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BSA To Join Battle Against DRM
Dunark writes "It appears that two of our favorite enemies are now at loggerheads with each other: According to The Inquirer, the Business Software Alliance has joined the fight against the Hollywood-backed attempt to legislate required DRM (the Hollings bill). Read about it in The Inquirer and also at Mercury News"
So now its nothing more then a battle of bank accounts
they will sue each other out of business, guess that's to much to ask for eh?
The BSA simply wants to do their own DRM, and dosn't want it mandated to them. If the RIAA/MPAA gets to choose the DRM, the BSA has to implement one that they might not like. If the BSA can implement their own DRM, they can charge royalties for using it, and they get to choose their own.
BSA wants you to "break the law" with their software watching to charge you after the fact.
hehe, and next we'll read about BSA becoming the new owners and distributors of such things as "Nero Burning ROM", "WinZip", etc. Heck, maybe they'll foot the bill for a pretty GUI DeCSS app. Of course, these will be special new versions which make handy use of your P4 serial number and your broadband connection back to their data warehouse.
With a couple of Perl scripts, their whole bully-fee-collection system could be automated.
Get off my launchpad!
I'm hoping that Congress does the obvious thing to benefit themselves: If they drag their feet, hem and haw, and otherwise prolong the legislative process, they get the maximum amount of campaign contributibtions from the opposed lobbying groups while doing what I want: Nothing.
Since when was BSA our enemy? Don't you realize that the more they force people to pay for proprietary software, the less the people are inclined to choose proprietary solution over a free beer one.
I bet many companies are evaluating open source alternatives for their existing proprietary applications right now, because they might not have bought quite enough licenses to cover all their use. That wouldn't be the case if BSA was less aggressive.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Am I supposed to feel better because a lobbying group is working to undo the evil of another lobbying group?
I'm no historian but I think the intent of the people who set up the USA Congress and other government organs was to enable the rule of the people for the common good. Now we see a group of corporations *buying* new laws for their own profit and the *only* thing that has the slightest chance of stopping them is another group of corporations who see a threat to their own bottom line.
It might be nice to see bad laws failing to get enacted but if you believe that the BSA are acting for the good of the people you are very naive. They act for their own good *exclusively* and it is pure chance that in this instance it coincides with what is good for the general population (indeed, there are many examples of the same group working directly *against* the common good).
So rejoice while you can but know this: you no longer have a say in the making of your own country's laws. Every time an expensive lobbying campaign is successful, it is one more battle lost for democracy; the exact legislative result is of little consequence.
Of course not. If you look at the names of lobbying organizations, you'll find a number of organizations that sound like they are environmentally-oriented but are, in fact, run by oil or other big industry concerns. Same with supposedly health-related lobbyists who really work for tobacco companies, etc. Heck, even "Greenpeace" seems a misnomer sometimes
Get off my launchpad!
'It is a pity that our friends lie in between,' said Gimli. 'If no land divided BSA and RIAA, then they could fight while we watched and waited.'
'The victor would emerge stronger than either, and free from doubt,' said Gandalf.
FreeSpeech.org
DRM prevents piracy; who you going to sue, if no one can use software in violation of its license?
In fact, if a workable DRM scheme were possible, the raison d'être of the BSA, SPA, and similar criminal enterprises is completely kaput, vanished, gone, history . . . you get the idea. Additionally, their members would lose the mind share they currently gain from unlicensed use of their products.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
Microsoft's DRM scheme serves as yet another way to lock people into their operating system by restricting the choice (of content) that is available to users of other operating systems.
Think about it: if Microsoft is successful at convicing Hollywood that their content will only be safe on Microsoft Windows systems, then Hollywood will only produce content for Microsoft Windows systems.
Microsoft may actually fear legislative attempts at creating DRM schemes, since those attempts would be much less likely to favor one OS over another.
Shame on Google.
I read how the DRM is bad, and I agree. As a customer, I would not ever purchase something that limited MY USE of it.
The BSA is an extortion racket of the worst kind, not so much as what they purport to do, but rather in their methods of DOING It. The same can be said about the RIAA, MPAA, and even so much in the aspect of DRM.
Which brings me to my question: When did I become a CONSUMER as opposed to a CUSTOMER?????
I have seen the trend in the computer and electronics industry from as far back as 1995 to state that I, as a user of a certain product, no longer have the right to Support of that product when it messes up, that I no longer have the right to ALTER the product that I PURCHASED with my Hard Earned CASH to make it NOT prevent me from using it in a way that prevents it from messing up other items, and NOW, the fact that if I DO alter, fix, repair, modify or explore that product that I as a CUSTOMER bought, I can and will be prosecuted.
This is not the America I grew up in. This is not the America I swore to defend.
Yes, I know....Welcome to Corporate America. Where wars are fought not to win, but only to deplete the ever standing supply.
The mantra has gone from "This we'll defend" to "You better BUY it NOW!!"
You keep going until you die..."Me".
See my editorial related to this topic, rather than me saying the same thing here. :)
Seriously. The BSA isn't the Gestapo or something. They don't set their agenda to 'Evil'. They are the attack dogs of a lot of companies interested in making money. When they think they're losing money from piracy, the BSA kicks down some doors at the public schools. When they think they're losing money from bad legislation, the BSA politely and sweetly whispers soothing words of influence and control to our lords and masters.
The goal is the same: make money.
Tactics might be different, but who really thinks you make as many friends in Congress by kicking down their doors as you do at public schools? ; )
the grass is trampled!
-- ancient saying from Africa or somesuch.
I'm only saying this since rash uninformed proverbs with no real content is a great way of getting "+5 insightful".
Somebody was bound to post this, so I might as well get the karma...
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.