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DMCA Comments HOWTO
pberry writes "As previously reported here on slashdot, the Copyright Office is looking for suggestions for new exemptions to the DMCA. The EFF has posted a nice HOWTO document to make your comments as effective as possible."
My main problem is that the DMCA lasts forever - ruining the whole point of copyrights, to provide incentive for people to work more on their product.
puts ("Python r0cks\n");
Did anyone else find this "HOWTO" far too informal, and offensive in parts? I don't need his opinions to make a comment, especially his generalisations of geeks' political views.
The EFF has posted a nice HOWTO document to make your comments as effective as possible.
Incase it gets slashdotted, here's the probably content:
1) Include lots of money with your letter
2) Legistature change
3) There is no step three!
Not trying to troll here folks, but it's things like this that makes me glad I don't live in America sometimes. I wish you all godspeed towards an amicable resolution which benefits both copyright holders and consumers alike, even if the pessimist within me doesn't think that is extremely likely at this point. Kudos to the EFF for their efforts in this uphill battle.
..my favorite rerason to oppose it is that it's just stupid. I mean lame. It ain't gonna work all that well. Look at the "war on drugs" and the gun rights assaults. It's dumb, it don't work. Waste of time and effort. Alcohol prohibition was similar, restrict everyone because there was the potential for misuse. Just dumb. The old arguments prove it's overblown, the cassette recorder was going to ruin music, make them all go bankrupt. Heck the reel to reel was going to do that. The VCR was going to make television and the mooovees go bankrupt, and it didn't happen. Xerox was going to cause the collapse of the book and magazine and newspaper publishing industry. It hasn't happened.
It's nuts! Now to find a way to put that into proper legalese gobbledegook.
The other point which is very hard to get across to "them" is, it's partly, and this is legit, it's these mega cartels own fault for conspiring to jack up prices to such a ridiculous level that people consider it not only their right to copy and share, but a "payback" of sorts. People aren't stupid, they know full well that cd music is way over priced. It's like the "volume sales" concept has been lost on them. Put out your product at a more reasonable price, then it'll sell, end of story, and for that matter, isn't this what the blank cd copy tax is for in the first place?
I know there's outfits out their try to make bona fide looking counterfeits, this is a different story. There's a big difference between some outfit pumping out thousands of cloned copies to make money and individuals making copies for their own use and to share amongst their peer-enthusiasts. to me that's a more realistic dividing line, are you doing it for profit? Is it someone's illegitimate business model to counterfeit? At that point, sure, enforce the law, anything but that, nope, not seeing it.
Too bad normal "plain talk" doesn't appear to be worthy enough to send in, what the heck, I'll try both ways, can't hurt...
And if it gets hard wired into hardware, swell, I'll just keep using old hardware then, no biggee to me. Ya, it might affect my second career as a basement cyclotron builder,heh, but really, I'll just stick to old used hardware then, I won't be buying any crippled hardware anytime soon.
The wording is so ridiculously broad it could be interpereted to prohibit having a 7 year old, because any 7 year old can decipher Adobe's ROT-13 encryption on eBooks. That makes 7-year-olds an illegal copyright circumvention tool according to the DMCA. What, for christ's sake, were they smoking when they wrote the DMCA?
;)
Except try to say it nicely and don't be so vitriolic.
Repeal the DMCA!
Ok, the DMCA sucks monkey balls, we all know this. But rather than sit here and rant about it, try and find a good, specific example in your life that shows where something should be allow. The idea isn't to just sit and bash the DMCA, they are just going to shitcan your comment and you will have gained nothing. Personally, I have already found one item that I felt needed to be included with this ruling: DVD Region Encoding. I don't know if it is allowed or not, but considering that it is a technological measure which controls access to a copyrighted work, hacking my DVD player to ignore it just might be a crime under this law.
Sure, it took me the better part of an hour to craft what I thought was a good argument for the inclusion of circumvention of Region Encoding in this ruling. Luckily I didn't have to go far to find a concrete example, the "Futurama" DVDs. (Love the show, really want the DVDs. They were only released in the UK a.k.a. Region 2.)
My point is, if you have something you want to be able to hack, then get off your ass and go tell the people that are going to make the descion.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
I began brainstorming for the comment I will submit. Here's some of my ideas. Feedback is welcome.
class of works 1: player device software or firmware designed to impede
interoperability of the player with independent 3rd party works. Examples: "mod chips" for game consoles
class of works 2: digital works sold to the public for which no analogue TPM-free
analogue version is published, "in print", and generally available for sale [if fair use is not raped b/c analogue is available then require it to be available for that reason]
class of works 3: Works published or owned by companies or authors that engage in
anticompetitive business practices, antitrust violations, and/or deceptive trade practices
involving their copyrighted products. The period of exception shall begin upon the
rendering of a final judgement or legal settlement against the company and shall last
until three years pass without a judicial or settlement finding of continued improper
behavior. Examples: MS for antitrust, RIAA for price fixing
class of works 4: data sets, lists, databases, or other collections whose individual
elements are public domain facts, not the original expression of the data set creator or
licensing contributor thereto, or otherwise not copyrightable by the data set creator. Examples: the CDDB thing, the recent price list thing
class of works 5: a work or compilations containing a work whose copyright has expired Examples: DVD's of the really old movies
Mod down opinions you don't agree with. Yeah, like that's going to solve anything.
Maybe you guys should grow up and have an adult discussion!
Dumb laws breed disrespect for the LAW. The hole they dig is deeper and wider all the time. Copyright is automatic and nearly endless while Patent protection requires novelty and expressions of genius to be granted. This is greatly out of balance. If you believe generic drugs are a good thing for our society, then how can you believe that Copyrights of nearly unlimited terms are anything but bad for society. If we were to extend Patent terms to the same lengths that Copyrights have already been extended, then nearly everyone would seek ways around such laws. This is what is happening with Copyright.