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Copyright [CBDTPA] Bill Universally Rejected
smcavoy writes " Globe Technology is carrying a article about the CBDTPA. "We haven't received one e-mail in support of the Hollings bill," said Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Mimi Devlin. "It seems like there's a groundswell of support from regular users." I wonder if the technology industry was pro CBDTPA, would we be hearing as many bad things about it, in the press?"
Information on the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act itself is available here.
... not until the bill and its variants have been withdrawn! This is the worst time possible to develop a sense of complacency.
Be sure to check out the site referenced in the article. They helped the effort, and apparently want to do more.
You can still buy mudslinging ads. The only reform that "might" happen will conveniently be enacted the day after this election.... Then after that the Supreme Court will declare it as unconstitutional as it violates the 1st Amendment.
The complete text of the bill: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c107:./temp/ ~c107KG2pN3
Right, because we the people rarely care enough. When they see a "groundswell" of response from the public they get worried that this is not one of those cases and that they will get punished.
And why be a politician in the first place if you can't cash in your influence? To serve the people? Don't make me laugh.
Most politicians, from what I have seen, are more interested in power than money. They'd rather "be there" for another term than cash in on a few million now. They like being wined and dined and feeling important. Not that they don't cash in, but I think most of them are in it for the long haul and aren't going to do something that nets them a few dollars today and costs them the election next time around.
In monetary terms, the "future value" of the office is worth more than the "present value" of the RIAA's campaign contributions.
Bottom line: it is worth the risk to take the money and screw the voters. If the only way to stay in office is to defend the interests of voters over the interests of deep pocketed contributors (and sacrifice those contributions) what's the point of being in office? If it comes to that, they'll just call in their favors and get a cushy consulting or lobbyist job.
This, and many other examples, refutes that. You may be cynical enough to believe all they want to do is line their pockets. And I'm not saying that doesn't happen. But I strongly believe that what most of them want is another term. If they can do that AND get rich at the same time, they're even happier. But given the choice between campaign dollars and a pissed off public that'll get them evicted next election, they'll try to keep the public happy.
Even if what they're after is money, they can't achieve that goal if we vote them out of office.
That exactly what the digital consumer organization is pushing for with the Digital Bill of Rights.
That is apparently uncomfortably close to the truth. Apparently the CBDTPA is mainly intended as a stalking horse. Its proponents don't seriously hope it to pass in anything like its current form, much as they would love if it did. It seems that what they're really aiming for at present is legislation specifically to enforce their plans for digital TV; after their opening demands have been rejected, they'll barter down to that. The resulting legislation will then be praised as the product of compromise and consensus. Both sides will claim a partial victory. And the studios will have exactly what they were hoping to get. Whenever they want some more, they'll simply repeat the process. Eventually it will become politically feasible to pass something like the current CBDTPA, since it will be possible to plausibly claim that it would only tidy up all the piecemeal copy-protection acts and amendments that by then will already be law.
DigitalConsumer.org is doing something about it. We are advocating a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights that will positively assert a consumer's rights to fair use. The Bill of Rights will guarantee your ability to use your own digital media in the way that you choose. With the support of consumers, we are working to have the Bill of Rights passed into law. Our proposed Bill has already gained support from numerous consumers as well as prominent executives and venture capitalists, but there's a lot more that we need to do in order to let Washington know that this is important.
Got friends?
Actually, under the CFR you can run any ads you want, as long as you say where the money came from in the ad. Hollings isn't up again until 2004, but then you could run a long "Hollings is a Disney-funded luddite" commercial, as long as at the end you said "Paid for by JordanH" and filed the appropriate forms with the federal elections commission.
Hollings was last relected in 1998, which means that he won't be up for reelection again until 2004. I think the other Senate seat is up for grabs in the upcoming election, since Thurmond is retiring.
Steve