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Senate Hearing Webcast Today On DMCA Subpoena Powers
An anonymous reader sends this clipping from the Senate Commerce committee website about today's hearing into "consumer privacy implications of the use of subpoena powers by copyright holders to obtain the identities of Internet subscribers allegedly infringing on their copyrights. Members also will examine whether the government can mandate content protection technologies without limiting consumers' legal uses of digital media products. Senator Brownback will preside. Tentative witness list will be available at a later time."
Here's a link to both the schedule and the webcast itself; it starts at 10:00 a.m., EST.
I really don't think the 200-year-old subpoena process will be in jeopardy here. This has to do specifically with what may be overbroad capabilities given to companies who want to use FUD to keep the masses "in line". Because of the poorly constructed nature of the DMCA, the system it enables is rife with abuse, and it is finally coming to the attention of the ones who made the mistake in the first place.
Does anyone know who is sponsoring this event?
This is about whether CORPORATIONS can issue subpoenas. That was NEVER intended by our Government's framers. The governement represents, or at least, ought to represent, the will of the people. The RIAA represents the desire of rich greedy people to get more money by knifing artists and the people.
Quite simply, this enforcement campaign would never happen without the DMCA, because people don't consider copyright infringement to be a serious crime. Before the DMCA, enforcement of copyright law was generally in touch with the public's perception. There was no public outcry, so the police only cracked down on huge cracker rings.
The DMCA is the hijacking of the will of the American people for corporate profit. The RIAA wants to use our "basic human rights" to bleed us dry. It already has laid claim to powers reserved for our government, while declaring itself immune to the protections of the constitution, especially against unreasonable search and seizure. So please, the last thing I want to hear some ignorant troll bitching about is how we're depriving the RIAA of its rights.
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
Crap. The webcast requires RealPlayer.
Maybe Ashcroft wants every viewer's RealPlayer to phone home IP addresses, to later check each address for running Kazaa.
I don't think I have time to figure out which sub-sub-sub-menu of the 11 tab page RealPlayer config contains the 47 ambiguously named checkboxes that I'll have to alternately check or uncheck in order to turn off the spyware.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
When did these words become interchangeable?
There's a subtle bias involved. Ask yourself this:
Is it more important to protect consumers or producers?
Is it more important to protect citizens or corporations?
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.