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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.
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+/.+~
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
"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.
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"Hmm, I'm being entertained by this divx'ed Matrix movie I just downloaded"
Yeah, imagine if you had a way to pay them for it too. Too bad the MPAA doesn't provide the format we want to watch it in.
It makes you wonder how they can claim to have lost billions of dollars in a market they haven't entered.
"Derp de derp."
errr he is from Burbank..the home of half the bloody movie/TV studios in existence. The amount payed to him is minor considering he does represent their district. I am from California and would happily see this guy sweeping streets but can't find fault with him accepting money from his home district. Now the "REAL" Senator from Disney, that goofy guy from Carolina, should NOT be deriving money from the movie industry at such a rate but, he has things to offer them and is in FACT being bought...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
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."
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
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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
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 ?
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
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
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.
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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
What are we to do? SERIOUSLY? Well, there's that thing... in the constitution.. you know... *cough* the second amendment *cough* you know, it's there for a reason... for cases like these...
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.
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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.
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Here you go
http://cryptome.org/broadbandits.htm
The Anti-Blog
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.
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.
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
To fight this will require intelligence, make the law completely un enforceable, build freenet,
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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.
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So if you live in the US, hook up with lots of like minded geeks, get each one to bring two friends and DO IT.
I've written my MP on this. I visit him personally when he is in his constituency office. I've expressed my views towards the Canuck DCMA, and will express my views on CD levies when her returns from his 53 day "work break".
Most of us here can't protest this, and if the US passes it, it's only a matter of time before Canada and the EU do as well. What do you think the protests of the 1960's were all about? Repealing the laws which diminished peoples rights after WWII.
Don't sit there in you cubicle and wait for the hangman - get off your chair and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
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.
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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?
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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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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'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.
ok waste yourr time, i never said anything about violent overthrow of the government.
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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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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
And a capitalist, (American Style) believes that the person or organization that can con, defraud or steal the work from the producer and make it stick is the owner. Therefore the current "Democratic, Capitalist System", where a capitalist can buy all of the democracy he wants.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
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.
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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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!"
It speaks poorly for that loser that he can be bought out for a measly $19,000. That doesn't even pay an intern!
So that's why interns do what they do (think Monica Lewinsky). They need more money.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
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
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
IANAL, but people are not arrested for civil copyright infringement - the copyright holder must file a civil suit against the infringer to recover damages. A film company wouldn't sue Feinstein's aide, that's ridiculous.
Take a careful look at the FBI warning thingy on your MPAA-compliant home videos - they don't actually say what criminal copyright infringement is, they just outline the penalties for it. You're left to assume (wrongly) that making a copy of the video or showing the video in public is criminal.
"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.
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
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.
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.
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)
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.
Because there's at least one Democrat on our side.
Really, there's no point in turning this into a partisan issue.
--- Work, worry, consume, die. It's a wonderful life. -- Bill Griffith
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.
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!?
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
Write or fax. The fax number is at whitehouse.gov. That's what I did, rather than snailmail. My theory is that they're still leery of snailmail because of anthrax, and faxes probably get mor attention the email.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
R.D. Clark wrote:
> 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.
Even more amusing, at the Senate hearing held by Hollings, Eisner (president? of Disney) showed a pirated Sony movie. Presumably without permission.
> My bet is that they are doing the same thing at home behind closed
> doors themselves. Sometimes the blatant hypocracy just boggles the
> mind!
That and the blatant greed. They don't care about the law, piracy, or what is right. This is only about them milking as much money as possible out of people.
I actually know someone like this. He runs a small technology company. He happily downloads mp3s, can't be bothered to pay for legal copies of libraries incorporated into his software, doesn't care a bit about the IP of others. When it comes to his software, patents, etc., it is a far different story. His precious IP has to have a EULA, and be copy protected, and sued over, etc. It is all about greed.
Come on, Tok Wira, these sharks have gotta pay!
New Kirk calling Mothra, we need you today!
..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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Basically, the advance of technology has made copyrights unenforceable. Like the automobile made the horse and buggy obsolete.
What they are trying to protect isn't so much copyright (it would probably be possible for the US Congress to come up with a new "copyright" law which would serve the purpose outlined in the US Constitution.) It is more the paradigm of big corporate publishers. Effectivly what technology is doing is lowering the cost of recording and publishing works. To the extent that either completly new publishing companies, who don't use "legarcy media", could come into existance (who wouldn't need to create "megastars" to ensure they make money even if they have "megaflops") or the people who actually create works no longer need a third party to publish their work.
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.
I'm not an American, so I don't know, but do you Americans have some way of removing senators from office?
Or better yet the last guy to try to make one Europe was Hitler.
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.