Slashdot Mirror
The DMCA Is Just The Beginning
dr. greenthumb writes: "With the Sklyarov-case still fresh in memory, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wants to rally up against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in order to preserve privacy and freedom of speech. The FTAA is currently negotiating agreements with several countries in the Western hemisphere concerning, among other issues, intellectual property rights. According to the EEF, the FTAA organization is considering treaty language that mandates nations pass anti-circumvention provisions similar to the DMCA, except the FTAA treaty grants even greater control to publishers than the DMCA."
If an organization calls itself ??AA, it's gonna take away you freedom... MPAA, RIAA, FTAA... makes you wonder what comes next :-)
Civil disobedience, anyone? This kind of legislation is equivalent to the police smashing down your door because you pop open the TV set you bought labeled "Do not open, refer to authorized service center" on the back. If they're going to sell it to me, there is no one on this Earth that can say what I can and cannot do with it. Oh, I know, they're only "leasing" you the software bits. Uh-huh. I'm all for action. If it gets bad enough, I say we resort to busting crackers out of jail and straight-out open resistance. You can't step on people with laws like this forever.
The link should point to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is different that the Eisenhower Fellowships.
Cheers,
RP
It's times like this you just have to feel hopeless. We (meaning the good ol' US of A) have captured a Russian giving a speech showing that some 'industry quality' encryption was nothing more than a XOR with a constant byte, and passed laws that give harsher penalties to programmers than to some murderes! And the worst part is that nobody else seems to CARE!
(And watch as I am moderated to -1 for this comment)
:wq
"In fact, I might be stuck in another country that has no free speech, and no human rights, and a stricter DMCA. "
You might be more right than you know. The US Constitution will eventually cause the demise of the worst of the DMCA, that is, if an honest judge ever hears a case (not a MPAA shill like Kaplan). It hasn't happened yet, but it eventually will, as the fair use rights circumvention in the DMCA are contrary to years of Supreme Court precedent (such as the Betamax case).
All it should take is a smart lawyer arguing that digital is no different than analog, the only difference is that the IP cartels are LYING about it being different so as to flout the Constitution in ways they were smacked down on in cases relating to analog technology. Judges may be clueless with regard to technology, but they are DEFINATELY not clueless if informed that a "fast one" is being pulled on them.
However, those who live elsewhere may not have the advantage of having a Constitution written by men who loathed overreaching government more than any other founders.
And, even here, I'm not completely confident that the Constitution will prevail, as we've suffered under regieme after regieme, both in the white house and in congress since 1933, who have ALL subverted the Constitution for their own personal and political gain.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
The EFF is not opposed to the FTAA because they're trying to extend the DMCA. Instead is the JLA who have allied with MSFT in an attempt to subvert NASA into not using CDA so the RIAA falls because as we all know MSFT is trying to capture all 3 and 4 letter domains so they can patent all abbrivations of names. The is SWC signing out.
" Fascism is the only way to enforce IP laws. They must have control over what you see and what you download. In other words, the government is going to be spying on you big time, not a little bit like before. The FTAA is also a way for the have nations to economically dominate (i.e., enslave) the have-nots since most IP in the western world is owned by Europe and North America."
You make an excellent point. Fascism is on the rise worldwide, though most of the world has ALWAYS been non-free, elective republics being only a recent phenomenon largely condfined to the Western world. And even there, most of the West didn't become democratic until after World War II, only 50 years ago or so.
History shows that most republics don't last more than 30 generations, the United States being in fact, the LONGEST lasting one. However, given the increasing despotic and authoritarian nature of the US government, I believe an argument can be made that we've already crossed the line into fascism. If we haven't crossed, we're percariously balanced on the edge.
As I've stated before, I believe the US has been becoming less free since 1933, when our first "king" came in to power (FDR) and single handedly removed all Constitutional restraint on the federal government. All in the name of "empowering government to do more FOR you".
Well, as you know, everything works both ways, a government that can do things FOR you, has equal power to do things TO you. Such as confiscate on average, about 50% of your income in various direct, indirect, and hidden taxes, so as to fund "bread and circuses" which both buys votes and keeps the majority cowed.
Giving our government this awesome power is what corrupted it. Who else, but the wealthy and powerful would be able to "buy" the use of this power?
The DMCA is many ways is the ultimate expression of such abuse, as it's complete narrow-special interest legislation, completely at odds with precedent, the Constitution, and morality. The kangaroo court nature of the 2600 trial exposed just how far the rot has gotten into other instutions. The corps have owned Congress and the White House for many years, but now they own the courts (judges come from lawfirms, who represent corps, who in turn pay obscene "speaking fees" to judges).
Which is why the DMCA must be fought. Believe me, it's only the BEGINNING of where things are headed, not the end. But nothing will happen so long as the majority of Americans keep looking on the government as some kind of nanny, thus empowering the government to do more for them, which in turn empowers it to do more TO them.
I'm not optimistic. The "bread and circuses" genie was let out of the bottle almost 70 years ago, and there is no sign of it being even checked, much less reversed. I find it ironic that the MOST evil of all states (Nazi Germany, the USSR, Communist China) are the ones who "take care of" their (obiedient) citizens with handouts stolen from the pockets of others. Somehow though, this gets distorted as "compassion".
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
A true free trade agreement is one for liberalization allowing for the free flow of goods. Certainly IP should be covered, but not to this extent. DMCA is anti-liberalization and hampers the development of technological advances.
Given the importance of this issue, it seems having lobbying/communication is required in Latin American nations regarding this subject.
How can this issue be communicated to those in Latin America with potential interest/influence of local governments? Has someone forward this information to Miguel de Iczara? I understand he has connections to the current administration in Mexico. Perhaps there are technological associations in Latin America who may be communicated this issue and rallied?
Given the effect of the DMCA in the US, American citizens probably have little influence --- maybe those in Latin America can make a difference.
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
More on this stream..
./ understand information, how
Most of us on
to use it, and disseminate it, widely, and
very quickly..
It is high time that we start to do this, before
we lose ALL our rights. Make websites, link to
them at the bottom of your pages. Get people
in the streets..
Re: writing to congressmen.. maybe it works but
I am not sure.. because congress people only work
for those people who pay them.. which means
not us.. so we have to put fear in their
hearts... take to the streets.. get in on the
front page of every paper in the country..make
them scared.. and they'll listen..
Protests, a manifesto (citizen's rights in the
IP age.. reasonable copyrights (ie. it expires
in 10 years).. and a whole slew of other things.
As well, we should keep protesting Adobe in
spite of what they say now.. they put Dimtry
in hock, so until he is free, protest them..
make Adobe use the same power they used to
get things like DCMA, to now get rid of it,
or we dont stop..
Thats the only way it will work, and only way
they will listen. Give hell to politicians to
take corporate bribes and pass laws that are
so obviously against the interests of the
people in the interest of corporate checks, and
give hell to the companies that are paying
those bribes..
Imagine a world where the govt. and corporations
(with the power of the laws they PAID for) can
search your PC (or the one in your office),
record everything, send the police to your house
and jail you for IP crimes (oops, your son
put a copy of IE on that old laptop, and the
license server at Redmond caught that! $6000 fine), or speechcrime (Dmitry), or thoughtcrime
(DeCss). This is what's coming people, unless
you get out there and do something.
It is war people.. wake up, or you will all
be prisoners of this orwellian future..
Organize yourselves (slashdot ed's?), get
a platform/manifesto, call the press, and
get out in the streets and make yourselves heard..
put fear in a politician today and remind them
that they had better answer to YOU.. or else..
I plan to, I hope many of you will do so as well
in your own cities/areas..
In addition to my technical degrees, I also have an accounting degree. FWIW, accountants generally live and die by their own integrity. It's hammered into us in a big way during our training.
They have no desire to trump up false claims because it would ruin their name. Their name is the most important asset that an accountant has. If I was asked to calculate how much we lost in sales I would probably poll a sample of the pirates (assuming that's possible) and ask them if they would have purchased the product if that was the only way they could have obtained it.
Using that sample I would deduce the total amount of potential revenue lost to theft.
I think the exaggerated claims you're referring to come from lawyers, not accountants. (On a side note: I started to doubt the entire accounting business now that pro forma financial statements are becoming the norm. However, that's unrelated to this topic.) PS Don't haze me for being off topic. I care about my Karma.
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
Kudos to the EFF for jumping on this and drawing negative publicity to it before it becomes as big a thorn in the collective side of the public as the DMCA. Of course, signed treaties are an order of magnitude harder to overcome than laws.
BUT...
Those who care have been fighting this sort of thing on an emergency basis. We have to shoot down ever single encroachment on our rights in response to those encroachments.
Instead, why don't we do the same thing that those trying to take away our freedoms are doing and start sponsoring treaties or laws that protect those freedoms. Seriously, the EFF is in prime position to start this kind of lobbying! Let's just get a few legal hotshots to start authoring 'sponsored' legislation like the RIAA, MPA, and BSA have done. Let's start contacting other governments and get them to start thinking about treaties that protect public domain and fair use.
The idea here is to fight fire with fire. Treaties can often 'trump' laws, but with the right treaty in place...
C'mon, if I'm gonna pay a membership fee to the EFF, I'd like to see some of it used for proactive work like this.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
As time passes, it becomes more and more difficult to retain focus in addressing the Freedom of Speech and Privacy rights infringement of the DMCA, the WIPO treaties (which are an expansion of the Berne Convention Treaty) and now the potential for indevidual national legislation in each of the countries of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). This newest development makes a consolidated stand against such over reaching legislation, substancially more difficult, and all but garentees the passage if DMCA-like legislation in countries other than the United States.
It looks like a strategy of divide and conquer will work for content providers in their quest to get this sort of legislation passed in countries throughout the world. The already fragmented opposition to this legislation stands to be further fragmented by the requirement that their efforts be divided accross (in the case of the FTAA) the countries of the Americas in order that there be no discrepency between countries' approaches to Intellectual Property.
I made this same argument with respect to the Open Source Community response to Craig Mundie and Microsoft with respect to the legitimacy of the GPL. There must be a focused response. The EFF has provided good leadership thus far, but in order to be an effective leader you must have followers. This is antithetical to the OSS mentality of independant developers (who seem to be the only ones focusing in this issue in any depth at the moment). This tendency, as evidenced by the response by some members of the community to the EFF request to discontinue protests in the Skylarov case durring negotiations with Adobe - where some members of the community basically told the EFF to stuff it and "You Can't Control Me". As a community, we need to realize that we need to follow leaders - not any leader, but those who have proven themselves - for our mutual benefit.
Additionally, I think it's worth spending a moment considering why the issues around the DMCA and similar legislation have recieved so little coverage in the popular media. I know it sounds paranoid, but since the deregulation of the communications industry, (we all know) conglomorates have been allowed to emerge which represent both the news media and content owners. I would not presume to make accusations that the popular news media has interests other than informing the public, but it's disappointing that we havnen't seen these issues addressed in the popular media. Their lack of coverage, leaves us with the responsibility of making others aware of Intellectual Property issues. IP is a complex subject, even explaining limited aspects of it in a comprehensive way is difficult, but we must begin focusing our efforts in this area as well.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Because of the censorship, they had to hide their messages, using creative images and fables. The people knew instinctively that these messages were important and they craved them.
Then Glasnost came about, and eventually the Iron Carpet came down. Suddenly the people were free. Starved of free speech, there was a short flurry of popular political activity, with large political meetings, marches and what not.
Then things settled down, and one day they woke up. All this new stuff they had been denied all these years was now available. What a disappointment it must have been to them to discover that although the political messages in the western press might be of a different color, most of the stuff was ads, tabloid reporting on celebrities, porn, worthless fiction, stupid game shows, and soap operas. We fought all these years to hear the message from the other side, and all they have to tell us is "Drink Coca Cola?"
If I was Russion, I'd drown myself in vodka, too.
And what has this to do with the DMCA? Just the fact that it will force U.S citizens to be vigilant (break the DMCA laws) in order to have their free speech. By being in opposition to the ruling regime (the megacorps), U.S citizens can enjoy the excitement of getting their free speech, in spite of the regime. Now it's worth something. Hard to come by free speech is valuable. Gratis free speech is worthless.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
The battle for control over the freedom of information and the right to use digital information with the same 'fair use' conventions as those of the analog versions is over. The corporations have already won, we havent even realised it yet.
We, slashdot readers, are the minority of people who actually care about such issues. The average person, the majority of the population, does not care and has been dumbed down by years of propaganda. Joe Blow doesnt have time to care about the rights he has for using and watching his DVD, he just wants to be able to see them. The corporations behind such digital control acts have done their work well. They have consistently portrayed all those opposing such works as pirates seeking to rip off honest companies. They have been working behind the scences, lobbying governments to put in place laws and structures restricting copyright. Indeed, earlier laws introduced by the USA, has merely 'softened up' the public for subsequent ones.
Any lobbying by the EFF or other freedom organisation will be portrayed in the media as the work of extremists and ignored as such. I have repeatedly written polite letters to members of parliment about important issues (I live in Australia, sigh) and I usually get a 'thank you for your interest' response.
Now, the EU is issuing a Directive to other Eurpoean states to pass laws similar to the DMCA, while not binding, you can bet that the states will be pressured to comply. With millions of consumers living under such laws, the rest of the world will a)be subject to the rule of those laws (Skarlov (sp?)case in point) b)be pressured by the companies to introduce similar laws.
Game Over!
The US Constitution will eventually cause the demise of the worst of the DMCA, that is, if an honest judge ever hears a case (not a MPAA shill like Kaplan).
The way things are going organised lobbying, both from megacorps and political interest groups may well be the demise of the US Constitution. The former tend to attack the IP clause, 1st, 4th & 5th ammendments, the latter tending to go more for the 10th and 14th
Also all of these people are masters at making their motivation (be it prevention of "piracy" or protection of "minorities") appear completly reasonable.
All it should take is a smart lawyer arguing that digital is no different than analog, the only difference is that the IP cartels are LYING about it being different so as to flout the Constitution in ways they were smacked down on in cases relating to analog technology. Judges may be clueless with regard to technology, but they are DEFINATELY not clueless if informed that a "fast one" is being pulled on them.
Though they appear able to fool a lot more people than simply judges and lawyers. e.g. The USPO apparently taking the view that using a computer equates to innovation (even if the method involved predates Christ.) Let alone that the DMCA was apparently passed without even being read.
However, those who live elsewhere may not have the advantage of having a Constitution written by men who loathed overreaching government more than any other founders
However holding up any constitution as some kind of "holy document" rendres it worthless. The people who wrote the US constitution would probably have taken action at least 20 years ago (before things got to the point that sufficent action carried a high risk of civil war.)
Welcome to doublethink America, where because liberty has a price of eternal vigilance, it can no longer be regarded as free.
Exigo spamos et dona ferentes
- FDR single handedly removed all Constitutional restraint on the federal government
ALL Constitutional restraint? So you're actually claiming no private citizen has won a court case against the US government on Constitutional grounds? That the protective powers of the Constitution aren't invoked every day?And did you ever stop to question why there are so many cases that go to the Supremes on Constitutional grounds? It's because the Legislature and Executive have stopped viewing the Consitution as a guiding principle for their actions, but as the ultimate limitation on them. What FDR did was to say to the Judiciary "I'll pass any damn law I like, and you'll have to strike it down years later when it finally reaches you through the courts."
Do you see the difference? Laws are passed that the Legislature and Executive know are unconsitutional (heck, ~50% of the Legislature, and the previous President and her husband are members of the American Bar Association), but they basically don't give a damn unless they're pretending to champion the Consitution for propaganda purposes.
I used to make an effort to not be so cynical about politics, but then I took a good, hard look at what is actually going on, and realised that We, the People, have no say in deciding the laws that effect us. Laws are bought and sold at will, all wrapped up in the sanitised form of bribery known as "campaign contributions"
Gaa, I give up. Read this very short taster, and begin to get yourself a clue.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.