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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
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.
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