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Boucher's Anti-DMCA Bill Gets High Profile Allies
Landaras writes "News.com is reporting that a newly-formed alliance called the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition is throwing their support and lobbying efforts behind Rep. Rick Boucher's (D-Va) Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act.
Members of the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition include Intel, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, SBC, Qwest, Gateway and BellSouth. The EFF and the American Library Association are also in support."
I didn't know the U2 singer was a Senator.
Oh, you must mean this Senator Bono.
You really need to get with it.
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Could someone tell me the actual chances of this being passed?
Sure... it's 38%.
The content lobby will just counter with a Copying Unceasingly Nurtures Terrorism (CUNT) or an Unlawful Replication Gives Al-Qaeda lots of Yen (URGAY) act. Linking copyright violations to child abuse and even terrorism is en vogue, and as long as this kind of manipulation can be used for profit, they won't cease to try. Anyway, I hope this one does make it through.
I love C++
Yeah, but what's the margin of error on that?
"Bringing in the government to impose certain types of mandatory labeling schemes or new technological mandates is a little bit troubling to us," said Adam Thierer, Cato's director of telecommunications studies.
Bringing in the government to impose a ban on fair use rights or reverse engineering is a bit troubling to us.
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"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
I'm sorry but the system of equations used to determine that percentage are copyrighted. You are only entitled to the percentage.
Senator Cher
Singing
Rep. Boucher has been championing this issue for some time now.
Aaahhhhh democracy at it's finest! It's just like an auction, whoever bids the most gets the legislation passed!
Auctionist:Do I hear $100,000 for "Anti-DMCA Bill"
Boucher raises hand.
Auctionist: Thank you Mr. Boucher. $100,000 going once, $100,000 going twice... $500,000 by the DMCA filial-group!
Do I hear $550,000...
Yam, yam, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade
cow-towing ?
Yea, I had to follow behind a couple of ranchers who were cow-towing some steers to market this weekend. I could never get a chance to pass. Was stuck behind their smelly trailer for miles.
Proverbs 21:19
MPAA/RIAA/et al: We must impose DRM technology to prevent piracy which is ruining our business!
:well gosh, this situation seems non-ideal...
Everyone else: Well, you can put whatever information you want on a disk and try to sell it, but you know DRM doesn't really work so it's sort of pointless. Isn't your only option to work on interdicting commercial bootlegging, the only place you're likely to recoup a reasonable recompense without alienating your consumer base and the only real source of your legitimate copyright-violation problems anyway?
MPAA/RIAA/et al: Crap! DRM doesn't really work anyway! I know, we'll pay off congress to have a special case exception of innocent until proven guilty written into the law! DRM still doesn't work but now it's illegal to prove that in the real world! That'll show those rotten pirates!
Adobe: Arrest that durn Ruskie! He is giving a talk which is embarassing to us! Pirates, ARRRR!
Everyone else: Geez, that new legislation seems kinda excessive. It's already illegal to duplicate and distribute copyrighted materials without permission. So what good does banning tools that MIGHT be used for that purpose do? Plus, it doesn't work. DeCSS might be illegal under the DMCA, and it's one of the most ubiquitous pieces of code on the internet. It's redundant, violates the spirit of the constitution, inneffective, frequently unenforceable, and it alienates legitimate consumers of your products who want the freedom to legally use them in the way and on the equipment that is best for them!
MPAA/RIAA/et al: Oh, so you want some free music do you, you little thirteen-year-old tramp? Well here's a subpeona for you! And one for you, and you, and your little dog too! We have five dollars for each of you!
Everyone else: wow, these people are out of control. Hey, massive electronics and telecommunications business, can you give us a hand here? We spend a lot more money on you. These people are obsessed with killing innovation to protect technologies that don't work to prevent violations that don't matter and don't prevent the bootlegging that actually hurts them anyway.
Intel, Sun Microsystems, Verizon Communications, SBC, Qwest, Gateway and BellSouth, Philips Consumer Electronics North America, the Consumer Electronics Association, the American Library Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, the American Foundation for the Blind, the United States Telecom Association, the Computer and Communications Industry Association...
MPAA/RIAA/et al: Noooo! If we lose the red herring of our brave fight against piracy our shareholders might finally figure out we're just screw-ups who have been squandering their money with our insane business strategy of screwing all our customers AND the actual producers of our products at the same time!
Hello? Venture Capitalists? Have I got a deal for you...
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
(Cue Hal Douglas' voice.) A band of terrorist communist librarians, covertly funded by a telecom cartel calling itself the "Personal Technology Freedom Coalition" and including Intel, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, SBC, Qwest, Gateway and BellSouth, and having a well-placed mole in the highest echelons of government, plots to undermine America's greatest export - culture - and bring down the US economy, by depriving freedom-loving, orange-bearded set decorators of their God-given right to make an honest living.