ACM vs. RIAA

stinkbomb writes "The venerable Association for Computing Machinery has posted a legal brief on it's site regarding Felten vs. RIAA. The ACM position is: 'ACM believes that the application of any law to limit the freedom to publish research on computer technology will impose a cost not only on ACM's members, but also on the academic community, the process of scientific discourse, and society in general.'"

Comments

Re:How much sway does the ACM have though?

[h2odragon]

potentially lots.

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMEN. All the EFF has is money. The ACM has people who can reasonably explain whey they, as a voter, think the congresscritter needs to do something. Believe it or not, as idealistic as it sounds, enough people writing letters can still overcome large amounts of money in deals like this.

RIAA promoting MP3's

[compugeek007]

The money the bloated record exec's spend on this lawsuit will only drive up the price of CD's which will lead to more MP3 sharing and more underground groups who will be cracking the lame security RIAA lugheads can think of.

Felton would do nothing but help the RIAA better thier security by being a white hat. Like there aren't thousands more people out there who can hack security - and about 99.999% of those people wouldn't be nice enough to tell the RIAA about it like Felton.

...

Are you kidding?

[NitsujTPU]

ACM has chapters in MANY universities, has MANY professors and such as members, hosts the MOST prestrigious and important conferences (SIGGRAPH, SIGMICRO, and the like). I would have to say that the EFF is not in the same league as ACM by far. I know MANY college libraries and professors offices with BOOKSHELFS devoted to ACM proceedings. I would have to say that ACM holds a lot of clout (and besides, they have my dollar, hehe).

I am a proud member of UPE and ACM.

um...hemos?

[vergil]

Just a minor quibble, but did you intend to include a "Patent Pending" icon along w/ this story?

Last time I checked, the RIAA was in the business of copyright enforcement.

Perhaps /. should whip up a generic, catch-all Intellectual Property icon. Or, better yet, individual icons and sections to reflect the different facets of IP protection - patent, copyright, trademark, and sui generis (so-called one of a kind protections, like those covering databases in the EU).

Sincerely,

Vergil

Re:I'm sorry

[guygee]

RIAA may have the money, but the ACM has a much greater degree of prestige and trust in the eyes of the public. Every computer science and computer engineering professor, and all of their students as well, will line up behind the the ACM against the RIAA as this conflict gains media exposure. The public will trust the scientists and college professors over the corrupt music industry moneyboys. Most politicians will be forced to fall in line. The key to this happening is that this conflict is brought to the forefront, in full view of the public, by every means possible - public protests, bumperstickers, letters to the editor, internet forums and mailing lists, word-of-mouth...

Re:I'm sorry

[RAGEAngel9]

The public is going to trust the smart people??
Where the hell have you been for the last decade??
No one EVER pays attention to the smart people. If they did the public would be smart themselves, but they aren't and so the RIAA grows and grows.

Ain't life grand.

Re:I'm sorry

[guygee]

Sorry, I do not buy into this type of self-defeating cynicism. Note how the RIAA backed down in the case of Prof. Felten, denying that they had ever threatened to sue him. The public perception that the money-bloated purveyors of "decadent" popular music are attacking academics and scientific progress is a sure loser for the RIAA. Our task is to get this picture out into the view of the public.