SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Ars published a story about the effects the winner of Tuesday's presidential election could have on intellectional property issues:
The hot-button issues this election can be counted on one's fingers—and for most voters, things like copyright and patent policy don't make the list. Assigned to a wonkish zone far from the Sunday morning talk shows, intellectual property issues aren't near the heart of our deeply polarized political discourse.
Of the two major party candidates in 2016, only the Democratic candidate has a platform that even addresses copyright and patent policies. So today, let's look at what we know about Hillary Clinton's plan, and make some informed speculation about what could happen to these areas under a Donald Trump presidency.\
Given that the campaign is focused (as always) on a relatively small group of issues, tech policy watchers who spoke to Ars were surprised to see a presidential platform that mentions IP issues at all. Clinton's briefing paper on technology and innovation addresses both copyright and patent issues directly, and that in itself is something of a surprise. Trump's website has no such information, so the best clues to his approach lie in his public statements and the people he has surrounded himself with.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 08 2016, @04:09AM
I think people who pretend Hillary's position is at all ambiguous here are engaged in some severe cognitive dissonance to enable themselves to vote for her. The copyright industry has already given her millions and more generally she is openly on the take and the copyright industry has plenty to give. Copyright law will with 100% certainty be getting far more broken during a Clinton presidency. I expect we'll follow the UK in going aiming for up to 10 year prison sentences for infringements. After all, we clearly don't imprison enough people. And for those that miss the sarcasm there we currently have the highest incarceration rate in the world, by a landslide. People like to picture Russia as the oppressive government. They have an imprisonment rate of half the US. China has about 1/7th ours. We have 4.4% of the world's population, and 22% of its prisoners. Land of the Free.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 08 2016, @10:37AM
That phrase doesn't say everyone is free in that land. It says the land is owned by those who are free. Clearly that doesn't apply to the prisoners. Or to those without possessions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 08 2016, @08:36PM
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
And nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free.