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Senator Seeks Restrictions to Music Laws, Fines

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the enough-is-enough dept.

Justen writes "Following this article from last month, Senator Norm Coleman (R.-Minn.) has announced that he will seek to limit federal penalties for copyright downloads and seek to restrict the subpoena power essentially granted to the industry through the DMCA. The RIAA responded by calling the current situation an 'epidemic.'" Sadly, there's no quantitative values for proposed reduced measures yet, but given the speed at which government moves it's reassuring to know the issue is this far along already.

10 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. This is good and all, but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I can't wait for the day a senator says we have to repeal the DMCA.

    1. Re:This is good and all, but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
      It's coming, but we only have a few guys on our side.


      Sen. Coleman (the man in the article) and Sen. Sununu, both Republicans, are our friends here. Very good friends. They hosted a panel the other week, one with pro-RIAA/MPAA people (Jack Valenti, RIAA CEO, LL Cool J, a few others) and heard their case, then they heard the case from Chuck D, a lady sued by the RIAA, the CEO of Sharman, and a couple of others. While the second panel didn't go as well (they need to get their shit together, bad, especially the Sharman man! He acted like a child), they DID listen to them and they said the same things we say here on Slashdot.

      However, there are enemies: a lot of these Senators are side with the RIAA blindly, and left the room when the anti-RIAA panel came in. They didn't want to hear it. Chuck D even cracked a joke about the smaller audience.

      BTW, I caught this all on C-SPAN.

  2. Party... by Davak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Awwwhhh... it had to be a Republician to come out with this. I sure wanted to claim this one for our team.

    Makes you wonder if some college kid called his dad in government and said, "You know, Dad, it would kick ass if you would stomp some RIAA ass for us."

    Honestly though, appropriate fines is much, much more likely to be honestly viewed as part of the "solution" to the "problem." The current over-the-top fees are simple scare tactics.

    Honest, appropriate fees are much more likely to protect the copyright owner.

    Davak

    1. Re:Party... by varda222 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, MArk Dayton is Minnesota's other senator, and he is a Democrat. Rod Grams is a former Minnesota senator.

    2. Re:Party... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Hollings may have helped bring the DMCA into fruition, but if you had watched the hearing this very article talks about, you'd know that near the beginning Sen Boxer (D-CA) spoke about how "many of us" helped create the DMCA, speaking of the Senators at the hearing.

      Never put it all on one asshole when it was a bunch of assholes who did it.

    3. Re:Party... by tempest303 · · Score: 2, Informative

      But Fritz DIDN'T give us this. Mr. Howard Coble, a Republican, sponsored the DMCA. And Sonny Bono, a Republican, enacted the (you'd never guess) Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

      For further demonstration, observe the sponsors and voting record of the DMCA:

      (source)

      Sponsor: Howard Coble - http://www.house.gov/coble/ - Republican

      Co-sponsors:

      • Howard L. Berman - http://www.house.gov/berman/ - Democrat
      • John Conyers - http://www.house.gov/conyers/ - Democrat
      • Barney Frank - http://www.house.gov/frank/ - Democrat
      • Mary Bono - http://www.house.gov/bono/ - Republican
      • Henry Hyde - http://www.house.gov/hyde/ - Republican
      • Bill McCollum - http://www.issues2000.org/FL/Bill_McCollum.htm - Republican
      • Bill Paxon - http://www.issues2000.org/NY/Bill_Paxon.htm - Republican
      • Chip Pickering - http://www.house.gov/pickering/ - Republican
      • Sonny Bono - (no official page, sorry - a google search will reveal that he was also a Republican) - Republican

      (Please excuse the Issues2000 links - I wanted to use 100% official pages, but not all of the sponsors of the DMCA are still in their offices.)

      So, that puts the "score" at Democrats: 3, Republicans: 7

      When it comes to voting, the Senate was 99-0 in favor of it, which speaks badly for both parties, though I must still point out that the Republicans had the majority at the time, thus further proving that again, they are no less culpable, if not more. I regret I cannot tell you what the House had to say about this bill, but I'd be willing to bet that the percentages of Democrats and Republicans in favor of this bill is about equal in the House, too.

      Once again this proves that you must think for yourself rather than just believing rumor or stereotype as fact.

      --
      The Free desktop that Just Works
  3. Re:GOP surprises me on this issue by astrashe · · Score: 2, Informative

    It will come... Hollywood is sitting back and letting the RIAA expiriment with different tactics, because they have a little more time, the problem isn't so severe for them yet. But they're very afraid of what's going to happen.

    I doubt they'll be satisfied to stick with the anti-piracy messages they show before movies now.

  4. Re:GOP surprises me on this issue by snarkh · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is no doubt they are shaking in their boots. However there are two main reasons why they can afford to wait a bit:
    1. Movies are rather difficult to download. Relatively few people have the bandwith.
    2. Movies make most of their money from the theaters. P2P is not a threat to that.

  5. Don't curse the darkness, Light a candle by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Informative

    Write your own senators and congressperson.

    Heres a link to a pre done letter off the citizens against government waste site

    Write your reps

  6. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Lemme guess: you didn't think the late Paul Wellstone or (the hopefully soon-to-be-late) Ted Kennedy is an extremist?

    Don't know anything about either of them and no idea what their views are so they might be extremists or they might not be. Orrin Hatch, I've heard of.