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The MPAA's Lobbying-Fu is Stronger Than Yours
georgelazenby writes "The Frisco Chronicle reports: While the music industry has been clumsily bullying its way through the federal government, the movie industry has taken a more subtle -- and more effective -- approach. The MPAA has been lobbying individual state legislatures to pass laws reaching far beyond the original DMCA. The proposed laws would permit cable TV companies to 'limit subscribers to using only certain brands of VCRs and could ban TiVo in favor of their own proprietary PVR technologies.' According to one expert, the bills are 'tremendously open-ended and create theoretical and potential criminal liabilities for just about anybody on the planet.'"
One acronym: EFF
Check out their State-Level "Super DMCA" Initiatives Archive
~ Ms.G {at} NoitacudE [dot]com "Turn it around..."
While I like the article, it doesn't link to anything for the reader to make their own comparison.
The EFF has a Super-DMCA archive, with analyses, the templates the MPAA gives to state legislatures, and info on the individual states.
The MPAA has an anti-piracy statement, and press releases relating to legislation , but I was unable to find anything specifically discussing these particular laws after a brief search.
many laws that stem from the United States DO carry over to other countries
I would choose to politely disagree. Look at Canada as an example: We are right next to the US, but do we see any effect from these laws? The DMCA certainly doesn't apply here, and when was the last time you heard of a Canadian being prosecuted for copyright violations?
This is not limited to technical issues either. If one were to look at the current issues (I was just reading about this on MSN last night, in fact, although I don't believe it was carried on the US msn site): The US has stated that they will impose sanctions against Canada if we decriminalise marijuana...of course, those sanctions would be in violation of NAFTA and the US would have to repeal them shortly after they were put in place. In short, US law simply does not apply in Canada. In fact, not even US moral standards apply in Canada. Should these laws be passed, I doubt that Rogers, Shaw or Cogeco (the three largest cable providers in Canada) would even consider adopting these stances. Canada is a much more liberal country and does not fall into the jurisdiction of US law.
In order to be immortal you must be organize
I would like to state for the record that NO ONE who lives here says "frisco". In fact, while we are known for our nice and downright peaceful ways, we will open a huge can of wupass on anyone who dares mention the word inside the greater bay area. Thank you for your time.
That they dont define what constitutes a "communications device" accuratly enough. This leaves a big loophole for the telcos, cable companies etc to exploit.
For example, is the modem on my desk the "origin/destination of the communications"?
Is it the port/motherboard/other hardware in the computer? Is it the drivers, network dll files & TCP/IP stack? Is it the internet clients (like Mozilla or Trillian for example)?
The Frisco Chronicle reports
Frisco is a small town in Texas. Boy, was I surprised when I clicked on the link and found that the newspaper in question was actually the San Francisco Chronicle.
hey asshole
only idiots call the city "frisco".
you wouldn't call L.A. "langeles" or N.Y. "Nork", so stop fucking up the name of our city.
you'd get the shit beat out of you if you did that.
Is that some modern unifying variation of newspeak? We have different words for theft and copyright infringement because they are fundamentally different. There's still theft, but copyright infringement is different, so it's called by a different name. Come to think about it, theft and rape are unnecessary distinctions too. Let's call 'em all "bad". That should simplify the legislative process a lot: "Don't do bad deeds" should wrap it up nicely.
The softwood lumber tariff had 100% to do with the fact that the Canadian Government was (and still is) subsidizing the lumber industry. That is entirely different. Good point, though!
In order to be immortal you must be organize
(If you don't know the background story, the US put tariffs on European steel, saying that it's subsidized and whatnot. The WTO found that it wasn't, the US was wrong, and European countries are now allowed to sue the US for billions. One story is here.)
The idea of the forestry being subsidized is just the US government's excuse.
Back in the day, the commoners were only allowed to read the bible.
Actually, the opposite was true. When commoners were allowed to read the bible, they began to question the ridiculous actions of the church & clergy.
Providing bibles to commoners was a serious problem for the elite:
"Hey! The bible doesn't say you can take half my wheat as tax!"
Welcome to the land of the free, and the freedom to choose anything you want-just as long as it is our choice, and just as long as you buy it from our "preferred" retailers. Oh did I forget to mention that if you do anything remotely related to copying, fixing, or modifying this thing you will be sued until your whole family is bankrupt and your first-born child is in foster care. Now just sing here-here, and here. Leave one drop of blood for DNA logging ehhm verification. So what is that you would like to buy? Oh did I forget that if you take this out of the country the federal marshals have the right to shoot you? Sorry I forgot that little part.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
Sadly the US can and does sometimes force other countries into line. For example a few years back the Australian federal government was considering a new approach to the massive heroin problems in this country, one that would have meant at least partial de-criminalization and a move to management instead of inprisonment. The US responded by threatening to revoke Australia's $600 million a year legal opium poppy growing license (for morphine production) if we went ahead with reforming our drug laws.
This is closer to the truth than you think. ASCAP tried to sue scouting organizations for using campfire songs without permission of the copyright holder. No kidding.
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
Hmm... I'm hoping you're not a US citizen, because if you are -- you really slept through civics, didn't you?
2002 did not feature a presidential election. The presidential election cycle is 4 years, so the next one is in 2004. Bush is still in his first term.
The House has elections every two years, and the Senators have a six year election cycle (but are 'staggered' so that 1/3 of the Senate is in an election cycle every two years). Perhaps you meant that the reasonably strong Republican showing in the 2002 elections was a good sign for Bush... I doubt it, but that's the most generous interpretation I could give you.
I would choose to politely disagree. Look at Canada as an example: We are right next to the US, but do we see any effect from these laws?
While it does seem that the DMCA hasn't polluted Canada's legal system yet, it is far from a closed issue. Canada has a stiff media levy, and is considering upping the rate. Moreover, this levy is specifically intended as a levy for making private copies of the music a consumer has already purchased, trampling the notion of archival copies (not to mention fining people for backing up their own data on CDR).
Here's the proposed "Private Copying" legislation.
The CCFDA is working with Industry and Heritage Canada to stop the newly purposed levy that would see the cost of a pack of 100 blank CD soar 181 per cent. Currently, a pack of 100 blank CDs includes a levy of $21 on a retail price that averages $50. If the Canadian Private Copying Collective's (CPCC) proposal is approved, this levy could average $59 per pack at an average retail price of $88 plus tax, said Diane Brisebois, president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
After sending forward the EFF's letter, as well as one of my own through physical mail, I got an E-mail message from Rob Briley, the TN House rep supporting the TN law. He said that those who opposed the law hadn't read the amendment, and that terrible amounts of misinformation were being spread about it. (I wrote back telling him that even with his amendment, I really didn't want that law.) In particular, he said that he had never been contacted by the MPAA, and wondered why people thought that.
Given that this TN law is like the others and coming at the same time, I'm suspicious. It's possible that this just happened to come up on its own and be similar. More likely, though, Briley was contacted by somebody trying to get him to push this law. It's possible Briley is just lying to me, but it's also entirely plausible that Briely doesn't even know he's being used as a pawn of the MPAA.
Gotta love this country.
tndigitalfreedom.org has an account of several people showing up at a senate commitee hearing on the law. It was clear that most of the sentaors simply didn't understand the implication of the law... and they were relying on a cable industry guy to interpret it for them. When they learned that perhaps there were other things to worry about, they delayed passing the law out of committee. The alarming thing about this is that even though the senators showed a desire to do the right thing once they learned of worries, it does mean that it would have just rubber stamped through if the tndigitialfreedom people hadn't showed up. In other words, our state legislatures are probably passing laws they don't understand all the time, just because whatever industry lobbyist is interpreting it for them makes them feel all warm and fuzzy about it.
Great, huh?
-Rob
I'm waiting for some bright soul to realise that releasing the Mysterious Cities of Gold on DVD with English audio would be really smart
not quite what you're after but close. I bought this for some friends, still haven't watched it yet though. I really should.
http://www.medvale.demon.co.uk/gold.htm
dave