, an inefficient and subpar healthcare system, and 16% of our population doesn't have a job or is working part-time when s/he would like to work full-time (probably the most devastating consequence). The stuff ^^^ are tens of thousands of times more expensive in one year than this legislation will be in five.
 
ok seeing as im footing part of the bill like the rest of us, i'll expect my copies of all the new releases in the mail this fall. Not piracy if we pay for it right? Gimme my games!
 
saedrin said:
I can feel the founding fathers approving of this.
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Haha...I wish we could reanimate them and get their opinions.


Fortunately, some of them had a crystal ball and already saw what the country would be like today:
Thomas Jefferson said:
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
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heatlesssun said:
We can't raise ANY taxes or we'll all die!
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Your political demagoguery aside, it doesn't matter in this situation as you are paying for this either way. Business's do not pay taxes, customers pay a business's taxes.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Business's do not pay taxes, customers pay a business's taxes.
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True, but only if they buy the businesses' products! If we don't buy their product, they will claim that the reason is piracy and we will foot the bill for a business that we don't care to do business with. If everyone quit shopping at Wal-Mart we'd see a PROTECT-WAL MART act that got taxes to foot some of their costs of doing business just like we're seeing here.
 
I will be sure to add a bullshit $250 deduction to my taxes from now on. Sad part is I called it when this crap was first announced. Stated outright that this would come straight out of consumers/tax payers pockets.

Pathetic.
 
fattypants said:
True, but only if they buy the businesses' products! If we don't buy their product, they will claim that the reason is piracy and we will foot the bill for a business that we don't care to do business with. If everyone quit shopping at Wal-Mart we'd see a PROTECT-WAL MART act that got taxes to foot some of their costs of doing business just like we're seeing here.
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Um, yeah and if no one buys their products they go out of business and there is nothing for you to pirate anymore. :eek:

So really there is no but. There is only, business's do not pay taxes, customers pay a business's taxes. In this case, you can pay for it either directly (ie taxes on individuals), or indirectly (taxes on a business), take your pick, but a raise in a business's taxes is a raise in your cost and a indirect tax on you. Don't let the D's fool you.
 
Awesome , lets waste a ton of money on another useless bill and produce underwhelming results across the board. I guess the economy being in the shitter and our debt spiraling out of control are secondary issues to catching 15 year old pirates stealing Lady Ga Ga songs.. :rolleyes:

What a fucked up Government we have ..
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Um, yeah and if no one buys their products they go out of business and there is nothing for you to pirate anymore. :eek:
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Noncommercial creativity happened before copyright. Noncommercial creativity will happen after copyright. The only differences are that we won't have to pay extra taxes to artificially keep them in business, and the police will have one less excuse to invade our privacy.
 
fattypants said:
Noncommercial creativity happened before copyright. Noncommercial creativity will happen after copyright. The only differences are that we won't have to pay extra taxes to artificially keep them in business, and the police will have one less excuse to invade our privacy.
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Yes well, you aren't pirating noncommercial creativity no are you? No, you are pirating commercial creativity. Hence why your previous example was completely wrong. Commercial producers are producers, not retailers. They don't make money, they don't produce. They don't produce, you can't pirate. As a pirate, you should be in favor of such efforts because it maintains your stream of items to pirate to fill your desperate need for consumerism.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Yes well, you aren't pirating noncommercial creativity no are you? No, you are pirating commercial creativity.
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I guess you're still not seeing the point I was trying to make, which is this: art does not need money to exist. Art happens whether there's money or not. Maybe less money = less art, but have you seen the music, television, film, and game industries lately? Bleh. The people that make less money produce the most creative stuff (think STALKER vs. Gears of Duty).



Paul_Johnson said:
They don't make money, they don't produce. They don't produce, you can't pirate.
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Good. There is nothing further that commercial entertainment media can create that I couldn't live without. Let 'em die. Indie games and mods could carry my gaming needs for an indefinite amount of time, even if I didn't have a mountain of old games that I already own.
Paul_Johnson said:
As a pirate, you should be in favor of such efforts because it maintains your stream of items to pirate to fill your desperate need for consumerism.
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Nope. See above.
 
OMG, this is outrage.

We are changing to law to adjust for modern times?

Don't expect the forum to understand anything logical.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Um, yeah and if no one buys their products they go out of business and there is nothing for you to pirate anymore. :eek:

So really there is no but. There is only, business's do not pay taxes, customers pay a business's taxes. In this case, you can pay for it either directly (ie taxes on individuals), or indirectly (taxes on a business), take your pick, but a raise in a business's taxes is a raise in your cost and a indirect tax on you. Don't let the D's fool you.
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Externalizing costs is a well-known fact. Yes, a corporation can help its own bottom line by paying its workers a quarter an hour, and it can hide money in offshore havens, and it can raise prices to offset the cost of a tax increase. You're basically saying "They might try to rip us off, so why don't we just stop wasting time and give away the store?" Funny logic you have going there.

PS: Raising prices on products means that you lose some customers too. You're shifting the equilibrium of units sold and price per unit by raising prices, and the final profit isn't the same, so they don't completely shift their obligations onto people (though I'm sure they would if they could).
 
Guess what? We spend money on TSA too (and it is a lot more than 5m a year), we didn't 20 years ago.

Outrage I tell you. Lets get rid of all law enforcement. It is just a waste of money.
 
Staples said:
We are changing to law to adjust for modern times?
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There are already laws that cover intellectual property. Why do we need to grant such broad powers to law enforcement to protect an industry that nobody's life depends on? Law enforcement should benefit society as a whole, not just the ones who buy laws and lawmakers.
 
XacTactX said:
I don't like the fact they're implementing stuff from this since I stand to personally lose out on stuff because of it, but I can't blame Congress for stopping illegal activity and enacting the will of the corpo - err, people.

I don't get why you're all griping so much about the cost of the act, it's like a drop of water going into a bathtub. By comparison, we spent $118 B in Iraq/Afghanistan in FY2010, we have a $750 B trade deficit for 2011, hundreds of billions in toxic assets owned by the Fed, an inefficient and subpar healthcare system, and 16% of our population doesn't have a job or is working part-time when s/he would like to work full-time (probably the most devastating consequence). The stuff ^^^ are tens of thousands of times more expensive in one year than this legislation will be in five.
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....still kinda pointless to spend that much on a POS when it could be used for other, much more important things...eh?
 
I don't see any protection for IP holders here. I see search results manipulated. I see websites taken down or blocked as ISP and/or DNS level, for not policing their forums to the RIAA/MPAA standards, or because one of their advertisers linked to some site that encourages infringement, or virtually any reason the government or industry wants.

What's worse, is that at the very best, it will only reduce piracy for an extremely short time if at all. Sites come up as fast as they go down.
I do not mind spending on law enforcement, but $47 million on something that is not going to work is rather stupid. The only way I can understand this law, is if this is a stealth move to give the US government short term capabilities to shut down websites used by political detractors, or revolutionaries. The middle east revolutionary shit has a number of governments shaking in their boots.
 
GORANKAR said:
The only way I can understand this law, is if this is a stealth move to give the US government short term capabilities to shut down websites used by political detractors, or revolutionaries. The middle east revolutionary shit has a number of governments shaking in their boots.
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Protect IP coupled with the Protecting Children From Online Pornographers Act has chilling implications. What you said + records of everything you do online for 18 months = Gestapo busting down your front door at 4am.
 
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