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CBDTPA Finds A Champion In the House
pshoemaker writes: "Wired is reporting that House member Adam Schiff of Burbank is seeking a co-sponsor for his House version of Hollings' CBDTPA. His 'Dear Colleagues' letter lays-out the same inspired thinking: that without copy protection there can be no broadband entertainment." Another reader suggests: "Be sure to also check out who's been paying him just so you know who it is he's representing..."
Perhaps it is time to start sending dt-mail. If they already have people in both houses, count the days of freedom...
Does downloading porn and watching people's webcams count as entertainment? ;-)
--
Jay
http://freshmeat.net/projects/eddie42
Oh, so THAT's why every single new movie release has its own full multimedia web site to promote it.
And here I thought they were hesitant because the uneducated are typically afraid of what they don't understand.
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
...to my representatives on this one. Long, detailed letters, in fact. I encourage everyone else to do the same. Make sure that they're well and fully aware of how their own constituents feel on the issue.
"without copy protection there can be no broadband entertainment"
Hmm, I'm being entertained by this divx'ed Matrix movie I just downloaded
Hacker Media
Send a letter to the editor of your local papers, letting them know how bad this bill is.
I did, and they actually printed it. Of course, I have the (mis)fortune to be in South Carolina, the state that Hollings represents. And I would gladly help un-elect him, if I wasn't moving to California in two weeks...
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
Is this really a surprise, then?
Most of the time, I'm against representatives doing things like this, but I think he's one of the rare few who can claim he's representing his constituents...
When encryption is outlawed, ?o'AZ-,++o+i++##4AoA+-/-C++bI+/.+~
4 TV/Movies/Music $19,435
Wow, the entertainment industry bought this guy for under $20k! Couldn't some sort of open source group scrape together that much and buy some politicians of their own to combat this thing?
__
Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem. - Larry Wall
NO!!!! Why Adam Schiff, why? I know times have probably been tough since you lost your job as DA of New York City, but please don't sell out to the Hollywood lobby!
Quick, someone get Ben Stone and Jack McCoy on the phone and tell them to talk some sense into the old man.
It hurts when I pee.
The same name as the District Attorney character on Law & Order, (a few seasons removed)?
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
Don't email, don't write -- FAX!
h tml and fill out the brief form.
Go to this site: http://www.digitalconsumer.org/cbdtpa/cbdtpa-inf.
It includes a sample letter that you can editor accordingly and then it will automatically fax it to your government representatives, encouraging them to act against this bill (and potential law!).
I Personally Recommend monolinux
Burbank is home to Der Mouse. He isn't just dependant on Disney for money, but for votes.
A well-crafted lie appears unquestionable - Dama Mahaleo
Wasn't the old D.A. on Law & Order named Adam Shiff?
Could be wrong...
"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. --Thomas Jefferson "
Did you choose that just for this story?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
For anybody to lazy (or paranoid) to click on the link:
March 27, 2002
Promote Consumer Use of Broadband and Prevent Digital Piracy!
Dear Colleague
I invite you to join me in supporting legislation that would
encourage demand for broadband Internet service and protect
creative enterprise from the threat of digital piracy.
The promise of the Internet has not been fully met. While
consumers have unprecedented access to information resources
on the web, there is still a demand for more. Congress has
recently debated ways to better serve our constituents by
improving access to broadband Internet service, yet the demand
for this technology is severely lacking. This is simply
because consumers can't get what they want -- high quality
digital content like movies, music, and video games.
The reason for this has become very clear. Our nation's
creative enterprises have been hesitant to offer their
products over the Internet out of fear of piracy --
intellectual theft. And their concerns are justified. The
movie studios estimate that they lose over $3 billion annually
to piracy, yet private industry has stalled in developing
technology to prevent this illegal activity.
I would like to direct your attention to the following op-ed
written by Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of Disney.
Mr. Eisner points out the profound historical significance of
intellectual property rights and draws on one early and
aggressive advocate of protecting such property rights, the
16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
I plan to introduce legislation that would safeguard digital
content by spurring the rapid development of copyright
protection technology. Similar legislation, S. 2048, has been
introduced in the Senate by Senators Hollings, Stevens,
Inouye, Breaux, Nelson and Feinstein. I believe this is a
necessary step and I encourage you to join me in this effort.
If you have any questions or would like to become an original
cosponsor, please contact me or Jen Briggs of my staff at
5-4176.
Sincerely,
Adam B. Schiff
Member of Congress
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
if it does pass, expect a mass exodus of EEs, CEs and CS from this country, and whatever tech boom is occuring or about to occur, will slip. No self-respecting computer engineer or coder will not permit himself/herself to be in a place where they will not be able to innovate, as this law will discourage it and destroy it
Slashdot Hypocrisy at work?
Every day, they seem to be pushing this more and more.
People if you are going to stop this you better act FAST!!! we DONT have much time.
I listed ways to stop this in a previous slashdot post
Its time to take action, meaning schedule a mass protest, not a petition, but protests, on many college campus's, highschools, and online.
If this law passes we are fucked, open source will be killed, the internet will be practically killed, broadband wont be adopted, and neither will digital tv, people will be busy using VCRs, and busy on their 56k to check their email since besides trading files theres no reason to ever upgrade to broadband.
Previous post on slashdot, FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!
INFORM --- Tell the public what the SSSCA is!
Explain ---- Tell the public whats wrong with the SSSCA
Results ---- Tell them what will happen if the SSSCA passes, and what kinda society it will lead to if the trend continues
Solution ---- Tell them how to stop the SSSCA, tell them a msg similar to what I'm telling you, explain to them not to just stop the SSSCA, but to promote absolute freedom of speech online, meaning no one can control what you do with your computer, if the RIAA and MPAA does not want us to pirate stuff, they should make it impossible to pirate or undesirable to do so, if this means lowering the price so its not worth buying a CD or DVD burner, or if this means locking the DVD up, they have options, what they shouldnt do is take away our freedoms, its like saying you cant use your hands to draw a copy of a picture you like.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Ya know .. from looking at his constituants contributions, the film/music/tv industry only gave him $19,435. Why dont we just buy our own congressman? The way i see it, if every member of slashdot gave only a dollar, we could raise enough money to convince the house to do our bidding.
.. it _is_ government by the people _for_ the people .. isn't it?
Afterall
My god!
We thought we had it bad, now we have poteintally two seperate bills trying the same thing!
I don't think writing letters and making phone calls is a sure fire way to stop either of these.
What are we to do? SERIOUSLY?
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
I wonder if the representatives who are sponsoring these bills could be charged with accepting bribes? After all the US Government is supposed to be Of the people, By the people, and FOR the people. There is NO mention of commercial eneterprises in the Constitution. Any lawyers out there have a view on this?
The moral of the story is: "Always remember to mount a scratch monkey."
I don't think it gets much easier to give Congress a piece of your mind, and it sounds like they're in need of one. I've kind of been dragging my heels on this because I've been wanting to send them a fax directly but if it's as easy as e-mail I'll just paste my document in there.
Yeah and its also how you saved napster, and stopped the partriot act.
Petitions do nothing, writing people who dont listen to you will do nothing, you have to show them you disagree, begging gets you no where
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Why is it *their* Internet all of a sudden? Just downloading an ISO of Redhat 7.2 takes a miniature eternity on my gigabit backbone with 100mbits to the desktop, because that's not all *my* traffic - can you imagine the sudden and continuous drain in bandwidth when anyone in my subnet decides to turn on the tube to watch Glitter?
Okay... bad example...
You hear about telecomm companies putting their own special networks together all the time. The entertainment industry needs to do the same. HDTVNet (or whatever they call it) can then be tightly controlled, with high-security copy protection devices all down the line, right down to the decoder on the TV. Make them completely inaccessable to the desktop - freaked out connectors, bizzare syncing and decoding strategies, whatever. No special legislation required - just technological consistancy in their own products.
The reasons they don't do this, of course, is two-fold. One, it would be hideously expensive (although will all that piracy suddenly gone, they'd suddenly be overflowing with revenue... right?), and two...
Well, I can't think of anybody who would go for it. Re-purchase every bit of audio/video equipment I own just to conform to the new services? I don't think so.
Of course, it's not like I won't have to do that in the next few years anyway... Thanks, incompatable HDTV standards!
GMFTatsujin
Only 60,000 of us would have to pitch in $5 to make our very own pro-digital consumer senator a reality.
Matt
A little quote from the wired.com site:
"A Democratic legislator"
His arduous fight for democracy really impresses me.
It speaks poorly for that loser that he can be bought out for a measly $19,000. That doesn't even pay an intern!
I would have thought it'd cost a couple million to pass a shite law through congress. I guess in a down market every penny helps.
----- Refactoring is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god.
this, or are they that corrupt ?
The 'industry' estimates it lost 3 billion...based on WHAT ?!?!?! Figures they had surgically removed from Sen. Hollins A$$ ??
What is the basis for this absolute dollar value ??
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
"without copy protection there can be no broadband entertainment"
id be more inclined to believe that WITH copy protection there can be no broadband entertainment.
So tell me... What makes more sense? The CBDTPA? or this?
When will people get it through their thick skulls that petitions dont work.
Lets look at DMCA, did petitions stop it? Hell no.
Lets look at Napster, did petitions save Napster? Hell no.
Why isnt marijuana legal? People have been petitioning for it by the millions for 20 years or more now.
Face it, Petitions have never solved a thing.
Tabacco was made Legal because people didnt obey the laws, civil disobedience by the millions, and there arent enough jails to enforce it, alcohol? Alcohol was illegal once, it took the mafia and illegal activities, corruption and control of the government through the mafia, essentially terrorism tactics to make alcohol legal.
SSSCA, you arent going to stop this unless you fight, you dont have to be violent to fight, you can fight with your intelligence, programmers should write unstopable programs like freenet, rich people should support lobby groups on our side, people who are good writers should write books, articles, editorials, and give as much media attention as possible to this, public speakers should host rallies along with musicians at local colleges where other intelligent people are. Contact churches, libaries, civil rights groups, and convince them how important it is to protect our rights. Contact patriotic groups, anti government groups, and anarchist groups and explain to them how the government is trying to control them not just offline but online as well.
Contact the elderly, contact teachers, and highschool students, explain to all of these groups whats going on, hang posters in front of highschools, near libraries, near sam goody and HMV, Blockbuster and other stores which tell people about the SSSCA, use clever images, such as comparing the SSSCA to Nazism, Explain how unfair it is, use images of jail and rich CEOs, show images of locks on their computer.
If all of the people reading this did this in their towns seperately, meaning true activism on a LARGE scale, Well its simple to break it down into parts.
INFORM --- Tell the public what the SSSCA is!
Explain ---- Tell the public whats wrong with the SSSCA
Results ---- Tell them what will happen if the SSSCA passes, and what kinda society it will lead to if the trend continues
Solution ---- Tell them how to stop the SSSCA, tell them a msg similar to what I'm telling you, explain to them not to just stop the SSSCA, but to promote absolute freedom of speech online, meaning no one can control what you do with your computer, if the RIAA and MPAA does not want us to pirate stuff, they should make it impossible to pirate or undesirable to do so, if this means lowering the price so its not worth buying a CD or DVD burner, or if this means locking the DVD up, they have options, what they shouldnt do is take away our freedoms, its like saying you cant use your hands to draw a copy of a picture you like.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
"O say, does that star-spangled banner now wave
O'er the land of the owned and the home of the slaves."
---------
Visit me
Disney. NBC. Warner Brothers. Universal Studios (near enough, anyway)...
Enough said?
He's representing his constituents, all right. The ones who contribute to his campaign funds.
TV/Movies/Music is only #4 on the list of people who are funding his campaign. That's about 1/12 of his funding. The three groups above #4 have little to nothing to do with the TV/Movies/Music group. If you want to draw conclusions from this chart I would say that the senator is doing this more because he believes in it rather than people paying him to do it.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
>I don't think writing letters and making phone >calls is a sure fire way to stop either of these.
> What are we to do? SERIOUSLY?
One word: revolution
A capitalist government, by its very definition, defends the principles of capitalism, that is to say, its representatives _must be capitalist_ (or hypocrites). Which means a representative will make valuations according to potential profit to him/her.
And letters from one or two annoyed constituents are of less worth than a huge donation. Be fully aware here that the number of people who even care about SSCA/DMCA/ABCDEFGA are so low that the sway of the vote is irrelevant here.
The only solution is a more socialist government. That is to say, representatives who care about the common good of society as a whole, rather than capital.
So, fellows of Slashdot (most of whom are pro-GPL, a very honourably socialist notion in itself), don't spread the world about the benefits of anti-ABCDEFGA -- no-one cares, and its scope is limited -- spready the world about the benefits of _a government for the people, rather than for itself_. That is to say, an (uncorrupt) socialist(*) government.
(*) Let's get terms firmly right here. A socialist, in the original meaning of the word, believes that the *producer* of work is the owner. Before the Limaughettes come running, this is *not* the same as USSR-style communism
Every 5 minutes i see someone recommending petitions. You guys have been petitioning and NOTHING HAPPENED.
The only purpose of a petition is to let the RIAA and MPAA along with other government officials know your real names, and who you are.
They already know 80 million napster/kaaza/gnutella users disagree with this law, they already know the main reason people got broadband was because of these technologies.
This is war on sharing, not war on piracy.
And all who disagree with this law need to act, telling them you disagree is not as effective as showing them, I'm not telling you to do anything violent, or illegal, but protest in more intelligent ways, begging them not to pass the law wont get you anywhere.
They tried to beg them not to pass the DMCA, the Patriot act, and with all these users of napster and others it didnt keep the RIAA from killing it.
Freenet, Gnutella, and stuff like that is what saved file sharing, YOU have to ACT not write letters.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
What really bothers me about this whole thing is I have written both of my Senators and my Congressman and have heard NOTHING back. I haven't even received the usual form letter one gets when you write a politician. Guess it sorta tells you who the government listens too, and I don't mean the people they represent.
I dont see you guys trying to stop this.
I dont see you all protesting in the streets on a massive scale, because thats what its going to take. Once it passes your protests wont work, it will be War on Sharing.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
3) Everybody thinks that their product is 10 x cooler the second it's on the Internet. They think that they are 1337 h@x0rs or something. They think that sales will go through the roof because they are a .com.
.bombs? Yeah, but with senators in their pocket and the pocketbooks of all of their consumers to spend, they can make a bad business model work if they want to.
...perhaps they should have learned something from all of the
Also, I don't think that setting up a network is outside of their reach, I think that most people don't seem to understand that there are networks outside of the internet, or that you could use a web site to control a tv show shown on a diff network. Oh well, so much for infrastructure.
lets flood the local news papers with letters. If Hemos is still reading this, why not post up a list of emails of news people, lets get this issue on the Oreilly factor, MSNBC, and as many highly watched shows as possible, also lets write as many news papers as possible, how about a list.
While i dont think petitions will stop this, if you are going to petititon, do it seriously, a flood of letters to hundreds of diffrent news sites and shows may work.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
"The view they once knew made our nooses too tight.
This justice in swine, this devil in god.
So god bless my soul---I've got total control
and the crosshairs lined up dead in my sight...
I'm voting with a bullet!"
--Corrosion of Conformity
In the Senate, joining Hollings as co-sponsors of the CBDTPA are one Republican and four Democrats: Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), John Breaux (D-Louisana) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California). At a hearing this month, Feinstein showed her colleagues a pirated movie that she said an aide had downloaded from a file-trading service.
So it's okay for a Senator's aide to illegally download a movie from the internet, and for the Senator to show this movie to her friends without any reprocussions. I wonder if they obtained permission from the copyright holder ahead of time to use this as a case sample. My bet is that they are doing the same thing at home behind closed doors themselves. Sometimes the blatant hypocracy just boggles the mind!
Does anyone know if the text of this bill is available on the 'net anywhere?
... check out (http://www.wipout.net/essays.html) which contains a number of essays on how ordinary folk see the encroachment of copyright and fencing of the intellectual commons will impact them.
I don't have an interest in "broadband entertainment". Fuck the bill, fuck the dude in the house pushing the bill and fuck the entertainment companies. The internet and my computers are more than high-cost boob-tubes. God forbid anyone consider using them for anything other than putting more money in the pockets of hollywood and record companies or do anything like use a computer for educational and personal uses.
From what I have read, he doesn't understand this bill fully. He's just taking it on fait that it will do what the movie companies tell him. If he actually read it and saw that it would not only be impossible to enforce, but it seems morally inexcusable from a business sense to force the technology sector to come up with methods to save content from the evils of the consumer. Then again, he may have read it and just truly agrees with the movie companies. Coming from that area in CA - I guess I could understand that. +sigh+
But I'm preaching to the choir...
There were 60 million users of napster, 80 million users of fasttrack, and most likely hundreds of millions of file sharing people from hundreds of countries.
Do you think it matters? EVEN if 90 percent of the people on the net share files, and even if 90 percent of the people who got broadband got it so they could share files, THEY DONT GIVE A DAMN
These guys just want to pass the law because it benifits them, disney and others have bribed them with money or gifts, most likely enough money to ruin their polticial career and they obviously dont care.
IF they cared, they wouldnt be changing the name of the bill and using weird names to make it difficult for you to protest.
You act like this is a democracy, as if every voice counts, surprise this is a republic, if every voice counted, BUSH would not be president right now, after all he didnt win the popular vote, and he didnt really win the recount either, but the electoral college (THE JUDGE) and the system made him president.
Its not what the people want that matters, its what the special interest groups, politciians, court system, and powerful elite whats that matter.
The only way to get what you want, is to fight for it, asking for it wont get you anywhere.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE- The term `interactive computer service' has the meaning given that term in section 230(f) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)). just checkin
My senators and rep fully support the thing.
They *know* I can't do shit to get them reelected whereas a lot of $ will certainly help.
Actually, in this particularly rare case, he *IS* serving the interests of his constituents. One of them, anyways. Disney's HQ is in Burbank.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
The Law and Order guy??
To whom do I send the $?
sulli
RTFJ.
Offtopic, I know, but I thought people might enjoy reading the full text of that Kentucky HR Resolution:
Thank god someone in government has a sense of humor!
Umm... it is humor, right???
Slashdot comments... splitting hairs since 1997.
Disney, Warner Bros, NBC, Universial, MGM, and countless equipment rental, animation, production houses, etc are based there. Whole blocks of Burbank are owned by Disney. The movie business is really based there not in Hollywood.
Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.
I have yet to see this covered in any meaningful way in the popular media (CNN/ABC/MSNBC, etc)
Does anyone have links to existing news coverage?
How can we get this to be covered at all? Suggestions / links / emails?
In a letter to the Washington Post, Jack Valenti wrote:
My unpublished reply:
Mr. Valenti's claim that "not much (legal) material is out there ... to create the need for a cable modem or a digital subscriber line (DSL)" is laughable.
Obviously, Mr. Valenti hasn't attempted to download a 650 MB Debian Linux Install CD.
Perhaps Adobe's After Effects video editing software is more his style. A 30-day trial version weighs in at a hefty 109 megabytes.
To put it in perspective: downloading this would take over four and a half hours on a "normal 56K computer modem" -- if you're lucky enough to live in a neighbourhood with good phone lines. If, like most people, Mr. Valenti is stuck at 33.6 Kbps, it would take closer to eight hours to finish. That's enough time to watch Erich von Stroheim's Greed in its entirety.
Paul
I guess the DCMA only applies to us little people, and not to Congress(wo)men themselves. Hurry up and arrest her; there will be one less person behind the War on Copyright Villians!
I'm thinking that the next step is to integrate copyright protection into everyone's watch. It could monitor the electromagnetic environment around the wearer and automatically send those GPS coordinates to the FBI!
Technology will save us from our stupidity. Close your eyes, click your heels together, and say "This can't be hell, this can't be hell...."
--ipsuid
It appears Ockham lost his razor and grew a beard.
To fight this will require intelligence, make the law completely un enforceable, build freenet,
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
USE BUSH!!!!
Even if you don't like him, use him as a second line of defense. This abomination has to be signed to become law...
Write (or fax) to Bush, and tell him to actively oppose this legislation, and to veto it if it gets passed.
Use his biases against him:
"Unwarranted intrusion of government into business"
Supports the "Liberal" Hollywood Elite at the expense of our innovative tech sector
He himself said that "I prefer innovation to litigation".
Even if you don't personally believe these things, remember that he supposedly does. Use his biases to our advantage! The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend!
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Petitions do nothing, writing people who dont listen to you will do nothing, you have to show them you disagree, begging gets you no where
/sarcam **
** sarcasm **
Thats right, we'll stop at nothing less than violent overthrow of the government. Or maybe we can get a few hundred of our closest friends to run for congress and win. Or maybe we can leave and start our own country. With blackjack and hookers!
**
Or maybe those of us who are not listed in Forbes or People can attack the bill by spreading knowlege and letting our congress people know that our money and our votes will go elsewhere.
You sir, are an dumbass....
Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
Now, he's merely paying them back.
Threatening not to vote for someone who only became a politician for the money, is not going to matter.
The Napster people did just what you are recommending, the protested, by the MILLIONS! They still are protesting now by the MILLIONS.
Its not making a diffrence, the laws are still getting worse.
Its going to take more than protests to stop this. We need to march at washington to stop this, and protest by the millions in front of the whitehouse.
How many of you are ready to do it? Lets decide on a date.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
As long as politicians get campaign financing individually, there will always be corruption. People do not sway politicians, money does. The only way to stop this nonsense is to eliminate individual financing. Donations need to go into a fund by which each politician gets an equal share. No more oil companies giving large amounts of money to Texas senators and representatives.
MPAA and RIAA donate to their favorite senator. Microsoft donates to their favorite senator. We're screwed.
This kind of legislation will not bring big media to broadband. It will create so much cost, confusion, delay, disinterest, and backlash that they will never see that goal as long as such a law is on the books. The CBDTPA will do harm where its supporters think it will help.
I will consider leaving the USA if this passes.
If they take the only freedom i have left (freedom on my computer) then why the hell stay in the USA? A country which claims to protect freedom when it bombs afganastan, then passes fucked up laws like this? I think I'd be better of in afganastan with bin laden and the taliban.
Well maybe not, but its not much better over here.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
I think the words of the immortal Thinkgeek can pretty much sum up the /. reader's attitudes towards 90% of senators.
"Go away or I will replace you with a very small shell script"
People are too cheap to actually do it.
I told everyone to donate to the EFF, and to special interest groups which can support us, these groups do exsist, not to mention theres freenet and others
Also you dont know how much money hollings has in stock, most likely in the millions, this is why hes so willing to ruin his political career.
would you ruin yours for millions?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
How can the entertainmnet industry value the loss to copy protection? I understand all the copies of CD's and movies that are sold all over the world but legislation here is not going to stop that. But if I was "NEVER" planning on seeing a movie or buying a movie or CD but I download it because "i can"; how does that constitute lost revenus? If I was not going to see it they didn't loose anything? If I saw a movie once in a theater and then downloaded it and watched it at 3:00 am when I couldn't go to a movie theater anyway to see it again; how is that lost revenue? I do not understand the logic behind these numeric claims.
It is sad that you have given up
You are truly a lost soul
I will never give up.
There is still good in Washington D.C.
This won't pass with out a fight
Ok I'm done
It's not the OS it's the user that sucks. If it's user friendly, you get stupider people. - clinko
You think they have pictures of him felching with Mickey?
I bet the producers voted for George W. "There ought to be limits to, uh, to freedom" Bush.
We all know that something is keeping broadband entertainment from really catching on. After all, what ELSE could it be keeping the intrepid producers of Geeks In Space off the net-waves? With safe, secure protection for their creative property, Andover might be coaxed into letting Taco et al., out of their cave for a bit of fresh air.
Or maybe not. Keep those banner ads a-clickin'!
First, nothing begins if not opening
I wonder how many times many 'free speech' people will have to have their freedoms regulated away by such 'free speech' advocates as Congressman Schiff before they will realize laws such as this retard free speech.
I though only Republicans were bought and paid for by big business.
How can they prove the people who they downloaded it from didnt actually OWN the movie?
And if it is pirated, shouldnt they go directly to jail?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Following on the heels of the CBDTPA or SSSCA, the vast tentacle of our great leader is set to launch the Comprehensive Tract Harassing Unclean Loathsome Hacker Underground or CTHULHU.
Referred to as an indispensable requirement of all future digital broadcasts, especially sporting events, popular HBO series, and anything with nude girls in it, the representative from the north-eastern Massachusetts district, Nyarla Thotep(D), went on to state that, "...all cryptic (sic) messages can only be protected by this new law."
Speaking in a private symposium on the campus of the Miskatonic University Thotep went on to say that premature revelation of encrypted messages constituted the greatest threat to our future.
Opponents of CTHULHU point out that Thotep has long been known as a spokesman for the secretive author of the soon to be published Necronomicon, but Thotep has put off any investigation of her backers for now saying that "Soon the truth will rise from the sea drowning out the unbelievers!". When called for elaboration, Thotep refused additional comment.
However, it misses out on one point that I think is a valuable addition to the letter. If you are going to send a letter to your reps, please consider adding this!! Here's what I wrote...
If everyone has suggestions, please post them there!
Why bother.
Imagine Bush on tv saying "We have to protect the security of our nation. Make no mistake about it, we will erradicate evil cyber terrorists at all costs. Protect freedom and support the war on sharing!"
Terrorism,
Evil,
and Freedom, 3 words which will make all off the ignorant americans rush to stop piracy.
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I wont even go AC to agree with this one.
Where is all that shit about Enron that slashdot posters like to bring up? I guess when a dem gets power I can bitch about this payoff.
Free Unix? Free Windows. http://www.reactos.com
They stole the internet from us. Its not ours anymore. They robbed us like the native americans.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
"This is simply because consumers can't get what they want -- high quality digital content like movies, music, and video games."
I think the consumers that want to get movies and music get them easily.
It is quite telling that Rep Schiff does not say the true purpose of the bill, but chooses instead to conceal it in a broadband promotion language.
"I though only Republicans were bought and paid for by big business."
Um, most large companies I've ever worked for were run by Liberals. Which makes sense when you think about it - they're the ones that can afford to comply with the regulations and the taxes. Which, convieniently, also serve as a barrier to entry to smaller competitors. I mean, how many big businesses can you think of run by Conservatives? Bill Gates and Microsoft? Uh-uh. Cisco? Jim Barksdale from Netscape? AOL-TW? Anything in Hollywood? Guess again. It's the small businesses that tend to be run by Republicans.
Or at least I made a attempt. He was in town the other day. (Greenville-Spartainburg) Fundraiser for Lindsey Graham. Guess what? You couldnt any closer then 1000 feet even when he gave a speech with a bunch of fire fighters. That wasnt even open to the public.
I even thought about doing a streaking protest in downtown Greenville but in the end I dont think Dubya would have noticed.
I live in SC and I have to deal with Fritz H's shit. If you think you can do a better job of getting to the President then I could have your a fool. I'm a Libertarian that is a conservitive Christain so dont think I'm trying to attach Bush. He does a good enough job by himself.
.
Free Unix? Free Windows. http://www.reactos.com
I've said this before, and I'll say it again. This has nothing to do with party affiliation! There are Republicans backing it and Democrats opposing it. It's all about money, not politics.
And in case anyone is wondering why this is so important, it's bacause you cannot count on one party or another to be for or against this. If you don't understand the dynamics of this, you can't fight it effectively.
That light you see at the end of the tunnel might be from an oncoming train.
The way copyright law is right now, it sounds unconstitutional to me. The constitution grants to Congress the power to give to authors the exclusive rights to their writings for a limited time.
Well, searching the Project Gutenberg site, I found the following bit of "legislation": Works first created on or after January 1, 1978 enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the author if the author is a natural person.
If the work only enters public domain 70 years after the authors death, this means the author has an effectively unlimited right to the creation. To any "natural" person, a right that extends to the end of life is "unlimited".
Since the whole current copyright law seems to be unconstitutional and void in the U.S.A., that complicated acronym proposal must be unconstitutional as well.
He is from Burbank California. Skip the special intrest opensecrets crap. If anyone in Washington should be introducing this kind of legislation on behalf of his constituents, its this guy.
That being said, let your Congress critter know what kind of support he can expect from you this election cycle should he co-sponsor this bill.
Well I've re-read it 4 times & they didn't use the word plutocracy - sure you've replied to the right post?
Video Game cheats, hints a
ok waste yourr time, i never said anything about violent overthrow of the government.
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In a piece written by Rep. Schiff, he refers to his own election as "the most costly race for the U.S. House of Representatives in history." The piece promotes the recently passed law regarding campaign finance reform.
Apparently he's not as cheap as that $19,000 figure would have us believe.
In another piece by Schiff about campaign finance reform, he describes soft money's use:
Schiff even basically says, if you read between the lines, that he was as bad as the other guy in this election. But now that he's in, he changed the law so no one else can use the same tactics against him, thus making it harder to oust him from office.
I'm not sure what this has to do with the actual bill. Maybe I'm just trying to understand how someone could end up being so anti-freedom, anti-creativity, anti-information.
The only motivation I can come up with is basically greed. Eisner wants to keep making $700 million every five years (that's even more than Barry Bonds!). Schiff wants to stay elected.
Sigh.
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
OK, let's clear one thing up here. Napster wasn't before Congress; it was before a court. It was a legal issue, plain and simple, so petitions and protests had no bearing whatsoever.
As for the rest of your post, I suppose that you don't like this bill. So then, if you don't think petitions will work, then exactly what do you propose?
That light you see at the end of the tunnel might be from an oncoming train.
Everyone who wants to contact newspapers and the media, heres a list
Media contacts
Personally, I'd try to contact bill oreilly, because he usuallys doesnt take sides
mailto:Oreilly@foxnews.com
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Lord knows if it had been a republican who submitted this bill slashdot would be ripping into republicans. Where's the outrage at the democratic party? You can't have your cake and eat it too. Fuxing liberals
he was being funny. s/republic/plutocracy
get it?
----
I post links to stuff here
The abortion right, the gay marriage right,(the end of slavery took a complete war) the vietnam war protests,
all of these required marching in the street, people get beat up and hosed down on national TV, and all it did was make more people join in.
Believe me, if a few million people are in washington protesting and marching down the street people begin to notice, more people begin to march, more people begin to notice, it becomes a trend that no one can ignore.
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I will gladly participate. Set it up!
sulli
RTFJ.
oh, never mind, it's an octopus
and I guess if you're a political activist, this page is for you
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
When enough people are marching it draws media attention, remember the protests on WTO? That was on TV and everyone knew about it.
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From the Wired story:
"At a hearing this month, Feinstein showed her colleagues a pirated movie that she said an aide had downloaded from a file-trading service. "
Did they arrest the aide for breaking copyright law and downloading a movie for broadcast in a public forum? Heck, might as well get Feinstein too, for trafficing in stolen goods.
instead of writing congress, try writing the media.
Media contacts
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
In the interests of maintaining "closer ties to the community" (ie getting reelected), many Senators and Representatives have local offices in their home districts/states.
How hard really is it for you to look up their number/address, and pay them a phone call/visit? When you call up, ask questions about the bill, is: "I have certain reservations about this bill", or "could you clarify what exactly this clause means, as the way I read it, it could inadvertently affect the sale of software by small businesses."
The staffer will generally be clueless, relying on public statements by the senator/representative to phrase a reply. If no statement exists, this means you have an opening to shape that future statement, by having them take down some of your concerns to be addressed by your congresscritter.
For example, I called an office of one of the CBDTPA co-sponsors, asked for clarification on the bill, and failing that, asked them to take down a few concerns I had. I intend to follow up on this later, maybe with another phone call, or a personal visit to the local staffer's office.
Calling/faxing/mailing, just before a vote is pretty much useless, since they know it's a spur of the moment, inflamed by pseudo-grassroots thing - it doesn't matter for squat. However, if we get involved in the actual debate, and make our presence known then, it will be much easier to get staffers and representatives on our side, informed on the issues that we want addressed. The best way to get involved is to touch base with them, in an interactive manner, before they get swamped and start blowing people off.
It's sad sad sad. It's like watching somone dig his own grave, but not knowing it's for him. Broadband is the very LAST thing the Distribution Industry wants, becuase it will allow non "approved" artists an easy and quick way to compete with them. What they DO want is a huge stumblng block in the computer indistry that will slow down the adoption and progress of new technology.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
IMHO, and this is kind of a radical idea, these guys are killing the promise that was the internet in order to preserve their antiquated revenue streams.
I believe that the time has come to admit that pure informationally-based industries cannot trump honest technological development, and that to try to do that requires a cop at every desk and putting each and every person at risk in this country.
I think that the AHRA (the Home Recording Act) should have been enough to satisfy even the most craven of executives.
The fact is that their business is teetering atop an archaic foundation and it needs to fall; they are in the buggy-whip manufacturing business, and Congress oughtta tell 'em that.
If we are to progess technologically, business needs to step out of the way here. Otherwise the net will be reduced to what it is rapidly becoming: interactive TV.
We see it, and Congress saw the promise soon after the dawn of the internet, during the explosion when they wanted to foster its development. They should never have stopped Napster, and they should 'just say no' to the campaign contributors and let information flow freely.
I wonder if Campaign Finance Reform will reduce this reactionary influence.
SDMI: Finally! Music that won't rip or burn! Brought to you by the fine folks at RIAA.
Oreilly@foxnews.com
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Seems that something similar could be done now with web sites replaced not with a black screen, but with a picture of Mickey Mouse saying "You can't copy this page unless I say so!"
The big problem is that the CDA protest was effective because most popular web sites in those days were produced by individuals. The most popular web sites today are those produced by the companies lobbying for SSSCA. So fewer web surfers would even encounter the protest.
"instead of writing congress, try writing the media."
I agree with you 100%. We're a small group here, and what we think will only count if we convert others to our side. Writing to the media is a great way to do that. In fact, I'd posted a list of newspaper directories to another post in this thread. Here they are again.
And I'll issue my challenge again. If everyone here will walk away from Slashdot long enough to write to your local newspaper, we can start to make a difference. No, not all letters will get published. Maybe most of them won't. But someone there has to read them, and they'll be educated in the process, so they will be more familiar with the issue when they hear about it again.
Just one letter. That's all I ask. If you want to write more, that's great, but at least write one.
That light you see at the end of the tunnel might be from an oncoming train.
Do we have more or less art today versus the era when there was minimal copyright law?
Do we have better or worse art today versus the era when there was minimal copyright law?
Let the RIAA, MPAA, and other big-money organizations who hold artists hostage die. They are unnecessary organizations in our world; we had good movies and music before them, and we will have good movies and music without them in the future.
My business is in Pasadena, CA, in the heart of Rep. Adam Schiff's district. I've been sending him messages and calling his office at times over the past six months to share my opposition to SSSCA/CBDTA-style legislation. I've even got a great letter in the mail thanking me for my interest and letting me know he is carefully considering this issue. It really burns my britches to see this guy jumping in the pocket of the big studios, which incidentally are also in his district.
I guess the tech component of industry in Pasadena is getting blown off by this guy, which is really a big surprise since we have Earthlink, IndyMac Bank, Idealab!, JPL, Caltech and a bunch of startups (plus others) here. Truly disappointing that he could not give me a straight answer!!!
Now, why would an apparently aggressive, forward-thinking Congressman like Schiff be introducing this legislation? The quick answer is that he is SAFE! If you remember the last election, Schiff beat former Republican impeachment lawyer James Rogan in a really, really tight race. After that, the state Democratic party redrew the Congressional districts so the guy is a shoe-in because they didn't want the embarrassment of having Schiff in a tight race. I can't say much favorable for Rogan, though, as the guy ran a spam-based campaign. Bottom line is that there are and have been truly technology-ignorant Representatives in this technology-rich district.
Personally, I think the guy just sold out knowing that he is getting big pocket change from the studios, and that will keep him secure in his job.
For anyone who is interested the person with the best chance of beating Schiff is his Republican opponent in the next race -- Jim Scileppi whose office may be reached at P.O. BOX 274 HOLLYWOOD, CA 90078 or 323-466-7748. (This is coming from a die-hard Democrat who voted for Schiff -- NO MORE!) Please vote against Schiff, and help Scileppi do what he can to put pressure on Schiff for this terrible offensive gesture against technology.
I'm glad to see someone else had the same thought I had. Wish I had moderator points.
Please take those same people who you claim are satisfied with a 56K modem, and have them browse apple.com/trailers. Perhaps show them how good some of these teasers look at their larger sizes and on fast connections, then ask them if 56K is "enough."
I certainly hope that this is legal content, as it's provided courtesy, and in furtherance of, your industry!
Furthermore, realize that the manner in which these trailers are presented desperately demands broadband. For an average user, every viewing of your content requires a connection to apple.com. Consider their advertising effect on your products... I strongly feel the ability to have a local copy of them would noticably result in greater rental and pay-per-view revenue. It would provide a rich catalog; with instantly-available local content people could realize a wider range of your industry's offerings.
Unfortunately, current broadband speeds are not sufficient if I wish to view several trailers in a search for an entertainment selection. With further copying prevention and content protections, you are going to force people to realize that your entertainment isn't quite as entertaining as you'd like to have people believe.
Perhaps that's not a bad thing.
Okay, that's my two cents. Can't say I've downloaded the large Debian ISOs, but I have done Solaris 8. That was a lot of data! This audience isn't exactly in the middle of the bell curve, but I'm afraid we're part of the minority that's paying attention.
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
Please write your comments to the Editor of the Pasadena Star-News newspaper in the core of Schiff's District:
Pasadena Star-News
911 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, Calif. 91109
(626) 578-6300
Let's put so much pressure on the guy that no other Congressman will dare to favor SSSCA/CBDTA. Please write now by pen or by email.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/
I really like the part about notifying the riverboat consulate of the "impending whoopin'".
I never thought I'd live to see "whoopin'" in a legal document! We live in such interesting times!
Tobacco and Marijunna were both payoffs, as was most related legislation. Alcohol was probably about as unenforcible as pot is, and slavery ended because they needed something to motivate northern troops (there were also areas excluded in the emancipation proclaimation).
Civil disobedience doesn't work. Money talks, the rest walks.
- Take the EFF letter to Leahy and Hatch.
- Search through your (already ripped to digital format) music collection lyrics to find songs that contain all the words in the letter.
- "Sample" aforementioned words using a
.wav file editor, making sure that there are less than 15 seconds (or whatever the "fair use" limit is) from each song.
- Assemble these samples into a digital-audio version of the letter.
- Rip it to MP3.
- Upload it anywhere you can.
- Burn it onto CD and email it to your representative / senators.
Admittedly, it's silly, but it makes a point. Something similar could be done with video samples.I need a document/website/etc from someone what has read and really understands this bill. I would like to go to my representitives in person, and feel like I am currently not imformed enough on the issue to be able to effectivly argue my case.
The more idiot proof stuff the better, these people don't understand technology.
Talking points are good, with detailed information to back them up, with the common resonses the arguments will recieve, etc.
I don't want to read through the whole bill and come up with everything if it has already been done. I'm the first to admit I can realy through a bill like this and not understand what it does or doesn't mean.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
The CBDTPA requires that all new devices that produce, modify, copy, or show copyrighted items have to have built-in copy protection. This includes cameras, microphones, computers, PDAs, discman, DVD players, TV, speakers, and computer monitors. In practice, this protection will be remotely administered by industry co-ops like the RIAA and MPAA; which in turn are largely controlled by companies like AOL-Time-Warner and Disney.
Hollywood and the recording industry believe all their customers are thieves, so they want to take control over the ability to control copyrighted material from all citizens (not just their customers). That means someone at Disney, indirectly controls which pictures you can transfer from your digital camera to your computer. Further, this law means giving some recording studio mogul the ability to decide if a citizen can email copies of their own pictures to their relatives.
They claim they need this control, because it is the only way to stop illegal copies, and that otherwise they will go out of business. Of course the movie industry made the same claims that TV and the VCR would ruin them. The music industry claimed Juke Boxes and Radio would ruin them. In all of these cases, the new technology turned out to be extremely beneficial despite the claims of disaster, and the industry would have suffered greatly in the long term if they actually got the laws they wanted.
Now once again, the established industry is afraid of change, and is reacting by trying to use the legal system to ensure they remain in power. There are a few differences this time, congress has already given them sweeping powers through the ill-conceived 1998 Digital-Millennium-Copyright-Act (DMCA), and now the industry is trying to take these principles to the next step. The rights and freedoms of citizens are given away by congress in backroom deals and poorly written laws. When the industry could not directly eliminate some of the citizens rights they wanted to, they instead wrote the DMCA in such a way that it outlawed perfectly legal actions (legal to copy, but illegal to break the copy protection that keeps you from coping). The CBDTPA is more of the same! Don't let them get away with it, contact your senators and representatives and instruct them to not support the CBDTPA.
-----------
If you go back and substitute "music recordings" and "movies" instead of "pictures", the argument does not have as much impact. But the fact that almost everyone makes pictures, really helps show how extensive of a privilege grab the CBDTPA is.
I sent Schiff the following letter:
As a democrat voter in your district, I have voted for you in the past, I am now beginning to regret it.
It has recently come to my attention that you are sponsering a bill that is the house-equivalent of Fritz Holling's CBDTPA.
I work in the Cable Television industry as an Engineer, as well as being a teacher and my income comes largely from entertainment giants such as AOL / Time Warner.
Nonetheless, I find this bill morally repugnant, in that it favors the rights of large media companies (such as AOL/Time Warner and Disney) over individuals and struggling artists / copyright owners.
I believe that "Fair Use" is a legally ambiguous term at this moment that needs to be given a clear and iron-clad legal definition. Until that happens, we should not be enacting legislation which attempts to define it by default.
Ultimately, a clear definition of "Fair Use" MUST include the right of the individual to make personal copies of legally-purchased information. Creating economic barriers to doing so only benefits large media companies (and big-time pirates with deep pockets) and no one else.
This bill is only one example of the way the large entertainment companies are making a power-grab to "lock up" the intellectual property space and prevent smaller entities from having a piece of it. Their efforts to shut-down a number of innovative Internet-based technologies, and their ongoing lawsuit against PVR manufacturer company Sonic Blue are others.
I have seen no evidence that these companies are massively hurting now because of rampant piracy. Only dire and hazy predictions.
One of the reasons I am a registered democrat is because I am a supporter of civil liberties, something which your Party has a better track record of supporting than the Republicans. Nonetheless, I find this bill a blow *against* civil liberties, and I hope you and other democrats will reconsider supporting it.
Meanwhile, I will reconsider my party affiliation...
Jim Bumgardner
moron
Looking at the numbes cited for campaign contributions to this bozo, the numbers are pretty small. TV & Movies contributed $20,000 to this guy and for that they get to own the computer industry?
I think Slashdot has enough members to create a pretty well funded PAC if people kick in $20 or so. All this letter writing stuff is just nonsense. We all know money talks.
I noticed that the two replies above this one to my post were both moderated down to -1, Offtopic. Although this post is Offtopic itself, I'd like to point out the obvious relation to my theory on why negative moderation is more destructive than bad posts. I don't mean to sound like a karma whore, but if those two points were used to moderate my original post up, it would be visible to all readers and hence more valuable. By negatively moderating those two replies as Offtopic, you've accomplished nothing and only caused the information of my post to be excluded from the discussion.
Moderators, PLEASE think about what you're doing before you just aimlessly throw points away like this. If you are granted moderator privaledges, please use them to do your job: making the discussion forum more useful.
Failing to do this only hurts Slashdot. I think my original post holds a useful piece of inormation that can help prevent a bad law from being passed.
Why bother.
This guy has a GREAT idea!!!!
Poor website maintenance or unwillingness to announce his intensions? I wonder.
That's something that both amuses me (when I'm feeling cynical) and scares me (when I'm feeling serious): that American citizens think this country is a democracy.
You said it every damn day in grade school, people:
That word isn't in there just to make patriotic songs have a better rhythm than "the democracy" would, ya'know.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I'm sorry I don't have all of the details yet, but here is what I can tell you thus far: There are several of us (software developers/IT service providers) who are seriously discussing the idea of coordinating an ongoing campaign of targeted work stoppages an all non-essential federal projects beginning with selected committees, members and staffs of the U.S. Congress should they pass a bill such as this. And possibly extending such work stoppages to various entities of the Executive branch should a bill such as this become law. Obviously, any large-scale work stoppage would be difficult to orchestrate on an individual basis because the livelihoods of so many people are at stake. Therefore, should it become necessary, the decision to enact any work stoppages or slow-downs must be made at the Corporate/Management level. Yeah I know what you're thinking, Corporation == Greed, but I'm willing to bet that there are enough small shops and groups out there with enough idealism and contract security to make an action such as this extremely effective. Please consider that this is an extremely bold strategy and must be well planned, used as a last resort and must not be squandered. Once we get a Slashdot-proof infrastructure set up, I will submit an article or a response with a Website for this.
It's already too late for something like this anyway. 1) There already exists plenty of hardware and software that permit unlimited file sharing. Nothing new is needed. 2) How is someone going to prove that "source code" was created after this law goes into effect. Anyone could write OR obtain source code, date the file April 5th 1999 and it doesn't fall under this law. If they are concerned about other copies of the source code implying other dates, they can search and replace all the variable names and function names. It's easy. 3) Every year or so Microsoft comes up with the latest thing to which everyone must upgrade. Well, honestly, there is very little of anything new that anyone really needs. Smart folks will simply hold onto their current computers longer letting the consumer electronics industry suffer a huge loss in revenue. 4) No copy protection can protect video and audio from being recorded once they leave digital format. People have been taping music and video for years on their analog recorders and its a good enough reproduction for just about anyone. All it takes is one person making a high quality analog duplication, and within hours or days everyone on the Internet can be capable of having their own copy. 5) The real problem is NOT copyright violations which have been going on since cassette tapes and VCRs were invented. The real problem is the cataloging and instant retrieval capabilities the internet has provided for the rapid distribution of digital anything. You can't stop that without shutting down the Internet completely. The evolution of the human race has accelerated by orders of magnitude with the introduction of the Internet and Search Engines. Most of all the knowledge of our civilization is almost instantly accessible to anyone who needs it. This, merely by its existence makes the concept of "intellectual" ownership obsolete. I'm not trying to be a scofflaw here, just looking reality squarely in the face. You might as well legislate that gravity is illegal. They think it's bad now! Pretty soon everyone will have encrypted storage and encrypted communications. You won't even be able to have evidence that copyright violations have taken place! Documents can be divided up into separate files and only combined for the final viewing which legally bypasses the concept of copyright which defines a copy as having "tangible" form. In that scenario, the "copy" has no tangible form because it doesn't even exist until viewed. I think the media companies will have to come to the realization that their movies are going to end up just like television: advertisements for advertisements. Movies will be there to attract people to the advertisers of real hard goods like automobiles and nappy wipes. (actually, the sad thing is, even advertising is going to be stripped. Digital media lets you remove that stuff. People use their TIVOs to prerecord a show and then they can skip through the ads very fast. Programs like PopNot remove pop up ads from web sites and removing banner ads is trivial). The only way around that is to have the products actually and integral part of the movie (Tom Cruise drinking a coke before nuking a building, Bare Naked Ladies singing about the virtues of Japanese Import Cars). 6) So really, the media industries are going to pay even more in the long run for this. When this goes into effect, FREE-MEDIA producers will have a huge competitive edge. Artists who have seen the writing on the wall will be the popular ones. They will perform LIVE for their money and insert advertising in their free media. Artists who do not see the writing on the wall will have their CDs and movies sitting unpurchased on the shelves. Lets see how long they can keep up their "liberal" mindset when its their purse that's being robbed. That will separate the wheat from the chafe and we'll see who the real artists are and who the recording company schills really are. There are MILLIONS of musicians and ACTORS out there as good, and better than the ones who are promoted up the media dictatorship pyramid. 7) I can see Walt Disney wanting to elevate "copyright" violation to the same severity as Manslaughter. Ooops. It already is, sorry. You can see how ridiculous this gets. I can go on all night.
Who doesn't want to fuck this? Come on, be honest...
I don't think there is really corruption involved. Basically, the advance of technology has made copyrights unenforceable. Like the automobile made the horse and buggy obsolete. There IS no solution, but the powers that be have to at least make a token effort.
. . .that was Mr. Elizabeth Taylor, Senator John Warner of Virginia. . .who actually DOES sound like Foghorn Leghorn. . . .
you misspelled 'moronic'
The D.A. on Law & Order ...?
If Bill Gates was on our side, we could all rally behind him for a Million-Geek march.
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
Is it possible that geeks who are shot down by this bill could make a mass exodus to other countries?
:)
Would other countries, like Canada for instance, be upset that a torrent of America's most brilliant citizens were suddenly at their borders, looking for work? Could it possibly be a blessing to them? Maybe Canada and other developed nations should start offering harbor for American citizens of the intellectual contingents!
If the American Government no longer wants highly intelligent people contributing to society, I suggest that we oblige. Why continue producing work (code) that makes America a better place when we can take our brains elsewhere?
If the CBDTPA gets passed into law, there is no sense in fighting it. Let's follow the lead set by Alan Cox and take our brains and mountainous volumes of talent somewhere else.
One thing that governments must work to do is please the citizens so the citizens either remain for the collective good of society, or continue to support the government.
It appears to me that our government does not want the contributions of brilliant citizens but rather the monies of megacorporations. I'm sure that America would get along quite nicely if all the innovators in the technology field were to leave.
Personally, I don't see any reason to continue feeding into this pointless system where laws are passed to the highest bidder. Why would I do work and development that the government and their corporations can use to their advantage and against me? Anyone else of this mindset?
Canada bound?
Why bother.
"Dammit, we want that recession back, and we want it back by November!"
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
From Adam's letter:
I would like to direct your attention to the following op-ed written by Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of Disney. Mr. Eisner points out the profound historical significance of intellectual property rights and draws on one early and aggressive advocate of protecting such property rights, the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
If Abraham Lincoln were alive today, I doubt he would hesitate before spitting in the faces of Eisner and Hollings.
-- I'll cut you up so bad, you'll wish I'd never cut you up so bad!
Goodlatte is an ardent supporter of the DMCA. We need to let him know in clear and unambiguous language that he will lose votes if he doesn't put his constituents first on this issue.
Well, I finally joined the EFF, thanks to this article.
I felt kinda guitly about having them send me a t-shirt since it's kinda wasteful, but I suppose if I wear the shirt and that gets another person interested, then it's done it's job.
This bill simply scares the shit out of me. I really don't want to have to move to another country to avoid stupid legislation, seeing as how I've kinda grown attached to the USA. Or maybe it's time for another revolution, we haven't had one of those in nearly 226 years.
Nonsense -- I can get pretty much all the movies, music, and video games I like in the mall located two blocks down the hill, and get what I can't find there by mail order.
The fact that I can't get them online is as irrelevant as the fact that I don't have cooking recipes on my hard disk (remember when that was The Vision Of The Future[tm]?).
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
...you think they don't support this stuff?
Let's take a look at Sen Hollings and Schiff top supporting industries
1. Building Trade Unions - $32k
2. Industrial Unions - $27k
3. Lawyers/Law Firms - $25k
4. TV/Movies/Music - $19k5
5. Public Sector Unions - $17k
1. Lawyers/Law Firms - $1M2
2. TV/Movies/Music - $265k
3. Lobbyists - $177k
4. Telephone Utilities - $149k
5. Telecom Services & Equipment - $148k
Take a look at these values, what do they tell you? That Sen Hollings is much more influent that Schiff? It shows that both want to go where the money is.
Sen. Hollings is nothing but a puppet, take a look at his top 5 supporting industries:
#2 Media - they are the most interested in all this shit since it was called SSSCA
#3 Lobbyists - what we need to proof that Sen Hollings does not legislate for the citizens, but for the American lobbyists
#4 and #5 Communication - who else? Do you have any doubt that this lobby changed SSSCA to CBDTPA?
IMHO all these industries supporting CBDTPA should learn to adapt themselves to the new technologies avaiable, just like everybodyelse in the world do, just like every America Citizens have to do!
This stupid law is the proof of the lazyness of the media industries. By supporting CBDTPA this hard, they are public assuming that they can't adapt themselves to the new technology. And instead of solving their problems by their own, they need to affect American's Citizens Rights in order to save their own from new upcoming companies that can overthrown them from the top of the world.
Is this the country of oportunities?
-=-=-=-=
I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
I live in Burbank and I don't consider myself one of his constituents. I don't work for Disney, NBC, WB, et. al. and I didn't contribute $10,000+ to his campaign.
Dedicated to a list of anti-consumer senators.
Make this page well known to voters, and let them make up their minds.
You know, the first time I heard comedian George Carlin say during a performance that "this country was bought and sold a long time ago", I laughed it off as no big deal; an idea from an individual trying to entertain. When the DMCA came around, I thought, "well it's ok, it'll have amendments attatched to it to ensure nothing like the original actually makes it to law". The DMCA is now used to prosecute law-abiding people now. Now we come to the CBDTPA.
;) ) No, the war is fine. The support for the war and the President has been great. But they still won, in that they managed to allow our most basic freedoms to be either taken away or put up for review.
By this point, I've lost virtually all hope for the government of my great country. I've watched as my rights have been stripped away at an unbelievable rate in the last 5 years, and it leads me to believe that all we've fought for since breaking away from Brittain in the 18th century is almost gone. In the wake of Sept 11th, our privacy has been ripped away, our innermost secrets about our supposedly private lives demanded by our government. Communications are snooped, our own spies have turned their eyes and ears on us, and our government, while becoming more secretive, has simultaneously informed us all that we, as of now, are no longer allowed secrets; at least not from them.
And now we come to the CBDTPA, formerly known as the SSSCA. Assuming this bill makes it into law without serious modifications, we will soon see the end to entertainment as we know it. But much, much worse, we will finally know for certain that our government has been purchased from us while we weren't looking - sold to a few large corporations who will, from now on, dictate when, how, why, and if (yes if) we may lead our lives.
This sounds so outrageously apocolyptic that many reading this will have already dismissed my posting as meaningless. However, consider this for a moment - if I told you 5 years ago that you could be jailed for informing an audience of people about a security vulnerability without ever having helped to or supplied the tools to exploit that vulnerability, would you have laughed? For anyone who works in law, if I had told you 5 years ago that making a speech that was neither slanderous nor the cause of (in the words of the Supreme Court) 'clear and present danger' (such as yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre) would cause a person to be arrested, would you not have pointed out all the reasons why this could never happen in America? How about this - if I told you 10, 20, 50 years ago that a person could be arrested and jailed for nearly four years without a trial, would you have not been outraged? (Regardless of whether he was right or wrong or whatever, he is supposed to be protected under the Constitution, and therefore is supposed to have the right to a "speedy trial".)
Now what really concerns me here is the fact that when you look at the people in Congress who are the most supportive of the CBDTPA, you find that they are the same people who receive the most money from the entertainment industry. "This makes sense" you say, but my question is simply this - when an elected official passes bills contrary to the public interest and desire to serve the ends of his campaign contributors, how is this any different than a judge taking money from a defendant in exchange for a lighter sentence? Are they not both saying, "if you give me alot of money, I will use my power in office to ensure your interests are furthered, regardless of the public interest."? In this case, the CBDTPA continues where the DMCA left off, stripping away at what has been declared by the courts to be 'fair use'. This serves only to maintain the profit margains of the entertainment industry, while forcing yet more money out of the pockets of consumers. This most certainly doesn't help more than a few people in all of South Carolina, and certainly helps almost no minorities anywhere. Yet a democratic (democrats generally champion the rights of minorities and individuals) Senator from SC has been attempting to force this bill into law, even threatening to use his position on the appropriations and budget committees to kill funding for anyone who stands in his way. Why would a democrat from SC want to throw every bit of weight he has into such an anti-individual, pro-corporation bill? Money. The entertainment industry has, year after year, been one of Senator Ernest Fritz Hollings biggest campaign contributors. This is a simple equation folks, money for laws. You give me money, I give you laws. If a group of people raised more money for Hollings' next campaign than the entertainment industry, we could get the DMCA repealed in no time and be on our way to getting whatever laws we want on the books. This, ladies and gents, is completely pathetic. Someone ought to make an Ebay user name EFHollings and start auctioning off laws in a dutch auction; as it's what he does every day.
While this annoyed me when I first realized it, it didn't really hit me nearly so hard as when I read this latest article, and others like it, outlining the support for this bill throughout Congress. When you look at the people pushing this bill, one by one you see they're getting most if not nearly all of their money from the entertainment industry. Carlin was right, this country is being bought and sold. The worst part is, the average person is either too stupid, too ignorant, or too apathetic to see where all this is heading, and just how far it's come in the last 5 years.
It doesn't get much better when you look elsewhere either. In the wake of the absolute horror of September 11th, I see something even worse washing up behind it. They won. That's right, I mean the terrorists; they won. What could possibly make an American who loves his country and wants to see it become the greatest unified nation in history say such a thing? Policies, laws, etc, etc, etc. It's not the war, mind you; I'm all for wiping out all who had anything to do with what happened that day or would like to see things like it happen in the future. And I'm certainly all for turning bin Laden over to the Israelies so they can have fun with him. (Our laws just don't allow the things I want to see happen to him; they on the other hand, have no problem turning his existance into the closest thing to hell on Earth any twisted imagination could possibly come up with... gotta love Israeli intelligence
Who would have objected to a strip search every time you walk into the airport 5 years ago? My goodness, such an idea would have brought outrage and shock. But since September 11th, people want to feel warm and cozy and safe, and they seem to think all this new security, like this x-ray machine that allows screeners to do a virtual strip search of you. Most people seem to be under the dillusion that in 10 years it'll all be back to normal and we'll all go about like we do now. I can only hope so, but once this technology is widely available and fairly cheap, I can see everyone from government to corporations, to schools putting this in and refining it further. Personally, I'm extremely offended by the idea of any fool off the street (yes, the security personnel at airports are usually but not always lacking in the mental dept.) being able to get a pretty graphic shot of my entire body. Why? Well, invasion of privacy is the easy one. But how about this one? In this country, we work under a system that you are innocent until proven guilty. Now, in this situation, I fully understand that increased security must allow for a bit of elasticity here. In this case, feel free to xray the hell out of my luggage until my underwear bakes if it makes you happy. As for me, I'll happily go through your metal detector if it makes you happy; it'll certainly make me a little happier to see everyone else going through it. And feel free to run my name against a list of known terrorists. If something comes up funny, pull me aside and we'll have a chat. With none of this do I have a problem. Want to put armed air marshals on every flight? By all means, hell, I'll pay a little extra on my ticket if it ensures there's a couple on my plane. Just make sure they're not psychotic, stupid, incapable or unwilling to perform as needed, and not themselves terrorists. I'm sure there are many other wonderful security ideas we can come up with that don't involve Sgt Ricky and Officer Mickey staring at my unclothed body when all I want to do is go to Cali for a holiday trip.
Other examples of this include carnivore, which was pushed up after Sept 11th, and this stuff I keep hearing about the government using trojans to extract (or possibly inject) incriminating evidence from computers of US citizens. I'm reasonably confident that my paranoid security setup will insulate me fairly well from this silly toy (I hear it could have been better coded by a 12yo) but for all the clueless users out there (5 9's of them.. ie. 99.999%) I feel it's an outrageous violation of their right to privacy and their presumed innocence. Not to mention the fact that the potential for abuse is so extreme, it boggles the mind as to how in the world this wouldn't get all FBI/CIA/NSA folks having anything to do with this arrested immediately. You can hack into my computer and plant evidence and I'll go to jail for 10+ years, but if I hack into your computers and do nothing more than type ls/dir for 6 hours over and over, I'll go to jail for 10+ years. Hmm... do as I say, not as I do?
So in the last 5 or so years, we've seen fair use, freedom of speech, presumed innocence, privacy, and many, many other basic Constitutionally guaranteed rights disappear. And now it looks like our government officials could be spending half their time in eBay private auctions to see who gets the laws they wanted for christmas.
I think I'll move to Holland now. Dutch people are pretty cool.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Conspiracy theories aside, the only way to win a seat in Congress is to get the most votes. Writing a letter shows one voter. A petition shows that many people who care enough to spend 10 seconds on an issue. Instead, Internet privacy/freedom advocates need to learn to LOBBY and to play their issues to the general public.
Learn to go to Congress and say, hey, we can and will win this debate with the public. Don't be on the wrong side when Hollywood forces crap technology onto consumers and makes the tech industry in the U.S. go the way of Detroit in the 1980s. Come to our side now or we'll blame you when Joe Public asks why he need to pay $15 to record "Who wants to be a millionaire" on his DVD Recorder.
BTW. Please don't think Adam Schiff supports this bill because he was paid to do so. Burbank elected him because he supports Hollywood. I mean it's really that simple. There's no scandal here.
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
The "Computer Castration" bill
eye catching and accurate
Agreed. These people don't care about your fucking votes. As was cleary shown in the last election, YOUR VOTE DOES NOT COUNT. Get your fat asses out of your goddamn chairs and DO SOMETHING! Have you DOSed your senator's site today? C'mon people, quit talking and start fucking acting.. Talk will get you people nothing.
You fix it.
Thats right, we'll stop at nothing less than violent overthrow of the government. Or maybe we can get a few hundred of our closest friends to run for congress and win. Or maybe we can leave and start our own country. With blackjack and hookers!
**
**half serious /half serious **
And that's why we have the 2nd amendment... to overthrow the gov't if they piss us off too much. (Though in reality even the best assault weapons "for hunting purposes" would be no threat to the US armed forces... I guess it was a nice idea pre-1800)
**
I cannot believe that there is not more public outrage about this issue. It's likely that most people really don't know that this is going on. They basically passed the DMCA before the public at large could really get a handle on the situation.
It seems that the vast majority of "Net savvy" individuals are quite alarmed that the Senate is even discussing something like the CBDTPA. However, I don't think that the online community as a whole can do much other than stall for time by making noise.
I think if put to a vote, most Americans would vote to change the law to PROHIBIT COPY PROTECTION. There's no way we should let the big industries decide our digital rights.
Anyway, I put up a website soliciting comments at http://www.protectfairuse.com/ I hope to collect comments in bulk and send them to the boneheads considering the CBDTPA.
We ought to be informing everybody we know about the issue and encouraging them to send their comments to Congress.
Someone mentioned starting to hit the news media and try to get them to start running stories on the issue. I'm writing our local TV stations right now.
..is that the very products they peddle are NOT integral parts of our lives. Their output is something I (we ALL) can do without. I have more CDs and VHS tapes than I know what to do with, and quite frankly, I am ashamed I bought as many as I did. But what Valenti, Eisner and others fail to realize is, WE DON'T HAVE TO HAVE THEIR "content." It's not food, water, or shelter they are providing. They should think about this before they start trying to strangle the life out of their ONLY customer base.
...now as long as I don't break my glasses like Burgess Meredith, I'll be fine. *GRIN*
I can think of plenty of things to do which don't involve movies or music. With the books I've accumulated from book clubs and second-hand shops (the "I'm gonna get to those someday" pile of books), I could read 1 book a week and probably die before I finished them all. I have enough music that I can cycle through the CDs until hell freezes over before I listen to a CD twice. *grin*
So you see, I am certainly writing my senators, congressmen, local newspapers, and just about any person who has an interest (or even unintentional interest) in this legislation. I am not optimistic I am getting through to ANYONE , though. So, if this passes, I have my old computers, my old TV, my old VCR, my old Dreamcast, and all those "unprotected" books, CDs and classic movies. I just won't buy any more crap. So what? It's not hurting ME that I don't buy their junk.
---- James
I'm watching a pirated copy of LOTR right now as I type this message. I've seen it three times in the theater and plan to buy the DVD when it comes out. Am I a theif?
I'm suprised that there isn't more of a public movement to re-examine the lengths of copyrights or what purchasing a work really is or should be. The Entertainment industry would rather have us not think about these things. They got the lengths of copyrights extended to 90 years (a patent lasts 17 yrs) back in '98. Probably the result of some closed-door meetings in smoke-filled rooms with the industry lobbies and their Congressmen.
Why should we put up with all this crap. We're basically letting them call us a bunch of theives. They have the gall to assume that their phylosophy on copyright law is the correct and true way.
We pay multiple times for the same media. We pay when listening to the radio, when watching TV. How often are we not bombarded with their advertising? How many previews did you sit through the last time you were in the theater?
I think the industries involved need to figure out a way that I can watch TV without advertisements if I happen to own the movie that they're showing. The radio should not play adds before or after the music that I already own. That's how rediculous the CBDTPA is.
They shouldn't be able to do this to us, but they will if we don't start talking to non-techie people out there and getting people informed about their dissapearing rights.
I'm sure everyone here knows how bad this is becoming. This crap could get pushed into law if it isn't stopped. I'm up for some good protests right now. I'm serious. If you're in the D/FW area and you're setting something up, let me know. More people need to know about this since it affects everyone.
Why yes I am paranoid! Thanks for asking!
This is a recurring theme at Slashdot. Why is it legal for Hollywood to buy legistlation? Would it be useful to campaign for controls on members' interests instead of (ok - as well as) fighting every instance of clueless legislature? As long as the corporations are running your government the consumers will keep getting screwed.
From a distance (Yurp) it looks like America is relinquising all the freedoms that made it strong in the first place. Why are you burning the flag? For Disney?
A more cost effective strategy may be to promote the political careers of those who agree with us. (Granted, this is not a mutually exclusive with basically buying votes. It's just the other end of a continuum.)
We should actively help the careers of any politician who agrees with us, even if that allegiance would only be useful if they achieve some higher office later or can trade a favor.
Although money helps a campaign (I have contributed to EFF), money isn't necessarily the only currency. Campaign money eventually buys media and staffing. These are things which can be contributed in kind. To those sympathetic slashdotters who have time but not money and want to help: maybe you could find some college students who want to volunteer to help Rick Boucher's reelection campaign, finagle some ad banners, answer email, etc. On a larger scale, maybe you could make a web site to collect information on who is our friend, and to connect large numbers of volunteers with campaign organizations. That might be helpful enough to an election to make our support worth something in terms of election results.
look peopls it is clear they want control and your money. if you make it known if this bill becomes law you will stop going to the movies, they are going to have something to think about. but people have to start speaking out about not going to movies in protest .......
"And also we threaten the future creative potential of the country if people can't protect their own property."
Oh there was still creative potential in the market? Who said this? The Emmies, Grammies, MTV Music???? Creativity has been stale for a while. Since the industry only premotes the songs/films that make mass $'s.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
Would that be 1,000,000 or 1,048,576 people?
Absolutely. No conspiracy needed. Just simply bringing the pork home to the voters, as any sucessful politician does. The film industry is a major employer in and around Burbank.
At a hearing this month, Feinstein showed her colleagues a pirated movie that she said an aide had downloaded from a file-trading service.
Yeah well she didn't see the video of her sucking my cock! And boy was he happy!
Say that this passes. What will happen? Do they honestly think that all hardware manufacturers are going to start implementing copyprotections?
I think they will do nothing. I think that the hardware manufacturers are going to keep selling their hardware without copyprotection until they are forced to stop. At this point, I think that they will simply stop selling it in the US. If this happens, I'm sure that this law will become one of these useless laws that exists but is never followed.
Maybe I'm a little too optimistic, but I think this law is so outrageously stupid, that it's unlikely to be followed if it passes.
See, intelligent people call it like it is. They don't 'recreate reality' in order to justify their positions and choices. If things look bad, they do not cover up the truth and act like some lawyer, marketer or well... a politician. It is because of that aspect, that most don't trust ANY of those idiots, yet liberals don't get it. Liberals... rich talking monkeys that 'care' and are 'aware' but yet force others to fund their causes and take big tax breaks to avoid paying the bill themselves. Also included are the angst ridden teens (mentally not just chronologically) that just lash out at anything they are told to lash out at. Sort of like when you have a group of 'non-conformers' that keep shouting out loud how 'independent' they are.... yet their actions and choices are JUST LIKE everyone else that shouts that, thus showing rational people that they are slaves to their angst and short sightedness.
Put the stupid guru hat down, take a bath and welcome yourself to the world of sentient beings that use logic and reason. Stop being chattering monkeys that merely throw your feces at others and simply follow the lead of the loudest chatterer.
thats why revolutionaries of the 20th century took up gurilla tactics and suicide bombing....
Geeks get 70 Computers, all the beer they want and a hotty in heaven if they die for the casue of Geek-had
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Get it on the O'Reily Factor and you will be heard!!! and if Bill likes what you are saying, I people will be swayed.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I propose that next wednesday, we get ourselves together, and everyone else we can find, and call EVERY elected official, federal, state, and local level, who's number we can find. Tell them how you feel, all at once. Senators and Representatives are handling the issue now, but tell the state and local folks how you feel too. Make them understand that if they want your support furthering their career it would be in their best interest to lend their voices to our cause.
Hell, if we get enough traffic that it drops the phone system, even better.
Wednesday, April 3rd, call the bastards, call them ALL.
According to that chart he got $19,435 from the TV/Movies/Music group. THAT'S IT?! Hell, if we get every /. reader to pitch in a couple bucks we could buy the house of representitives!
The Senate looks a bit more expensive with Feinstein pulling down $214,638 and Hollings getting $264,534. But due to her support of the bill in the Senate I WILL be voting for her competitor when the next election comes up.
Thanks Diane for making that voting decision just a little bit easier!
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
Our nation's creative enterprises have been hesitant to offer their products over the Internet out of fear of piracy -- intellectual theft.
So what? No really, why do you feel a burning desire to legislate a "fix" for this "problem?" If they don't want to offer their product in that format they don't have to. If they don't want their product copied, at all, ever, they are perfectly within their rights to not release it in easily copyable formats.
Please note, though, that this is not the same as prohibiting the existance of easily copyable formats.
For instance, they are free to only release their movies in theaters. They are free to only allow their artists to perform live concerts.
Let's use music as the example. It used to be released on vinyl. No one copied it. It would have been too expensive. This was a good business model. Then there was tape. Although they were copyable they were so much cheaper to produce, and the copies so mush less desirable than the originals, that they still improved their bottom line. Still a good business model.
Then came CD. Perfecly copyable, and now cheap to copy. They can produce CDs for a fraction of what cassettes cost, but charge more for them. Apparently the market will bear a higher price for the improved quality and convenience. IOW we are already paying more for those factors.
If they really think they will lose money by releasing easily copyable product, then they have just determined that it is simply not a good business model. They are free to go back to cassette-only release.
Nope, no sig
The abortion right
Uhh, there are at least as many marching against this one. It's interesting that you refer to it as a 'right'. Since when is the freedom to kill your own offspring a 'right'? It may currently legal, but it will never be 'right'.
According to Merriam Webster:
1. Righteous - err, nope it's not righteous.
2. being in accordance with what is just, good, or proper - err, nope it's not that either
4. suitable, appropriate - not either of those
10. acting or judging in accordance with truth or fact - not, not at all
12. most favorable or desired - no, not desired (even by those who want it to be legal)
13. often capitalized : of, adhering to, or constituted by the Right especially in politics - nope, tends to be more 'Left' than 'Right'
Hmm, maybe we'd better try the noun:
1. qualities (as adherence to duty or obedience to lawful authority) that together constitute the ideal of moral propriety or merit moral approval - nope, not this
2. something to which one has a just claim: as a : the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled - is this what you think it is?
Hmm, what's 'justly'?
2(a). acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good
Abortion isn't morally upright, or good. What, then, makes you think it is a right? Seems like it is something that is quite wrong, yet has been made legal.
Why don't more of us run for Congress? I know for probably 75% of us it's a paycut, and you have to spend a lot of time in DC, but what better way for our voice to be heard then for some of us to run for Congress? Every seat in the House is up for grabs.. run as an independent or a libertarian if you have to.
(C)omputers (B)y (D)isney (T)o (P)rotect (A)nimation.
I too have joined the EFF and have written all of my congressional representatives.
We need to take action now! Please write your representatives about this terrible bill.
GJC
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
Holling's argument: Because of lack of copy protection, movie studios/record companies lose money, and do not make the amount of crap they would otherwise.
This supposed lack of content means there is not enough stuff available to fill the broadbandwidth available, so broadband is not worth the $50/month it costs. If there were more content, then Joe Sixpack would shell out the extra $50/month.
I've got news for Hollings: I would never pay $50/month for TV! I watch enough TV as it is, and do not have any more free time available to watch TV during. No matter how much content there is on TV, the limited amount of time I have to watch makes it impossible for TV to EVER be worth $50/Month to me.
I would rather melt every music CD I own and promise never to buy another CD as long as I live than pay for a copy protection chip for my CD burner.
Eat at Joe's.
Why would we want a bill to create demand for Broadband? Who gives a damn whether broadband is profitable? I don't want to pay $50/month for it. Let them lower the frikken price if it ain't worth 50/month and nobody will buy it! Don't make the public ( including ppl like me who can't afford $50/month, but who own a computer ) foot the bill for millions upon millions of copy protection chips so that TV couch potatoes can have more junk to rot their minds with! I've had my 56K modem for quite a while now, and don't see much reason to upgrade to Cable or DSL. The text and pictures I look at download quickly enough not to be bothersome. Even low quality sound is possible to send/recieve at 56k. If I want movies, I'll watch TV or rent a film. The film industry is worried that once people can record digital movies that piracy will be so rampant that they will go out of business. This is bullcrap. People hae been able to copy CDs for years, and do you see that any record companies have gone out of business!
Eat at Joe's.
Abortion rights was not the result of protests in the streets but of a Supreme Court decision. Gay marriage does not exist in the US. The civil war was not about slavery any more than WWII was a war against the Holocaust. You may have a point with Vietnam, but it doesn't take too many dead sons before a nation's taste for war requires something to really believe in, which Vietnam did not.
I'm surprised you left out civil rights. Although in the end, it appears to have been Northern stubbornness and the deployment of the the National Guard and the federal invalidation of Jim Crow laws that really did the trick. Oh, and again, some Supreme Court decisions played key roles. For the Supreme Court to be a useful body, they must be *immune* to the pleas made at protests. They must be willing to stand against the mob (which is all a protest really is) and say what they say regardless of popular opinion because they feel it is right, not popular.
If you are encouraging me to put myself in harm's way by going to confrontational protests to prevent passage of this law, you are crazy. You need to re-read your Thoreau, even your Goldman. Activism is not about creating a public nuisance. Civil disobedience isn't about carrying some signs down the Mall in Washington. You do what you think is right and moral, and you tell people why instead of hiding like a criminal. And instead of being a part of a riot, you live an otherwise upstanding life, so that when you get hauled in for something stupid, people are sympathetic.
I do not have a signature
Unless you pay for priority download access you are limited to 56k modem bandwidth. This is enough to make many people buy the CD. I think this is fair as long as it doesn't get rediculous.
Eat at Joe's.
Ever get the feeling its a lost cause? We are such a small minority .. we may 'get it' but the rest of the world doesnt and is slowly slipping into true socialisim .. ( if noone noticed, that is the next phase after a republic.. history IS cyclic... )
:/
Donno what anyone can do but sit back and watch.. and plan for what WILL happen, seems sooner then later...
Time to start hiding code people...( and hardware )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Gay sex is illegal in these US states:
alabama, florida, idaho, kansas, mass., michigan, minnesota, mississippi, missouri, north carolina, south carolina, texas, utah, virginia, military bases.
Gay sex is illegal in these EU states: <none>
So there have been plenty of marches and letter writing and civil disobedience in both continents, but the US ones don't seem to have worked yet.
With this much tenticle pr0n, CmdrTaco could be entertained for almost a whole hour! Incredible!
The problem with telling people about this bill, as previously stated, is that they just don't care. You can give someone a perfect schpiel on the massive downsides to this legislation and they'll just look at you and say "so?"
I wrote an editorial for my highschool's newspaper that was intended to bring this bill to the reader's attention, and get them to realize that this is a BAD THING. Everyone i had proofread it (not just for spelling and grammar, but to see if the average joe could understand the concepts) said they just didn't care. When the article ran, our newsroom recieved calls asking why this was such a big deal, and telling us that the alarmist tone that the piece was written in was too harsh.
I know several people who want to get into the music industry (as artists) that SUPPORT this bill. They don't want anyone copying their music and not paying for it. And while that is a wish i understand, they refuse to see how this bill does not prevent that.
As long as the yuppies get to drive their SUVs and talk on AIM, they're happy.
"Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
Mod this down, I have an alternate point of view - don't be frightened CBDTPA is not that bad, just a bit too all-encompassing at the moment but it'll be distilled down. As long as it doesnt kill free speech on the net I'm not OK with it but I accept that they have to protect their bottom line, especially with recession sending companies the same way as Enron. I could be wrong but let's try to analyse this logically.
The record and movie companies don't want computers to be used to rip one cd, and then distribute its contents worldwide. Let's look at the physical steps that make this possible:
1. The CD drive reads all CDs digitally, the laser scans in the CD tracks by tracking the reflection.
2. The firmware uses the ECC to reconstruct damaged data.
3. The data is translated to IDE/SCSI/USB, etc. bus format and transmitted to the IDE/SCSI controller, USB controller, etc. (the CD drive can have an optional Analogue2Digital converter for a headphone feed)
4. These ASIC controllers translate this data from controller format to PCI/Northbridge bus format where it's DMA'd to main memory.
5. App processes this data and stores it to HD or plays it or whatever.
6. Computer connects to a server or a P2P node (sorta lightweight server) over TCP/IP, any data stored on HD can be perfectly transferred over this link incoming or outgoing. App does not distinguish between native/downloaded data.
People have a reasonable right to break the law if they choose, so a slightly flawed system must be implemented. So how can the record companies attack this system? As far as I can see, these are their choices,
Solution 1 Obfuscation - Forget CDs, use Read-Only MiniDiscs instead, or any other proprietary format. Problem: it has to be converted to analogue in the earphone (even if this link is encrypted) which can be ripped. This creates extra trouble for the ripper, but for a song to be Napstered only 1 person has to set up the equipment to do this.
Solution 2 Taint the data - Make the data on the CD different like companies are doing now so that i doesn't meet the CD standard any more but CAN play on most dumb CD players, but not advanced CD players like computers CD drives and so can't be copied, it requires a dongle on the USB port to play.
Solution 3 Make CD writers illegal. If you really want to copy data or make a backup, then why use CDs which just happen to be compatible with CD drives? Use tape drives instead like Onstream, they're better. So you'll still be able to download mp3s, so what you can only play them on your computer, make mp3 players illegal, people should have proper retail CDs that they carry around.
Solution 4 Taint P2P systems - I THINK THIS WOULD BE GREAT! Force music transferred P2P clients to go over UDP, not TCP/IP, thus you get quality degradation in mp3s transferred, same as casette tapes with fair use that the industry asked for. Unfortunately rogue P2P like Freenet could subvert this, forcing CBDTPA to attack Cisco and router manufacturers via ISPs by ordering them to use layer 7 filtering on all traffic to search for mp3 (or whatever) headers. This would signal the end of the free Internet, a very sad day, but the law is *very* powerful
Solution 5 Taint the hardware - if none of the measures above works, then this is the nightmare scenario, can you make an x86 compatible processor in your garage? I laugh at all these pathetic people that say some company will not adhere to the standard, what commodity desktop PC processor manufacterer doesn't support big standards e.g. x86/G3/Sparc, Motorola 68000 or something. Developing an x86 processor on ASIC (otherwise like 1MHz), needs like $100million investment minimum. This provides precision targets for CBDTPA, they will be forced to provide DRM instructions on their processors otherwise they will not be allowed to import to USA, same as heroin. Same with chipset manufacturers, I've yet to see someone make a full-blown Northbridge out of 555 timers and BC108 transistors. They will be forced to provide encrypted tranmission to USB-DRM, IDE-DRM, etc. devices. New DRM drives will be incompatible with non-DRM chipsets and non-DRM processors cannot run on DRM chipsets. This won't necessarily be a difficult transition, the introduction of MMX, SiS motherboards with Northbridge/Southbridge on the same chip, the introduction of DDR hasn't caused any blue smoke and recalls larger than on the scale of 120GXP.
Only inserting a DRM-flagged CD into a DRM drive connected to a DRM chipset with a DRM processor will cause the DRM code in the OS to allow it to play but it would implant an encrypted CPU_ID or DRM_ID into the song every 5 seconds using steganography. The music industry will possess this database, and any music on Napster/Kazaa etc. could be tracked back to source and law enforcement would bust down their door. Solution 1/2/3/4 and CD levies are suddeny starting to sound good now aren't they?
Remember, hard drive, CD-writer, processor and chipset are things even the most advanced slashdot person can't build in his garage. In 10 years I can imagine an episode of Macguyver where Dr Evil encodes his plans on DRM, so RDA has to build a non-compliant HD using an egg, peanut, cassette tape and glue and a CD drive with a laser-pointer, mirror, precision motor, and writing drive firmware in C using RTlinux-on-FPGA. After all if bin Laden was using some network to blow stuff up, and there was no way to shut him out, then come on honestly I don't think that anyone would be surprised if the CIA implemented AI layer 7 recognition and blocking of Freenet encrypted packets at all ISP core routers.
I don't like it, but this is just the way it is. The again this could all be a crock of shit that came out of my imagination.
A caveman dreams of being us, the incalculable power and riches. We dream of being Q, then what?
One thing that agrevates me about this debate is
that Hollywood et. al. assumes everybody wants all
their digital media for free and is willing to
do anything to get it. Maybe thats because deep
down they know they are coniving pirates themselves. I work at big ten university for a small research group and a few years ago a the major film studio that produced Jurassic Park 2, used some mpeg animations we produced from research we had done. They used these images on the television screens in that "high-tech" recreational vehicle to make it look more scientific. They took the images from our website and removed our logo from the animation and never gave us any credit. So far the unversity lawyers have done nothing about it.
6) This bill is Anti-American. The American economy is founded on capitalism, where money proves the viability of your company. If the Entertainment Industry wishes to have more control over their content, let them put out their own technology to provide content over broadband: let the market decide if they want it. Legislation of copy protection forces the market to accept something that THEY WOULD NOT ACCEPT. The market had decided years ago that it wanted choice with DVD vs DiVX: Why are you trying to go against the consumer? When legislation is introduced to force the market to accept new systems, you give up capitalism... for fascism.
this is exactly the the function of a Political Action Committee. is there such a thing? i tried to find any, all i got is: New Yorkers for Fair Use
I got a letter published in the NY Times. (scroll to the bottom) I tend to think the media are not taking this seriously (yet) - except the Mercury News which is bashing it frequently. EFF where are you?
sulli
RTFJ.
I'm watching a pirated copy of LOTR right now as I type this message. I've seen it three times in the theater and plan to buy the DVD when it comes out. Am I a theif?
I'm suprised that there isn't more of a public movement to re-examine the lengths of copyrights or what purchasing a work really is or should be. The Entertainment industry would rather have us not think about these things. They got the lengths of copyrights extended to 90 years (a patent lasts 17 yrs) back in '98. Probably the result of some closed-door meetings in smoke-filled rooms with the industry lobbies and their Congressmen.
Why should we put up with all this crap? We're basically letting them call us a bunch of theives. They have the gall to assume that their phylosophy on copyright law is the correct and true way.
We pay multiple times for the same media. We pay when listening to the radio, when watching TV. How often are we not bombarded with their advertising? How many previews did you sit through the last time you were in the theater?
I think the industries involved need to figure out a way that I can watch TV without advertisements if I happen to own the movie that they're showing. The radio should not play adds before or after the music that I already own. That's how rediculous the CBDTPA is.
They shouldn't be able to do this to us, but they will if we don't start talking to non-techie people out there and getting people informed about their dissapearing rights.
This bit of unsavory legislation has changed names so many times now that I have a recommendation for its name: BFPT.
The "PT" stands for "parlour time"... mad props to alt.music.nin for that one.
Say, if you live in the U.S., PLEASE write or call (or both!) the officials that supposedly represent you in the U.S. Senate and House of Representative. If we all just sit here on Slashdot and bitch about it, nothing will happen. But if even 1000, 2000, 5000 of us called our representatives, that'd make a BIG difference. The more the better, so please call!
-- haaz.
Any independent or third party (Libertarian or otherwise) candidate will have to face the large number of sheeple voters who think Democratic and Republican are the only two real choices on the ballot.
i hope you remember to at least spell check your letter to your reps. maybe even at least revise it once ... perhaps twice
I'm not an American, so I don't know, but do you Americans have some way of removing senators from office?
Here's another! From Africana.com
...but I have realized one thing... Just don't post anything that anybody might question, because you'll get stomped by the closed mindedness. Oh well.
And here's an excerpt:
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring that slaves in all states and portions of states still at war with the federal government were free and would remain so. While taking care to exempt border slave states and the three Confederate states that the Union controlled, Lincoln nevertheless endorsed the idea of recruiting freed slaves and free blacks for service in the armed forces. The Emancipation Proclamation technically freed no one, because Lincoln's authority was not recognized in the Confederacy.
Let's say there is no right to kill your
child. But let's just say we disagree what
exactly to call a child?
Considered harmful.
This bill will be protested when Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sixpack see the pimply-faced teenager from next door get hauled out of his bedroom and thrown in Juvie with all of the drug addicts. That's when you'll animate the masses; not before.
I'm fairly sure this bill will get passed; I'm just not sure how they can ever enforce it.
--
Vote for your hopes, not for your fears - Vote Third Party
...have to watch my ass is all.
btb, ironically, I think that we were making the same point. That it was the actions of freed slaves that brought forth emancipation, rather than an act of war.