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"Super-DMCA" Bills In Tennessee and Arkansas
David Turner writes "Tomorrow, Tennessee's Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing
on two nearly identical DMCA-like bills. These bills threaten
personal privacy, anonymity, and security research. SB
213 and HB457
are similar to state laws
introduced all over the country by the MPAA. Despite amendments, the bills still threaten digital freedom. Last
month, twenty people showed up at the Massachusetts public
hearing, and effectively opposed the one MPAA lobbyist. If you attend, speak from notes rather than simply reading a statement (but you
may be able to submit written testimony). Please come to Legislative
Plaza in Nashville, rooms 12 and 14 at 3:30pm." And Kraken137 writes "The House and Senate of the Arkansas state legislature have passed the MPAA's "Super-DMCA" Bill, and it is now sitting on the Governor's desk awaiting his signature. It's not too late to convince him to veto this bill! Arkansas residents are urged to contact the Governor's office to express their opposition to this violation of rights. The ever-vigilant EFF has a page where residents can send a fax to Governor Huckabee's office to let their voices be heard. Remember, paper and phone calls make more of a difference than emails!"
It's legislation that makes me fear of how I can do my Open Source development. By sharing I may be breaking the law. This makes me afraid.
somehow i doubt the governor is going to listen to his constituents when the MPAA i$ breathing down his neck.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
Time to once again send a fax to my senator. This is really getting to the point of rediculous by the MPAA and the RIAA. People will still be cracking their movies and music and spreading them over systems they cannot touch.
I've done my reading on the DMCA, but this "Super-DMCA" I haven't. Being the lazy college student that I am, could anyone provide a nice set of notes on the pertinent parts of this proposal? I can draw my own conclusions, but if you want to include yours too I'm sure you will.
Just telling me that the Super-DMCA threatens my "personal privacy, anonymity, and security" won't quite get me to bite, thanks.
The EFF has also set up a page to Fax, email, or print a letter to your Tennessee reps:
t em =2628
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&i
Knowing /. most people will just fax him a black page. The MPAA will be quaking in their boots at the huge bills for toner!
In Soviet Russia, beowulf clusters imagine YOU!
Friends, we are wasting our time with petty faxes, emails and written letters. We need to band together and purchase a Tomahawk cruise missile and then, only then, will be convince these infidels that they are wrong.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
is this the most links ever in a Slashdot article? We should give amnesty to everyone who comments without R'ing The F'ing A's.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
Someone (not me, I have things to do) needs to set up a website tracking this type of event, which allows people to enter their zipcodes and email addresses to be alerted when a lobbying opportunity arises in their area. I would be the first to sign up for Southern California.
If you feel you are up to the task - email me at ian[@]locut.us and I will do what I can to help, within the time contraints of my other projects.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking you can "make a difference".. Don't oppose the decisions of the government, that would be undemocratic of you. They know whats best for you, they are provided all the info they need on these issues by well-paid professionals.
Just sit back and take it easy.. writing letters is hard. Hey! whats on TV? could be you're missing a reeeealy good show! Nothing more to see here, move along..
This post has been sponsored by the **ia, this space for rent.
air and light and time and space
It will do no good to try to change their minds they
are to busy lining their pockets. Hucklebarry has cut budgets to about every social service in arkansas other than medicaid and food stamps. He will no doubt get a nice contribution from one of the labels for signing it.
As one of his constituents, I doubt he will listen (a lot of people in Arkansas recognize that he is in office for the wrong reasons), but I would say that's because most government officials will not take time to look at this issue in depth. The MPAA and RIAA can be very loud.
"I'm Governor Huckabee, and I congradulate Canada on the preservation of it's national igloo."
So I've seen quite a bit about the super DMCA legislation and I hadn't heard anything about efforts to pass such a thing in Illinois. Well, turns out that it was passed in July of last year.
I heard nothing about it at the time, of course, and so it's a bit too late to do anything abou it. Sure, you can try to get a law repealed, but it's significantly more difficult to get a law off the books than it is to keep it off in the first place.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I like this sort of grassroots dissemination through the internet. Now if American /. readers were to act on it in any great number, and act as polite but concerned citizens, they can be a force for good.
Remember! The Internet is not just for porn! It's also about organizing politcal action to keep porn legal!
The only problem is that most users here are probably used to virtual anarchy (games) instead of physical anarchy (actually going out and torching some parked car). Then again, maybe we are all just practicing for the day when we will go out and attack The Machine. ;)
Your Canadian self-righteousness makes me sick! How dare you tell us what we should or shouldn't do?
maybe it's just me but some of these bills seems to be blatantly in violation of the BILL OF RIGHTS. Anyone remember that thing? I'm sure you've heard of it.
Why is the RIAA allowed to just snoops around just based on suspicion. The police need this thing called a WARRANT. If I went snooping around the RIAA offices because I thought they stole something from me I'd probably be arrested for breaking and entering.
I can understand when bills get past that may not necessarily be good for anyone but a big company, but these "DMCA" bills are out of control and unconstitutional. Maybe I'm just crazy or global warming has fried my brain and I'm not seeing strait.
Thank goodness someone brought this issue to light. I tried submitting an article earlier and was rejected.
This DMCA stuff is serious. Together with the USA PATRIOT act, we are *seriously* look at an Orwellian future, people.
It's really time to do something, no more procrastinating.
If you can't go out and do something in person, then at least make a donation to the EFF and the ACLU. They both even have a monthly recurring system where you can have a small charge made to your credit card every month. A monthly contriubtion will make you feel a lot less guilty when going to the movie theater or blockbuster.
Please don't let this pass you by. The ??AA lobbyists are subverting our freedoms to tell us what we are allowed to do with the things we already own!
It's ridiculous that corporations have more political power than the people who actually elect our officials. Can we not read the bribery between the lines? This is offensive on so many levels...
It's time to act, people. How do you want your future to be determined -- by youself or by a corporation?
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
Oh, wait..
Note to self: get smarter troll to guard door.
Don't you remember the Segway? How before it was even available, and before most people had even seen one it was being pronounced legal to ride on the sidewalks of major cities all over the US? How snappy lobbying suddenly made something OK without any real discussion?
The dangers of this are entirely in the disturbing broadness in the definitions, and the "everything not permitted is forbidden" catch. I much prefer the "everything not forbidden is permitted" way of things.
This would make it illegal for me to use fake referrer IDs (which I sometimes use) on my web browser. This would forbid me to share the DSL connection I share with my father's computer- why would ISPs ever want to allow shared connections? This would forbid me from burning my own music to CD, meaning the music that I myself composed.
The way it's worded actually outlaws power-line networking! While I don't really see that as a bad thing- people picking up on that will oppose the bill, and I think power-line networking is a Really Bad Idea(TM), it's more devious than that- with the "express consent required," you would have to get written consent from the companies in question whenever you want to plug something in to a wall outlet if power-line networking occurs.
This is a truly horrid, debilitating law- which I have every intention to flagrantly violate if I get a chance- start a company that specializes in making nothing but those things, use resources that law would forbid...
The "must get permission" thing is the part that scares me the most.
Warning: Poster of this comment is a nerd. Just like everybody else here.
reverse engineering playback, copying and even listening to media that you buy these are all antique ideas guys.
Get with the program. The owners of the copyrights to digital media are the only ones who should be authorized to tell you when and how you can listen to the products you buy. Ownership? You don't jack except the worthless piece of plastic that won't play in your machine.
The rights of consumers count for very little in a paranoid world of corporate heads who do NOT understand that people are buying their products because they suck. Naw, it is the technology that allows people to filter out the crap that is to blame. Doublespeak that has been endorsed through the courts.
I have a list of ten CDs I would like to buy because I have either lost my old ones or I have them only on tape and they are getting awfully warn out now. Still, I hesitate. Except for the stuff from SST from old Post punk bands of the time I hate the idea of funding the people that made the mantra Corporate Rock still Sucks so true and sad.
ACK
Essentially what this "Super DMCA" is geared at is allowing copyright holders access to ISP private information (including but not limited to, IP address, street address, phone number, etc) of "copyright infringers" in the hopes of halting online music/movie piracy. It would basically outlaw any network address translation device (e.g. routers, gateways, firewalls) that could coneal the IP address of a suspected infringer.
Just take a Linksys box, and a copy of Windows XP into the hearing room and tell the dumbasses there assembled that these useful and commonly used devices will be illegal in their state if this moronic bill passes. And that all those High Tech Jobs (TM) that aforementioned dumbasses keep saying they want to attract will move out of state if said moronic restrictions in fact become law.
sulli
RTFJ.
Really how often has any new technology come out of Tennessee or Arkansas?
Maybe a competitor was trying to steal Jack Daniel's distilling technique, and the Tennessee Senate had to act fast.
And, what's best, they even make a difference if turned against yourself! Thanks to tort law, the only area where the lowly citizen rules, rather than the big megacorporation. Just be sure you mention in your good-bye letter why you did it ;-)
posessing a natural number
2 39 847923847293847092394 1738178274821797837491 238747 4368522 342637464 2348273498 2374
27829379428734982379487239847293847923487293487
488794879872082407187409167
987238471287491387492874827493874365873658
327647234729384727394823794823747234923
is illegal and will be prosecuted by the full extent.
Because this number just happens to be a Britney song encoded in Radix-50 MPEG-4 format.
If you got this number in your calculations, you MUST
stop now and erase it as soon as possible.
It's so silly of him to think Canadians could even BUILD an igloo.
It's a shame people hold their entertainment as such an important part of their life that there could never be a successful boycot of the MPAA or RIAA.
No way would most people skip out on Matrix 2! Can you imagine, not forking over $8 to the MPAA to see a movie?!
Forget freedom, what's on TV?
The Bourgeois Class is not interested in the welfare of the Working Class... All they care about is increasing their capital at the expense of others.
They don't care about us, all they want is our cash. They introduce shit laws as these to get more and more money.
A few of us try to fight it...
They try to take our rights away, so stand up and fight!
Mobilize everyone you know against the DMCA, educate them about it.
It's fun to violate D.M.C.A.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This would forbid me from burning my own music to CD, meaning the music that I myself composed.
Do you claim to have composed a song? Have you ever listened to the radio? If so, then you are presumed to have copied the song from another song in violation of federal copyright law (Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs; analysis; more analysis).
Will I retire or break 10K?
It would send a more powerful message if politicians faced recall votes over issues like these. I don't see that happening though.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I'm sure he'll send Deputy Dawg around to rustle up the perpetrators.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
When was the last time you've heard of a "grassroots" campaign actually accomplishing ANYTHING?
What is the process by which this legislation is getting proposed everywhere. I am not real "up" on state politics, and completely ignorant of cooperation between state governments (I didn't think there was any).
Do state senators e-mail each other saying "here's a great opportunity for you to screw your consitituents".
Or, is someone with a vested interest going to reps from each state government, and pleading the need for this (along with some generous campaign donations)?
Can anyone shed some light on this?
********
Thank you for contacting my office regarding H.R. 107, the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA). With changes in how consumers access copyrighted material, I agree that we must reexamine the application of our copyright laws.
As a member of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee, I will have the opportunity to work closely on this issue and agree that we must create a balance between protecting the artist's work and providing access for consumers. While copyright law should protect the property rights of the creators of a work, we must also ensure that consumers of those works have fair access to the material. Just as radio changed the way copyright law applied to music, the development of the Internet, peer-to-peer networks and digital copies are changing the applicatio of copyright law.
One way to address the imbalance is H.R. 107, which requires the producer of a work to properly label what the limits of how their materials may be used or accessed. In addition, the bill ensures that consumers have a fair use right to circumvent any new copyright protections. As this legislation is considerd in the Intellectual Property Subcommittee, I will be sure to keep your view in mind.
Again, thank you for contacting me and, if I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact my office.
Very truly yours,
Melissa Hart
Member of Congress
************
"We apologize for the inconvenience."
Well, it does help that my music bears almost no relation to anything else I've ever heard. (Check my link for free mp3 files!) It's rather a cross between "Skyroads," "Vertrix 2," and "Donkey Kong Country"- the musical scores of, anyway.
It's a nasty set of precedents, though. That someone can be sued for having a song that resembles someone else's... that's just freaky.
Warning: Poster of this comment is a nerd. Just like everybody else here.
Monies contributed to Public officals campains
Record companies : big bucks
Phone companies : big bucks
Moive industry : big bucks
Music and Video stealin 3L337 H4ck0rs: none
nuff said
The RIAA and MPAA send their lobbyists to individual state legislatures in an attempt to get Senators and Representatives they feel will be sympathetic to their cause to introduce the bill. Those Senators and Representatives then contact their friends in the Senate and House of the state to gain support for their proposed bill. The bill is then drafted and a hearing often takes place before one or more committees in the state house and senate. During these hearings the MPAA and RIAA lobbyists are often called on to speak and say why the law should be adopted. These hearings are usually done in such a way that the average Joe can't participate, nor can groups opposed to the bill such as the EFF and ACLU. Once the RIAA and MPAA lobbyists have addressed the state congress they will then have presented a completely one-sided view of their issue to the congress, which will only see one side of the coin, and vote before they can really look at the other side. A lot of this gets hurried through because of the large number of issues that come before the state house and senate, and some of it gets hurried through by the Senators or Representatives that introduce the bill because they want to get it passed.
Supposedly, at least from what I read once, the Segway lobbyists didn't end up contributing money to campaigns. They themselves were very highly paid, but that's it. Anyone can do that sort of thing with proper organization.
However, in the same article (I don't recall its URL), some politicians were suggesting that part of the reason the Segway is not becoming legal everywhere quickly is precisely because they did not contribute money to the campaigns.
The *AA have more than just US congressional lobbyists. :)
I present an exerpt from my ISP's AUP: :-] )
(I've renamed the name so as to not incriminate the ISP
A) ISP
ISP is designed for personal and family use within a single household. Customer agrees that only the Customer and co-residents living in the same household will use the Service. The term 'single household' means the Customer's home and includes an apartment, condominium, flat or other residential unit that may be used as a residence in any multiple dwelling unit. Customer may not resell or distribute the Service outside Customer's household. The Service is being provided solely for use in Customer's household and any unauthorized access by a third party to e-mail, Internet access, or any other function of the Service relieves Charter of any affirmative obligations it may have, and is in violation of this Policy.
Customer may set up one (1) web page per primary e-mail account for personal use using the Service, but Customer may not establish a web page using a server located at Customer's home. Customer will not use, nor allow others to use, Customer's home computer as a web server, FTP server, file server or game server or to run any other server applications. Customer will not use, nor allow others to use, the Service to operate any type of business or commercial enterprise. Customer will not advertise that the Service is available for use by third parties or unauthorized users.
ISP reserves the right to disconnect or reclassify the Service to a higher grade for failure to comply with any portion of this provision or this Policy. Any violation of these policies may lead to prosecution under state and/or federal law and/or termination of Customer's service.
3. NO COPYRIGHT OR TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT
Customer will not use, nor allow others to use, the Service to send or receive any information which infringes the patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets or proprietary rights of any other person or entity. This includes, but is not limited to, digitization of music, movies, photographs or other copyrighted materials or software.
ISP is registered under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). Under the DMCA, copyright owners have the right to notify ISP if they believe that an ISP customer has infringed the copyright owner's work(s). If ISP receives a notice from a copyright owner alleging any Customer has committed copyright infringement, ISP will notify the Customer of the alleged infringement. If ISP receives more than one notice alleging copyright infringement on Customer's part, Customer may be deemed a "repeat copyright infringer." ISP reserves the right to terminate the accounts of repeat copyright infringers.
Does this mean the RIAA and MPAA are trying to gain even more power than is already allowed under current law? Or is this merely a restating of current law, so as to more actively enforce it?
If you read Slashdot, then more than likely you have above average interest and knowledge about computers and technology.
For political expediency, I'll just identify you as Knowledge Workers of the Third Millenium (rather than karma whores, trolls, etc.)
If ever in the future you might consider starting your own technology-related business, or already own a technology-related business, then you can start to increase your employee morale, productivity and unfettered creativity by choosing a place to base your business that does not place draconian measures on the free flow of information for the sake of vested special interest groups saying words like "piracy" and "patriotism".
A trickle of feedback like this to a few chambers of commerce in the right states would do wonders in stemming the tide of such ill-thought legislation. Just about every state in the USA and every locality everywhere wants to become the next Silicon Valley. If you let them know, as the kind of person that makes up what makes Silicon Valley represents, that Tennesse (or wherever) is condemning itself to becoming a repressive backwater by adopting the same kind of legislation that has done so much to help the information economies
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Remember, paper and phone calls make more of a difference than emails!
The voice of a person should be the voice of a person regardless of the medium. An e-mail should carry as equal a weight as a written letter of equal caliber. If politicians truly give more weight and consideration to a voicemail or written fax or mailed letter, then I think it's clearly obvious why they would be more obligated to sign a DMCA-like bill into law.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
Nothing's illegal until you're caught. Now it's worse to get caught. Don't get caught.
We have a government and a people that are terrified of insecurity to the point of burning civil liberties left and right. Law after law after law is passed that intends to increase security (but really only increases paranoia).
While all of this is going on, that very same government passes legislation that has the side-effect of making the research of *real* security illegal. This not only effectively stops the advancement of security, it degrades existing security as well.
This makes no fucking sense.
It's so hypocritical, it's almost religious. What a remarkable Americna innovation. We are the image of our leader.
Why bother.
So if we can't hide the origin or existence of a communication, does that mean we can't run nodes that the Chinese dissidents use to tunnel through the Great Firewall?
and let's hope that he then loses the appeal. Then we have bulletproof jurisprudence that abortion is indeed murder...
That if those few of us left who actually believed in rights, along with the basic principle "so long as I'm not harming you and yours, shut the fuck up and mind your own goddamned business", were to move to British Columbia and become Canadian citizens, we might actually have enough voting power to pass a referendum seceding from Canada and establishing our own nation.
Why British Columbia? Well, although it rains 10 months out of the year it's very, very pretty. B'sides, global warming should make the climate a bit more hospitable over the next couple of decades. It also has a couple of nice large port cities with lots of ex-Hong Kong money floating about, as well as quite a few high-tech operations.
And the population is pretty tiny. Even if there are only a couple million of us left who believe in the Bill of Rights that should be enough to push for secession.
The downside is that the moment we secede King George will declare our new nation a 'safe harbor for terrorism', then invade and conquer us and cut down all of our trees for his friends in the timber industry....
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
If we could just get Washington, Lincoln, and Jackson to pipe down maybe we could get a word in edgewise. :-}
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Sad to say your complaints are falling on deaf ears. The politians don't give a rat's ass what you want. Wait until they start locking you guys up for using ssh or squid proxy.
Again, welcome to my world. Can you pass the soap?
I dont think the right to use something is ANYWHERE close to what the DCMA or SUPER-DCMA are about.
. I love the sound of burning women and screaming rubber....
Why haven't hardware and software manufacturers stepped up? I have no doubt these bills would make illegal many services and devices. Users should be worried, esp. in that they stifle acceptable, estabished use.
But I would also think that manufacturers who sell ISP grade and consumer equipment would be getting slapped hard--VPN devices and the like, integrated into many home networking routers nowadays, would be more or less illegal. They'd take a hit in the pocketbook.
Or are they just stupid and slow?
(In other news, maybe this is a good thing; states that don't pass this crap may get a slight economic boost for their intelligence not to follow a special interest lobbying group.)
The irony to the RIAA/MPAA/DCMA problems is that we, the people have the power to destroy anything they try to do. First of all, there will always be another napster/etc. clone (I won't name them so as to not cause them trouble), such that the program navigates around whatever copyright protection there is. Second, assuming that no program can get around the copyright, one can always take pictures of the screen, or record off of one's own stereo device. The analog technologies are still manufacturable, no matter what devices come out in the future. If everyone just disregarded these institutions' attempts at censorship, they will have to stop, or else they're wasting all their precious money. They can't arrest everyone! It would be like prohibition... a stupid rule bound to fail.
stuff |
Having worked in the US Congress as a Legislative Correspondent, I can confidently say, huh uh! We physically counted phone calls, letters, faxes and emails completely equally with no regard to their type, as did every other congressional office that I was familiar with. The only thing that made one correspondence count and another not is if one was not from a constituent address.
I think I'll stop here.
1) Prohibits monitary donations to individuals with voting rights (i.e. NO LOBBYS / Corporations / Associations ).
2) Put a cap on monitary donations to no more than $ 5000.00 total per year to any policitcal campain (Local, Federal, or State). This would force "individuals" to re-think how they donate monies.
3) ALL donations regardless of the amounts must appear on the donater's tax returns (any amount over the $ 5000 would be taxed at the maximum % as a penalty)
4) All donations must appear on the polititians "records" and NOT aggrigrated.
NOTE: Lobbiests could still violage #1 but would be severely limited by #2 and #3.
UPS Sucks
One of the things prohibited by this legislation is concealing the origin or destination of any communication from the communication service provider. This could mean you can't use ssh or a VPN!
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act now requires these sorts of technologies when electronically communicating medical information. So will doctors in these states nolonger be able to access patient, hospital or insurance records from off-site?
It's all a question of priority. Your medical information isn't as important as the latest Britany Spears release.
Like I said before, it's time to start killing people. If the people can't participate in the chambers of the law, we can at least make use of tall buildings errected across the street from said chambers.
Being a concerned Arkansas citizen, I contacted the representative who I consider to be the chief co-sponsor of House Bill 2361, the Arkansas 'Super-DCMA' bill that currently before the Governor's desk. He was kind enough to respond in brief although he is not my representative and with the end of this regular session (the second longest in Arkansas' history) must tend to more pressing matters. The summary of the email is an agreement to discuss the bill with me in greater detail soon (I trust him). He also made this one brief comment:
If anyone cares to hear the specifics of my future interview, I'll post it on my web site after the interview is held. Granted, the point is rather moot since the bill passed both houses.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
I'm not a lawyer, but it certainly appears to be that way. CDW, look out.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
why bother? just by some mpaa, riaa, bsa stocks. now, if i could only find their stock symbols....
Do you claim to have composed a song? Have you ever listened to the radio? If so, then you are presumed to have copied the song from another song in violation of federal copyright law (Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs; analysis [columbia.edu]; more analysis [vwh.net]).
NO!
You are presumed to NOT have copied the song. It's possible for someone who has a song on the radio to take you to court and infer that your song is too close to theirs, but they have to prove it in court.
It's all the world of differene, so watch how you say that.
The guy for which I was considering voting lost, yet my vote would have made no difference whatsoever because he had already won in CA.
If I, along with every other person in CA regardless of voting age, political affiliation, etc... went out and voted for Gore, he still would've lost.
If my vote can't even be made to count, why should I bother to cast it?
-- The world is watching America, and America is watching TV.
If it does pass, just swamp the gov't/riaa/mpaa with calls whenever you want to plug something in, turn on your computer/tv/etc. Then they might get the point about the stupidity of the law.
When travelling, it's ok if the airlines lose your emotional baggage.
this is soooooooo last year. NEXT!
There is a good chance that a lot of the faxes, emails and other correspondance sent to Arkansas Governor Huckabee will be dismissed out of hand. It is the tendency of elected officials to only listen to their constituents. So, if you are not from Arkansas, he is not obliged to listen.
I first learned of this phenomina when I lived in Northern Virginia and became friends with a Legislative Assistant of a prominent US Senator. He commented that the US Senators always, always, always ignore any communication not sent by a consitutent. He said, "that's why they have their own Senators."
So, if you're not from Arkansas, don't expect to be heard by our Governor.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
Don't be so certian...
Since they have gone so far to flip over the law from "that which is not forbidden is legal" to "that which is not explicitly allowed is illegal" then why assume they will never do the same for budern of proof?
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
I work for an R&D firm, located near Knoxville, TN. We are working on the next generation of medical scanners that will tell you if you have cancer, long before it could be detected any other way. We have a core group of doctorates, supported by layers of other staff.
Hell, our group probably brings up the average IQ for the entire state.
Don't believe everything you see on 'hillbilly' reruns. We encourage those stereotypes to keep assholes (read: Yankees) away!
Yes, let's all get together and not do anything at all. Let's continue to not do anything at all about any of these laws that slowly erode our freedoms as intellectual beings. Let us continue to do nothing, until it gets to the point where we all realize just how oppressed we really are.
Then we can have a revolution, and a great deal of useless bloodshed, and a new government can be installed. We can then have 10 years of wonderful freedom, and then we can wait 20 more years for everyone to forget about how many people lost their lives to give us the freedom we take for granted. Finally our freedoms can be eroded again and we can have another revolution and more people can needlessly give their lives for something that will just happen again. Yes, human nature is truly a wonderful invention.
The way the problem was solved in France was to set spending limits for political campaigns, with penalties for trespassers including the cancellation of the election and the prohibition from running for public office for a while.
This may sound like a restriction to free speech... Yet if you think of it, the only way those people could have that much money was not from contributions from citizens,but using slush funds and corporate donations. Corporations have no right to free speech!
(Interesting note: membership fees for political parties are partly tax-deductible, but the receipts don't bear the name of the party so that the tax service doesn't see who you vote for. Of course, it is pretty useless since the membership fees for all major parties are known, it's just a matter of looking the price up!)
"the land of the free"?
then why assume they will never do the same for budern of proof?
Please don't. By all means, keep a watch out for any moronic corrupt judge's attempt to shift the burden of proof for creative copyright infringmenet (which is different than piracy, in that a new work is created--which makes this a good time to remind the AC that IANAL-RU?)
However, the burden of proof NOW is (generally) on the plaintiff.
What would be nice would be if the burden of proof for creative copyright infringmenet ("unauthorized derivitive work" or somesuch) were shifted from "preponderance of the evidence" to "beyond a reasonable doubt."
This is almost an attempt to overturn the Carterfone decision!
wont' it be interesting if the DCMA, which works only for those companies who ahve choosen to support it , ends up becomming a disadventage to those states & states like CA, who might have a better chance of shooting down the DCMA-type law ends op being tech. superior & only years down the road when one state becomes more advance than the other does does people become aware of what has happen.
Your voice doesn't matter.
Your voice doesn't matter if you shout once and then shut up. But if you come back out, 8 months down the road, and yell the same thing, but louder, then people will start to listen. Do it for another 8, and another, and they will start to hear. The process takes years of steady action, not one one-night of balls-to-the-wall coding.
+&x
It's possible for someone who has a song on the radio to take you to court and infer that your song is too close to theirs, but they have to prove it in court.
Which would be trivial given the Bright Tunes precedent, especially for a large music publisher v. somebody with no money to hire competent legal representation.
In practice, the burden of proof often rests on whoever has less money.
Will I retire or break 10K?
OSS is dying.
A friend of mine pointed out that this bill passed the Arkansas Senate and House with nearly 100% in favor. Check out bill HB2361 at the Arkansas Legislative site.
Yes, and he's also one of the primary reasons why the state has switched to SAP, which is the most HORRID of applications one could use. SAP gives me a headache every day, and it seems that they get into companies and the Arkansas government via bribes or similar such nonsense. (I can't think of any logical reason.)
Now if American /. readers were to act... as polite but concerned citizens, ...
/.ers are polite? Then why even have the negative mod points for trolling/flamebait/offtopic on /.? Unfortunately, some in this group are pretty offensive at times.
Remember! The Internet is not just for porn! It's also about organizing politcal action to keep porn legal!
Cute spin. I guess if they really want a substantial outpouring of support against these bills, the article summaries should reflect this spin. But, however helpful to their cause it may be, I'd be surprised if any of the anti-DMCA posts follow that path.
This is not my sig.
Not to flame, but I think that voting for 3d parties on a national level (senators, represenatives, president) is a great way to consign yourself to irrelvancy. Look at all the Green Party voters in Florida who went and principled George Bush right into office. Now I'm sure they could have had legit gripes with Gore, but Greens in general wanted better treatment of the environment, workers and a more accountable government. If thats what you want, why risk letting a guy into office who's going to trash workers rights, the environment and have an unaccountable government that would put Nixon to shame?
If you truly want to make a difference, forget 3d parties. Pick whichever party most fits your views and then fight to push the party in that direction. Like low taxes but hate having religion shoved in your face? Vote republican but yell loud and hard so your represenative isn't so ready to prostitute himself to the sourthern babtists. Similarily, if you like the environment but hate gun control, pressure your congressman to support your right to own firearms.
If you want a button like the one on my website http://www.christopherreed.com to help fight the dmca you just need to join affero, create a donate page and insert it in the following any problem shoot me an email - reed@affero.com
Even if it is word processed, they listen better when they can hold it in their hands.
.
Now Tennesse HAD a SPAM/Junk fax law on the books almost verbatim to Title 47 of the US Code, but if you search on the Tennessee statute, you will see that no matter WHO files suit against these scum, ALL of the money goes in to the General fund, not the victim's pockets. Way to go Tennessee thieving bastards! They all ought to be shot. Thought they would slip that ine in, but no, I know who authored the change and who voted for it. Beware at election time Tennessee bastards! Beware! Notice the struck out portions? Yeah, we all did!
They still have to actually try to apply and enforce the law for it to have meaning.
And God help 'em when they do. They'll need it.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I really am getting sick of people popularizing "specialized freedoms". The Bill of Rights is completely under attack. this is no time to start classifying freedoms. Digital, sexual, dietary, etc. Freedoms are freedoms and they are guaranteed to us by the Constitution. From now on, if a new DMCA law violates an ammendment let's call a spade a spade and not start breaking down these freedoms into subgroups like "digital or sexual". Just take a stand for freedom or the Republicans will continue laughing at the "left" who want to ensure that these freedoms continue to exist.
http://www.thestranger.com/current/city5.html
An article by Sherman Alexie in the The Stranger... a seattle weekly alternative rag. It discusses just this sort of thing.
Pooty tweet
Sigh...
Don't know which is more depressing: excessive legislation like this getting passed, the fact that companies have more rights than us, or the general cynicism by the populace toward such matters.
History deems that if a government makes criminals out of its' populace, the populace tends to live up to its' expectations.
Of course this time the weapons of choice will be box cutters and explosive vests...
Since no one seems to have caught the error (I am not the original poster), it was pronounced ILlegal to ride....
And to those that don't think his comment was relevant, he's comment about the process gone awry, not that the superDMCA and outlawing Segway use are the same.
Your lawsuit would be thrown out of court because you don't have standing to bring a claim. You aren't a hardware manufacturer, or a retail chain, or a provider of some service that's, in theory, being harmed by these devices. You'll blow some money on a lawyer and totally waste your time.
Now, if you had a reasonable fear that your activities would be subject to lawsuit, you could try to get an affirmation from the court as to whether your actions were legal or not. The only problem with this approach, as we've seen in recent DMCA legal wrangingling, is that the judge may throw it out, once again, because you have no standing.
Also, as far as suing retailers over possession of these devices, the law doesn't address that. I can certainly use NAT within my corporate network, and I can use NAT on my Internet service assuming my provider is okay with it. It's just saying that I can't use NAT unless they say it is okay.
The simple solution to all of this is to pay more money, either to the company who is making you pay per connection now, or buying into a service that doesn't care. I have DSL service through speakeasy and they don't care what I do. I run servers, I use NAT, and they are totally happy. I pay more and I get more. As long as there is competition in the market this isn't a problem.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
The governor doesn't need to be corrupt for a bit of "access and influence" to have a grossly disproportionate influence on the governor's decision. When it comes to complex matters of public policy, no politician has the time or energy to become an expert on even one or two fields, especially after you subtract all the time spent grubbing for contributions.
Instead, politicians generally have to defer to "experts" on unfamiliar matters like technology policy. So a "suggestion" from an informed-sounding lobbyist, backed by a few thousand dollars of "access," can be quite persuasive.
It's really time to yank the money out of politics. McCain-Feingold didn't go nearly far enough. If, as proponents of the current system claim, "money is a form of speech," corporate interests are carrying huge friggin' megaphones and shoving the rest of us out of the conversation. And it's depressing to see our elected representative spending several hours a day dialing for dollars rather than studying the legislation they're going to vote on.
Just a thought: Maybe publically financed elections are the way to go.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
You're quite right (anyway) that my point was about the process gone awry.
If I read these correctly, I could produce an encrypted computer disc of some sort, and give written permission to enable people to decrypt that disc, for the purposes of backing up the data on the disc, and then people would be allowed to own the means to do that task. So that you could own the decryption mechanism, which may or may not work on other material, because I give you permission.
..."without the express consent or express authorization of the
SB 213 Sect 1,a,1,A...
communication service provider..."
There was an unknown error in the submission.
They will be just as in violation of the new law as the CDR drive is.
It's beginning to look like the thing to replace CDR's and floppy's will be the SD flash memory cards.
SD flash cards support DRM. Somehow I see the cost of the media at about $60 per 128 meg will severly limit it's use for archiving your digital photos.
Fair use of your own creation is the collateral damage from this law.
Ask your congress critter what he will back up to in the future when floppy's and CDR's are outlawed. How does he intend on protecting the keys and upgrading the hardware without loosing all the saved data. If they understand this will kill their ability to backup and restore to another machine, they may begin to understand the damage this law will create.
The truth shall set you free!
ACM Communications, the primary publication of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Computer Science professional society, contains a special feature on Digital Rights Management. I have not finished reading all of the articles in this section, but my take thus far is that ACM US has taken an active role in attempting to provide technological guidance and advise to Congress on this issue and with respect to both proposed legislation and court cases testing laws in this area. Yet, the pressure that has been brought to bear by the big copyright holder interests thus far have far outweighed those of the technologists and their commercial interests.
Additionally, there have been a continuing series of articles in this publication as well as others produced by ACM providing additional analysis of the topic along with recommendations for action.
Give it a good read... its both encouraging that such comprehensive analysis is in fact being brought to the highest levels of government, and discouraging in that thus far it seems to have made little difference.
Finally, this might be a good reason to join ACM to add to the strength of their(our) voice.
"...you don't play fair. Keep you're restrict-a-net and you're Microsoft. Oh and thanks for all the HB1 trained nerds, the Internet, and all that great music."
One day, a dozen years later, a lone Governor says, "Hey where did all the money go? Why are all the good sites in German?"
Novel theory: Modern Man evolved from psychopath
Actually, I am a member in good standing of the media in TN. I am a avid slashdotter, and apparently my plate has been too full to see this one coming down the street. Terribly sorry for the gaff, but here is some TN advice.
SO here is what I would suggest to people, as I know Phil Bredesen (the Gov), and interview him about once a week or more...
Pick a spokesman for the
He is a nerd. Harvard math. Grad school stuff. He likes computers. I kid you not. He will get technical with you in a second about a number of subjects (he one day asked what Kelvin the color temperature my camera was getting in the shade). It is actually refreshing to meet a man that is the governor that is also smart enough to look up to. This is a man that got elected on the "TN is not thinking smart about its finances, and I know finances" platform. He should know. He is a self-made millionaire, so he doesn't worry about re-election money or owing anyone anything. He's already got money. He even turned down his salary because of budget problems. I don't like politicians because I see them up close, but I actually like this guy.
So, if you can, make a very detailed, very compelling argument to him FROM HIS CONSTITUENTS and send it off. If he gets it I guarantee it will not pass over his head... few things do. I would help, but I work for the local news, and well, my microphone is pointing at him too often to get involved.
Personally, I think that Phil Bredesen is your best shot on shooting this down in TN. The TN House and Senate are the most political animals on the planet (truly "Old Southern Politics" at work) so there is no hope there with the lobbyists around.
Good luck guys.
Tennessee has the most corrupt of the state legislatures in the entire United States. They keep no public records of who buys who and have stopped all bills to open these records for decades. The MPAA/RIAA has already bought them, so the hearing is just a formality. Consider it a done deal!
I've never done something like this before, but I am planning on attending the hearing tomorrow in nashville. I am going to try to be down there tomorrow around 1400. If anyone else is planning on attending, please let me know and we can hook up and coordinate our efforts. Email me at I'm also going to email my state senator, Rosalind Kurita. Any other "volunteers" wanting to email her can do so at .
If Bush gets re-elected, the stock market will drop over a 1,000 points next day's stock market trading.
(click through for an .mpg clip)
An Effective Strategy
Congratulations, MPAA and RIAA, you have found the right way to do the wrong thing.
-=-=-=-=
I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
1045151932.206 205 193.2.88.43 TCP_DENIED/403 1001 CONNECT smtp-gw-4.msn.com:25 - NONE/- -
1045634456.808 46 65.239.174.227 TCP_DENIED/403 1007 CONNECT sbcmail6.prodigy.net:25 - NONE/- -
These are obviously spammers trying to abuse your squid proxy to send virtually untraceable spams. Report!
(Well, a weak point of both these was that the hiding of the place of origin was not really effective, but in many laws, attempt is enough.)
And once you have the spammer's home address, fire at will!
That depends on who you are.
Why aren't half of current artists being sued for plagiarism? Seriously, some of current hits sound like semi-intentional recreations of old songs.
bombs, threats, and mysterious white powder can help, though they are not recommended
www.crimethinc.com
I agree that a little bit of access goes a long way, which is why we need to get out there and make sure that these politicians understand the issues. The original poster's view seemed to be that the governor wouldn't care about the issues because he'd do what the MPAA wanted him to regardless. My point was that there is no rationality for him to not listen to reason, and so we shouldn't be defeatist.
"If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for everyone else."
Why not invite him or some other nerd-like people in law/government for a slashdot interview?
Seriously, we interview the people who will generally agree with our opinions, and we all bitch about the laws being passed... why not interview somebody from the government, or somebody who doesn't have to answer IANAL to all our questions?
But when they can supeona your ISP's records, or just blatantly pin something on you and then drown you in lawyers before you can say
"hey, wait a mpthtt"
It's a lot harder not to get caught. Even if you don't do something nowadays, that is - even if you didn't break this law in the slightest, the ??AA machine would break your bank before you could even get your head back above water.
It's looking nicer and nicer up here isn't it? I mean, while down in the US you're being hunted, we're looking at legalizing. Now if the US companies would stop sending their lawyers and lobbies up here every now and then (see: tariffs, CD's, insane), I'd expect we'd be doing much happier.
When Orwell happens in the US, I wonder how many will be looking to move to Canada. Hope you like bacon (the igloo rumours are false, but yes we do like bacon).
But, on the subject, has anyone as of yet heard of an ??AA case in Canada, or are those CD taxes actually keeping them at bay?
...to get our $#|+ together.
:)
We, about 20 of us I only got a few names & some contacts, showed up (I was 20 minutes late, but I made the 44 mile trip in record (*cough*40 minutes including city streets*/cough*) time after reading the article at 3pm, it took 7 minutes to get to the car) and 3 of us (out of 6 that stood to speak) got to make our case.
The 3 that spoke made good points but the first of us got grilled hard, the second got tied up in trying to simplify but didn't quite simplify enough, and the third closed out the discussion well, after an initial gaffe (he said, straight out, the bill was being "Ramrodded" which got quite the reaction from the sponsor -- who was molified by an apology prefaced with something along the lines of this is my first time ever doing this, and I'm not as familiar with this process as all of you senators are. Very funny, all the lawyers in the room just about died laughing)
When we have a more cohesive/comprehensive set of notes from we'll be putting it on line.
Speaking privately in the hall after other business resumed, one of the Senators who was observing said he thought the bill might have passed the committee today had we not come in and spoken against it.
I wholeheartedly encourage anyone who has the time to attend committee sessions like these.
If you think you won't have an effect on the committee you may be surprised. I went because I'm close (44 miles, to be picky) and I really don't want to see this kind of stuff pass.
The first speaker (Campbell?) was a UT Knoxville student (which I think is why he got grilled so bad) was grilled on the "intent" clause (he brought it up) and on "how it affects *us* today"
The second speaker (can't read my notes?) was a VAnderbilt student (i think) who cited specific things that he would no longer be able to do, encryted file transfer from student club machine to personal machine, &c which went right over the committee's collective head (very thick glaze coating decended over their eyes).
The third speaker, whom I spoke with at length while waiting for one of the non-committee senators to return from the chamber but can't remember what he does lighting design &/ Nashville-LUG member, iirc? he'll prolly correct me, tied all the arguments together and in mentioning tivo had one of the senators admit he used tivo (surprised me, but Yay) and two or perhaps 3 senators started to look unconvinced.
All in all a good day.
Very motivating.
More info will follow, hopefully in a "real" article rather than in comments - if it isn't rejected a billion times.
Your complaints about being offended offend me.
I don't mind stripping businesses of their bullhorns but it should go both ways, strip the labor unions and greenpeace of their ability to lobby at the same time as Hallibutron and the NRA and we can talk. Point of fact though, at least the business interests spend their own money, labor unions take Tom, Dick, and Harry's money by force and throw it at democrats, regardless if they are conservatives or liberals.
BTW, acording to opensecrets.org, the dems got 84% of the entertainment industry money for the 2002 election cycle, so just pulling a straight ticket for the dems or the republicans won't do you any good, research who you are voting for.
Public financing of elections is not the way to go, it will only lead to corruption. There are enough wealthy liberals and conservatives to fund the election process for canidates they support. For every Mike Bloomberg there is a John Kerry(-Heinz, yes the condiment family) with deep pockets to run on their own campaigns without running on my tax dollar.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I would think all states currently have laws on the books to protect copyrighted material.
I would suggest that those states that are being affected by the current push by the MPAA to not only point out the ill effects of this bill, but also bring to light existing law may already cover specific areas to prove a new bill unnecessary.
Copyrighted material is just a small piece of communications in general. It's truly amazing that a small few can paint such a broad stroke as means to line their own pockets at the mercy of the masses.
It's truly become disgusting how the elite can wield such a big stick.
When the day comes that your guns are taken away be afraid. Be very afraid.
El Camino- I am trying very hard to make inroads with the TN media, in order to get more attention for this issue. Please contact me as soon as convenient. email: jay at tndigitalfreedom dot org