If you thought the US was having some difficulty keeping up with the rapidly changing world it has just gotten worse. Congress is getting ready to pass the latest revisions to the DMCA which will make each and everyone of you reading this a terrorist in the eyes of the Justice Department. You read that right.

During a speech in November, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales endorsed the idea and said at the time that he would send Congress draft legislation. Such changes are necessary because new technology is “encouraging large-scale criminal enterprises to get involved in intellectual-property theft,” Gonzales said, adding that proceeds from the illicit businesses are used, “quite frankly, to fund terrorism activities.” (c|net)

Everything is about terrorism and and kiddie pr0n except for the terrorism and kiddie pr0n. Seriously. As if the nation was not struggling enough in the global marketplace we are going to pass laws like this and dismiss Internet neutrality measures so that economic power can continue to consolidate further into a select few corporate entities.

The simple fact of the matter is that the re-vamped DMCA will at once chill innovation–as the nation continues to slide backwards–and criminalize what used to be considered Fair Use. The new civil and criminal measures will be used by existing participants in the marketplace to bar any newcomers. In addition, it will be used to enforce commercial measure to ensure that consumers pay multiple times for the same content, because remember it is about the medium and not the content, as well as rest on the assurance that any attempt to shift content or share under the tenets of Fair Use will allow them to pursue both criminal and civil cases against individuals. As Gonzales states, you are a terrorist if you even believe in Fair Use.

To flip their meme back on them, why does Congress hate America so much?