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Alternatives to the CBDTPA?
badBillStomper asks: "In the next few days I will be meeting with my Congresswomen to discus the effects of a Sen. Hollings CBDTPA on your average customer/techie. I have read tens (if not hundreds) of comments on the various OSDN sites explaining the very obvious reasons why the CBDTPA would cause a great deal of harm to the technology sector as well as consumers. Unfortunately the only postings/articles I have seen which offer a resolution to online piracy have been limited to ways in which the entertainment industry needs to change its business model. While this may be a valid argument, it does not provide a legislative alternative (something which many on Capitol Hill are scratching for). Therefore my question to the slashdot community is what new legislation would you support which would make those who engage in online piracy easier to track? Most internet users are familiar with the fact that someone with an intermediate amount of network knowledge can tap into data which is sent from one location to another. Vice President Al Gore was the first to link the internet to the idea of the 'information superhighway.' Since Americans are already used to this term, what would the effects of the creation of a kind of 'net traffic cops;' i.e. a law enforcement type of agency which monitors web traffic and fines individuals which break laws, i.e. distribute copyrighted information?"
i.e. a law enforcement type of agency which monitors web traffic and fines individuals which break laws, i.e. distribute copyrighted information?
And don't forget to tap everyones phone while you're at it!
This must be the most privacy infringing statement I have ever seen on the slashdot frontpage.
On the other hand, they already have a system that would/may be capable of somthing like monitoring a large portion of net communications. Echelon.
And they never bothered to tell anybody about that one in the first place...
Some people may be all to willing to put it in **AA's service...
I find this proposition just as frightening as any of Holling's half baked bills.
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
Upon calling Paul Wellstone's local office, I told the person working the phone how i was opposed to any legislation mandating draconian DRM solutions and made several valid points. I made a point to inform that I was planning on voting in my first election in 2002 and that my opinions on these issues helped form many of my peer's opinions. Tell some high school kids that this will make burning CDs or making copies of free over-the-air TV programs and they'll get interested real fast.
They said they would have the Senator write me back with a response as soon as possible, but being a Senator, he was a very busy man. Ok, I thought, I'm a reasonable man, what's a few weeks. I don't mind waiting a month or two? I took the form letters from The EFF and tailored them to my needs. I sent compies of this e-mail to recently-elected Senator Dayton (D-MN), and my Congressman, Representative Martin Sabo (D-MN).
Well my e-mail and phone campaign was way back in September and just now have I received a response from one of my elected officials. What follows is an e-mail I just received on April 29th from Senator Wellstone, seven months after my inquiries:
I liked the part where I he didn't really answer my question... It seems you are correct in thinking Capitol Hill is hell bent on passing legislation. I don't think ANY legislation is a good thing, but I feel that they [capitol hill] see us [letter-writing geeks] as meddlers who refuse to offer a solution. Who says there needs to be a solution? Has anyone had any other luck with their representatives?
Next - what party is she?
If Republican - advocate a free-market solution, pointing out the revenues (and earnings, and by extension, taxes) from the technology industry far outweigh the income from the Content Cartel.
(If she's a Republican on the Religious Right, you may also want to point out that Hollywood hasn't been terribly friendly to her party in terms of donations, or her constituents' values, either. When was the last time Andy Grove of Intel decided to advocate sexual promiscuity and drug use? :)
Second - no matter what party she's from, avoid terms like "Content Cartel". Works great on Slashdot. Makes you sound like a tinfoil-hat-loon to a politician.
If Democrat - go for the "why subsidize Hollywood and 'big business' over the little guy selling hardware out of his storefront" angle.
Also, and most importantly, if she's a Democrat - point her to Rep. Boucher. A fellow Congressman from her side of the aisle who truly "gets it".
(For that matter, pointing a Republican Congressman to Rep. Boucher wouldn't hurt either. "Hey, man, even some of the Democrats realize that Fritz' bill is a Big Mistake, and they realize so for precisely the same reasons I do. When a Democratic Congressman can find common ground with Sen. Orrin Hatch (e.g. the DMCA has gone far beyond what its legislative proponents intended), there's probably some room for not just bipartisanship, but there's also something fundamentally wrong with the Hollings bill."
Finally - it's not just the Hollings bill. Rep. Boucher put it very well in the interview when he said there were two ways to look at it: Either all your base are belong to Hollywood, or not.
If you can educate your Congresswoman as regards to what to look for (and what to look out for - (including, but emphatically not limited to, Hollywood-mandated restrictions on hardware manufacturers and computer owners, backed up by force of criminal law) - you stand a reasonable chance of not just stopping the CBDTPA, but whatever successor bills Hollywood tries to put through if CBDTPA is defeated.
Finally-finally - and you probably shouldn't have to be told this, but just for the sake of completeness - be respectful and professional. Get a haircut. If you're male, wear a suit and tie. Dress like you're going to the most important job interview of your life.
Just 'cuz there are a lot of long-haired, wild-eyed geeky types on Slashdot, doesn't mean you have to fill the stereotype. The more they can see that opposition to CBDTPA isn't just a "long-haired freak" position, but a rational response on the part of consumers and businesses alike to a poor law, the better for our side.
It is already illegal to copy and redistribute a copyrighted work (in general). There are civil and criminal penalties in place to punish those who do. The government's obligation to copyright holders ends there. No further measures are necessary or proper.
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In Britain, shortly after the automobile was invented, a law was passed that stated that any automobile could not be driven over 4Mph, and must be led by a man carrying a red flag. The law was requested by the horse carriage industry.
The effects of the law were quite profound - nobody wanted to buy a car if they couldn't drive it faster than they could walk, so while Henry Ford created the assembly-line, and created one of the strongest automotive industries in the world, Britain's car industry lagged sorely behind the rest of the world. The "red flag" law (as it came to be known) was repealed 10 years later, but the damage it did to Britain's automotive industry has never been undone (disclaimer: I am British.)
Senator Hollings is doing the exact same thing to American computer industry with this bill - to satisfy a vocal minority, he is sacrificing an emerging industry, and it will set back the American economy.
Bullshit. I was sued by RIAA's member companies for running an FTP server and lost close to $35,000 in the process.
One problem. When half-life came out it was one of the first games to have the cd-key stored server side, so that you couldn't play online if someone else had your key (ie, no wide-spread keys for all the pirates to use).
Well, some enterprising people would go to the store (or they worked there), open the box, get the legit key, then return the game. Now they had a working cd-key. Then someone comes and buys that same box. They try to play, and their key comes up as pirated. They didn't do anything wrong but still got screwed.
Server side checking only works when you're forced to connect to their servers to verify the key, so in your example of serialized movies, you would have to dial in to the MPAA's servers before you could watch anything, and if they decided to revoke you key then you're outta luck.
So, good ideas, and I totally agree that legistlation won't do anything but fill up more of our prisons with non-violent offenders.
Travis
With Patriot act bill that passed, the government doesnt need a warrant to see what you're transfering.