I am becoming very sick and disturbed by these big corporations and government officials going so crazy over their intellectual property. First, Microsoft is suing many open-source developers claiming that 235 of their patents were violated. Then, there is a bill in Congress now that would criminalize patent infringement. It states:

Essentially, the bill would turn copyright law into something more akin to existing drug laws: The government could seize personal property, wiretaps would become legal for the first time, violators could face life in prison and, in an ambiguous and far-reaching provision, the mere attempt to violate a copyright would become a crime.

The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, proposed by Gonzales on Monday, would amend current U.S. copyright law to give the government far more power to investigate and prosecute cases, expand the scope of what constitutes a criminal act, and would stiffen penalties, including adding life terms for those whose activities cause death.

Among the proposed changes, the bill would make it easier to charge someone as a repeat offender and stiffen the penalty for recidivism. It would expand forfeiture provisions to allow the government to seize any property used in the commission of a crime — a PC, a home, cash on hand.

Are you kidding me? It is amazing the lengths people will go to hold on so dearly to every little copyright and patent they hold. Most of it just seems like a way to eliminate competition like in the case of the Microsoft lawsuit. Microsoft has the lawyers and power behind them so they can try to crush open-source software so everyone has to use Office. Do not tell me it is some honorable lawsuit to rid the world of copyright infringer’s. It’s not. In the case of the copyright bill, I am not saying they should not have the right to copyright their materials, but what I am saying is that we live in a world now where information is easily transferable. Trying to punish us “copyright infringer’s” instead of trying to figure out a new way to work together shows no signs of cooperation and collaboration…which is what this type of issue needs. More laws is not the answer.