I thought Republicans were for tort reform and REDUCING civil suits?

http://news.com.com/%27Pirate+Act%27+raises+civil+rights+concerns/2100-1027_3-5220480.html?tag=nefd.lede

The so-called Pirate Act is raising alarms among copyright lawyers and lobbyists for peer-to-peer firms, who have been eyeing the recording industry's lawsuits against thousands of peer-to-peer users with trepidation. The Justice Department, they say, could be far more ambitious.

A proposal that the full Senate could vote on as early as next week would let federal prosecutors file civil lawsuits against suspected copyright infringers.

One influential proponent of the Pirate Act is urging precisely that. "Tens of thousands of continuing civil enforcement actions might be needed to generate the necessary deterrence," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said when announcing his support for the bill. "I doubt that any nongovernmental organization has the resources or moral authority to pursue such a campaign."

The Pirate Act represents the latest legislative priority for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and its allies, who collectively argue that dramatic action is necessary to prevent file-swapping networks from continuing to blossom in popularity.

So if a doctor maims a patient for life or an insurance company refuses to pay out for treatment and someone dies, the maximum liability should be $250,000, or less than .001% of the typical insurance company's assets. You see, it's for the greater good, besides, these suits CLOG the legal system according to the Republicans.

On the other hand, if your kid downloads a tune off the internet, big business should be able to sue you for every last one of your assets and then some, and flood the legal system with tens of thousands of new lawsuits.

Pathetic. And giving lie to ANOTHER Republican lie. Can any one party be more in the pockets of big-money lobbyists?

Your rights to "petition the government for redress of grievances". That is what a lawsuit is, in truth.

On the other hand, they get newversions of the same right.

Message? YOU don't amount to a warm bucket of spit.

The ugly reality is that the RIAA is one degree of seperation removed from common street thugs, just less imaginative. I know that because I spent 27 years in the music biz, an industry that is hardly populated by our best and brightest. On the contrary, it has the aggregate IQ of a box of false teeth and the ethics of a Barbary Coast Slaver.

The reason music sales are declining ISN'T because of Internet downloads.

Despite the massive decrease in downloading caused by their existing lawsuit campaign (and the success of pay-for-download programs like Apple iTunes), their revenues continue to collapse.

Why? Because they have contempt for their customers and for artists. They release schlock shit that "you WILL like or else" and try to use media monopolies like ClearChannel to flood the airwaves with it and prevent real music from getting exposure. Hence, US revenues continue to collapse.

Eventually, as the major record producers in the USA fold, and Clear Channel's power declines, the independent music lobby (and angry citizen's groups) will have more lobby dollars and the RIAA and Republican friends will get their big come-uppance (as if bankruptcy wasn't enough of one).

...big businesses to be able to sue individuals.

It's all about which direction the money flows.

Oh, and they'd never limit the ability of one big business to sue another big business, and they'd never complain about excessive legal fees for corporate work. Republicans only try to make lawyers look bad if they earn a lot of money representing working and middle class individuals who sue large corporations.

So, if a PI lawyer gets 1 million dollars suing an insuarnce company whose client was negligent, that's a threat to the smooth functioning of capitalism. But if that insurance company pays its corporate lawyers to set up off shore partnerships which will be used to pass asset value off to insiders while ripping off the public markets, you don't hear a peep from Republicans, even though every single aspect of that transaction is a threat to capitalism.

. . . slamming SLAPP lawsuits by big biz against sole traders. You also don't hear them calling for an end to business versus business civil suits (which represent 75% of civil litigation in America).

every time they don't get their way. Including the election.