Copyright Bill could Stifle Innovation

binder520 writes "Wired has an article on how the latest Senate Bill, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), will hold technology companies liable for supplying devices or software that can be used to illegally copy music, videos, software, etc. It looks like it is time to write to your senators, because the verbiage in the bill is too subjective for any technology company to stand up to the media giants. Say good bye to your VCR, MP3 players, CD/DVD burners, etc."

Comments

Address of Your Senator/Representative

[mlmitton]

I thought it would be helpful to point out a link where you can find the address and phone numbers of your representatives.

For the house:

http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.html

For the senate:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/ senators_cfm.cfm>

Let's make a difference!

Re:Address of Your Senator/Representative

[Geekenstein]

Even better yet, our friends at the EFF make this as easy as point and click:

EFF Action Center

They produce a very thorough draft letter for just about every one of these evil bills.

Re:Non-Story

[The Importance of]

Not entirely. Hatch tried to sneak this through to a vote without a hearing. Opposition forced him to have a hearing, but he wants a revised bill after August. There is a lot going on here. See, INDUCE Act Archives and LawMeme's Index.

Re:Memory Copyright Infringements Next?

[boarder]

You have no idea how right (well, wrong, but factually correct) that idea is.

Read the actual text of the UK decision PS2 modchips.

Sony wanted the judge to rule that flashing the infringing material on the screen is the same as storing infringing material in RAM, which is the same as storing it in ROM, which is the same as illegally copying the game. They said that just showing the game on the screen is the same as illegally copying a game.

Things might not have gone that far if the modchip in question didn't copy the game to RAM in order to play foreign/homebrew/cracked games. The copying to RAM is what the judge ruled was infringing Sony's copyright. Sony thinks that showing it on the screen was enough to be called an illegal copy. The judge seemed happy that he didn't have to rule on that.

Re:Non-Story

[c0dedude]

Nope, not the way it works. Here's how a bill gets passed. This one is about at step 2 1/2.
1. A senator and a member of the house get togather and write a bill.
2. They drop it in their respective drop boxes, and GPO prints it up.
3. Committee representitives say whether they want a hearing on it.
4. Subcommitees tell their committees whether they want a hearing on it.
5. Hearings are held, and each bill is modified.
6. Assuming the bill doesn't die in Committee, and most of them do, it goes to the rules committee for the Senate and the House. A lot of them die this way, too.
7. The rules committee schedules a vote. If they don't, time passes, Congress adjourns, bill dies.
8. Both the House and Senate vote. If one doesn't support the bill, bill dies. These are timed votes, and if you can't get a majority within about 15 minutes (usually) that's it.
9. Assuming all of the above has occured, you get a conference committee of Representitives and Senators who will hammer out a comprimise between the House and Senate versions. If they can't agree, it dies.
10. Then the President can sign or veto. If he vetos, or refuses to act in 10 days (Pocket Veto), the bill dies UNLESS 2/3 of the House and Senate vote to override it. This rarely (in less than 1/10th of vetoes) occurs. If they dont, the bill dies.

All of this has to occur in about 5 1/2 months.