well duh, this president is about keeping the rich people rich and everyone else is unimportant. That's why the troops arent being pulled out like he promised (and he actually just sent another 40k troops over for an unknown amount of time) and that's why all the Banks are getting the held. It would have been much much MUCH cheaper to pay off all outstanding home Mortgages and the private sector wouldn't have had much to worry about or could've cut wages if need be... .. Unfortunately, the private sector is the problem to all of this. The government cant control what the pay their employees and most of them are WAYYY under what they should be paid. ESPECIALLY THE I.T. PERSONNEL.

Can we rape the taxpayers of all their freedom on the internet?? YES WE CAN!

Well having been through Napster and P2P networks, I think its time people started paying for music again. One cannot make the argument about it now since on Amazon, most albums are $10 or less. Especially considering you don't have to pay for the whole album anymore. Just the songs you like. Most of the albums I buy are under $7 for a full length album. I've been there since CDs first came out and I can't believe I used to pay $15 back in 1984 for a cd with only 2-3 decent songs. Now you can pay $3 for 3 songs???

What is this crap, I think from this move its pretty clear that the Govt is controlled by RIAA, MPAA, etc. Obama must be getting a large sum of money here or something. Obama seems to be going after the internet, requests for a internet kill switch??...really?
Im sure im gunna get thumbed for this post like crazy...w/e everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Surprising? Really? Legislator in works to give this single man the power to shut off the internet and has nationalized the entire banking system something that is clearly deemed unconstitutional in that pesky constitution that the Obama and Bush administration likes to trample all over.

Download limits by ISPs...RIAA being given more teeth than they remotely should given their history...not fun stuff.

The RIAA has no interest in an elegant or balanced solution that I've seen.

5 RIAA lawyers in the DOJ? I didn't realize copyright infringement was such a serious threat to our nation we needed so many copyright lawyers working for the government. Actually, since the government is a public institution, and its works belong to the public, why does the DOJ need any copyright lawyers? Shouldn't he be filling the DOJ with criminal, financial, civil lawyers? Lawyers who practice law in areas that the DOJ actually prosecutes?

Do you think for a moment that those prices would now be where they are without P2P networks? If they dissapear, so will the lower prices!

"Well having been through Napster and P2P networks, I think its time people started paying for music again. One cannot make the argument about it now since on Amazon, most albums are $10 or less. Especially considering you don't have to pay for the whole album anymore. Just the songs you like. Most of the albums I buy are under $7 for a full length album. I've been there since CDs first came out and I can't believe I used to pay $15 back in 1984 for a cd with only 2-3 decent songs. Now you can pay $3 for 3 songs??? "

Can anyone please remind me why I voted for Obama?

I am sure glad he is not "my" president

This comes to mind. I support artists I listen to, by going to their concerts and buying the albums from them. Not allowing huge corporations to screw over both the consumer and artist. Not to mention the control they exert over the media itself.

http://xkcd.com/86/

this sucks,

now we know how we end up with the laws that we have

we have the best government money can buy

and this administration, congress, like past administrations, congress is in the pockets of big business

we are all f*ck*d

i'm pleading insanity... ;-)

ok i got the solution, thanks google, boycott, stop buying all media content, music, videos, ect. until they come up with some reasonable consumer friendly distribution model.

There weren't really any viable alternatives (though the Ficus did look kind of promising).

What planet are you living on. Obama fan or foe, every single statement you have made is completely non-factual.

During the debates, McCain said that Obama was naive. However, as Obama's term lengthens, the American people are proving to be truly naive ones. He was the younger, charismatic, black, candidate that Hollywood and the media touted as the candidate for the people. I didn't vote for Obama, but I hoped for the best when he was elected. Now he has proven to be the socialist that I feared. America made their decision, now they can live with it.

Yawn, more evidence of the true reason why this country is failing atm, idiots like you.

Did you even READ the bill? Oh wait you didn't. It only gives him the power to shut down the connections of government or financial institutions. It is also IMPOSSIBLE for the internet to be shut down. Ok not impossible as the only two ways are, 1. destroy all of civilization, 2. Make all DNS shutdown, which is next to impossible.

I laugh whenever these arguments come up about music, p2p etc. I don't buy music. Why? Cause I don't listen to it! Radio is fine for me, but I have other ways to spend my time and money than on new music. Having said that, I really don't like the idea of filling a public position with a group of people who are for the ideals of one private corporation (RIAA). Then again... I hate politics anyway.

Obama is an idiot

Yeah who needs socialism, we don't need anything from the government. Who wants social assistance, unemployment insurance, welfare, fire departments, police, a justice system, health care, parks, libraries, schools, etc anyways? Just be rich and you don't have to worry about that stuff. Of course for the other 99%, just go fuck yourselves.

Stealing is stealing; stop playing the victim.
This whole "I don't want to give my money to the evil corporation" garbage is non-sense. And people wonder why all that you hear and see on Mtv and radio stations is pop and rap music.. maybe because it sells records?
Not to mention the mentality of people who pirate software because they feel that the devs make enough money off of corporations buying their product; so why should you.
If the evil companies give you the moral right to steal software, does it make sense to make your favorite music artist have to pay for you to listen to them? You know that artist have to pay companies back for their exposure, right?

Obviously the people that really control Washington are pretty powerful, I have no doubt that Obama intended to keep all of his promises, it seems the puppet masters are pulling his strings pretty hard. He's still better than crazy old John McCain. Vladimir Putin said that the things happening in the U.S. now are just like what happened in the Soviet Union before it collapsed, it's a little too late to save it now, is anybody dumb enough to think that one day we're going to wake up, reverse the deficit, and start paying all of this debt back? Of course not, we're going to collapse, file bankruptcy, give our debtors the finger and start over.

No shit. If the government isn't willing to just suck it up for a couple of decades, raise taxes and slash spending (especially military), they're going to be fucked pretty quickly. The whole idea of spending to raise the GDP/debt ratio is great, until something effects your GDP and then you're fucked. Most other developed countries realized this years ago and have been trying to lower their debt or at least their deficit.

"Who wants social assistance, unemployment insurance, welfare"

I think we can all agree that there's nothing wrong with private unemployment insurance provided by the company that fires you. We also need to have limits on welfare. If you let them, people will live on food stamps and section 8 housing vouchers their whole lives while the tax payers foot the bill. Plus you're in for a rude awakening if you think social security will pay for anything beyond the taxes on whatever your real source of income is after you retire.

As for the Firemen, police, doctors, teachers, etc... those are almost all paid for by local and state governments with the smart ones working in their respective private sectors.

Screw the poor, I didn't go through four years of long nights to get a college education and a well paying job so Joe Bob and Mary Anne could shoot out twenty kids and make moonshine all day.

I think it's early to be commenting on the intelligence of the current American president. We've had all of two months of his blunders so far. I'm sure we'll get the real good material in about three years when it's time for reelection.

I do hate th is goverment and am sick of all this damn krap.Why do I even bother to vote anyways ?
I voted for Obama but the others who ran were even worse so I voted for what I thought was the lesser evil.

Obama is Nobama !!!!

I know someone who downloads movies and video games. And that person knows this is wrong, but she continues to do it anyway. Folks this is unlawful activity, that is a fact. If someone puts something on sale and you obtain it unlawfully, then you put yourself in hot water.

We live in a capitalist society and there are laws to protect the free market.

They're good lawyers. They're exactly who he wants. Do you really think they care about their cases? They just care about winning, and they do a damn good job of it. That's what we need - people who know what the hell they're doing!

I'd rather have them in the DOJ than independent and attacking the rest of us.

Those of you that don't see what Obama is doing, can't see very long term. Typical Republican problem, don't blame yourself's for being born into limited thinking, blame your parents.

Ok, so what if the insurance company goes under, or the company that fires you doesn't purchase this insurance? Too bad I guess.




So your argument for this is that the current social security system doesn't pay out enough? I agree with you, the government has been negligent in providing for poor seniors. It is disgraceful to allow the elderly to become impoverished.




So its ok for municipal and state governments to be provide social services, but not the federal government?




How'd you pay for school? Government sponsored (or subsidized) student loans? Rich family members? Maybe a government subsidized college? Good luck becoming a doctor without any of the above. And because the poor suffered from bad parenting, bad public schooling, no expensive tutoring and no financial support, they shouldn't be able to go to a good college, get a good job and say "screw you" to the poor.




Agreed.

Funny no ones mentioned Obamas running mate, mister closed internet himself Joe Biden.
It does little wo warn people about an emotional choice, as was done and seen in the Obabma election. The Democrats have been sitting to the left of Hollowood, and seeking their attention. Hollowood=RIAA, so this comes as no surprise. Nancy Pelosi warned the banks prior to the election, and it was considered a joke at the time, and appalling by the republicans, not that theyve had any answers either. To those who voted for Obama, lipstick on a democrat/socialist is still a socialist