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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."
Pretty soon, it's going to be illegal to even look at or listen to something covered by copyright protection. If you think about it, our brains keep a copy of everything we come into contact with in our memories. With science ever progressing towards Utopia, it won't be long before we are able to access and re-experience memories as if we were right there in the moment we first experienced them. "Just look in this little pen right here and say cheese! *FLASH* You will not remember anything about seeing Men In Black 7. You will be happy and do something special for everyone in your life. Thank you from the MPAA!"
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Do politicians in America go out of their way to stifle innovation or is it just my perception?
It's time to nuke Utah since it only seems to produce annoying dipshits.
Note to Utah: Its time for you guys to deal with this guy and kick his ass around the block!
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Hatch introduces these radical bills all the time. This one is Pre- committee. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
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!
"My girlfriend's got sodium laureth sulfate hair."
No really, every single company that makes anything that proports to "remember" anything what-so-ever "can be used" to "remember" a copy of a copyrighted work.
Every single industry on the planet should be against these measures, including the artists.
Relying on "the governments" or "the courts" to "get around to deciding where the draw the line" on *any* matter (as a founding assumption of proposing the mater in the first place) should be punishable by death.
At first reading this may sound like a Troll, or on overstating the case, but if you follow the bouncing dollar bill, you will see that these "statements of vision disguised as law" are simply vast resivours of entropy trying to suck the life (money, rights, and intellegence) out of our culture.
[I guess I am ranting, but what exactly *will* it take to get the people, any people, to listen?]
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
that nobody is copying his music
http://www.hatchmusic.com/
John Kerry is a Joke!
How you can create a law and have everyone be in violation at the same time..
Havent our prisons been filled up yet? And now "5 Years for Unauthorized Duplication".
Real violent criminals we have here, eh?
Also if I recall, why is the RIAA helping with this guy? Isnt there a law saying a IRS recognized orginization CANNOT have political affiliation or be in support of a certain political affiliation? And there.. seems to be a excess of money going to the Repubs from record *associations* and org's.
Guess what the senator says about holding gun companies liable for murders committed with their products?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Read Atlas Shrugged. These laws are not being put in place to be followed. There are there to be selectively enforced.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
He got caught, so he wants everyone else to suffer too.
"Say good bye to your VCR, MP3 players, CD/DVD burners, etc."
And your customers.
"You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
Well in that case, microsoft should be sued first, as Windows is used more than anything else, in copying + distributing illegal files
(sarcasm)
Note to Everyone Else: Its time for us to deal with Utah and kick their ass around the block. ;-)
Is it just an oversight on the part of readers, or journalists, or Slashdot editors, or some combination of the above to ignore many other things that also stifle innovation, like high taxes? Isn't it at all possible that more companies would invest in research and development if they could afford to do so, but they cannot because too much of the potential profits are seized by the government?
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
The mere fact that Wired and the WSJ are both running stories against this bill suggest it has zero chance of ever passing. But it's nice to see a traditional print newspaper warm to some of the issues near and dear to nerd hearts.
Oh, here's the link to the WSJ article, but it probably requires (pay) subscription.
For the country that's supposed to be the "Land of the Free" and the supposed defender of democracy and open government, there certainly doesn't seem to be much of that sort of thing going on at the moment.
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"I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous." - David Bradley, inventor of Ctrl-Alt-Del
Good grief, you'd think this legislation was drafted by someone who wanted to cripple the U.S. Economy for good. On the one hand, we have problems with outsourced jobs, economy still struggling to recover, terrorist threats, middle-east unrest . . . and some senators feel that now's a good time to give lawyers even more things to sue companies for??????
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You know, I've thought about going into law school - it seems the jobs are leaving the IT industry and heading that way . .
But seriously - at what point can we just say to the entertainment industry "live with it"? How long has the software industry lived with software piracy for better and worse?
I'll say this - all those countries that have been worried about the corrupting influence of American culture, don't worry. Senator Hatch is working very hard to make sure that there's no possible way for any of that culture to escape the country.
-- "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" [Oscar Wilde]
I guess that makes him (or it?) an outlaw. Or maybe future Furby's will be programmed to self-destruct if your 2 year old sings them a copyright tune, like the Barney theme or happy birthday. Does this make my telephone voice mail an illegal circumvention device? Somebody might call me up and hum a copyrighted song, better unplug it....
Has this guy ever thought of moving to N. Korea? I bet he would love it there. Too bad for him that East Germany no longer exists. He would have made a wonderful Stazi bureaucrat.
Actually, somebody should propose an amendment to his bill which would also hold liable the manufacturer of any technology which could be used to reproduce copyright printed matter as well, so we can outlaw computers, typewriters, photocopiers, paper, pens, etc. Just to show how looney this really gets.
My rights don't need management.
Q: What could be worse than marrying a mormon?
A: Marrying two.
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
It is becoming increasingly common for legislators try to get any bill passed, no matter the constitutionality of it.
Between the defense of marriage act earlier today and this, I am just so disgusted with the whole lot of them.
With the betamax decision, it was ruled that it is ok to make personal copies of tv shows. It is logical that the same could be said of recorders of CDs to MP3s or (preferably) OGG or FLAC.
So now Hatch comes up with a bill that would do nothing but tie up the courts (after causing pause to innovators) until it is ruled unconstitutional and we are back where we started.
Then Hatch comes up with practically the same bill all over again, and the process continues ad infinitum (sigh)
I am maddened by the continually increasing insanity of American Lawmakers.
You're confusing insanity with evil.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
You can email your senators or fax your senators and tell them to wise up.
Or you can sit around and post comments on Slashdot that no one with the power to change things will ever read.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
Before everyone invests a lot of energy posting with the usual "this sucks" and "In Soviet Russia" quote (I bet they will all follow my post now that I said that :) ), those of us that are Americans need to exercise our rights. Often your Congressman/woman and Senator will have "town meetings" when they are in your state. Go to these! Even if there isn't a hot topic at the time (there always is with technology), we, as a Slashdot community, have the oppertunity to provide and gather valuable insight and let our voices be heard. Do you wonder why Medicare, Social Security, etc is always such a hot topic in elections? Well most of the people that I see at these meetings are elderly.
;), to call your Senator AND Congressman. Be polite, address them properly (though you will probably only speak to one of their office staff members), and explain the situation in terms the general public can understand (none of "Well it contains and A to D converter and if you stream an analog signal in then..."). Often you will find your Senator and Congressman/woman to be very rational and understanding of the situation.
There are very few people under the age of 50 there and as a result, our elected officials only get a small piece of the story. Often bad bills make it through because people spend too much time complaining to their friends and not enough time educating the government. Most of the people that I have met in that line of work are not malicous with these bills, they just simply have a skewed view given to them by some lobbyist.
It is up to us, the people, to educate on the potential ramifications of these poorly written bills. We simply cannot assume that Senator X sits in his office and rebuilds his Linux Kernal all day. These men and women work on running this country and not on running their computers (though some of them do have a techie streak in them).
The best advice here is to do what the article says. Everyone set as their first task tommorow afternoon (I belive Senate is in session until mid afternoon tommorow, you can check on senate.gov), before the ADHD kicks in
Good Luck!
It's bargaining, just like when you're buying a car. The salesweasel starts high and comes down, while you start low and come up.
With the laws, they start with the most obscene and fascist stuff short of getting themselves impeached. Then, when they've "come down on price" a little, it appears reasonable by comparison.
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
We can't be content with merely banning devices that can illegally copy copyrighted material.
We need to ban any device that can potentially play illegal media!
No child is safe while televisions and music players exist which could possibly corrupt their minds with illegally copied media!
Ban all Media Players now!
If it is possible to prosecute for the illegal use of a product which has a legal and legitimate use, then surely by extension it will only be a matter of time before someone (unless they already have) sues bullet makers for providing the means to kill people.
I know that guns don't kill people, it is people that kill people, but a VCR / CDR / generic recording device does have legitimate uses that don't violate copyright.
I am glad that I don't live in the states. If this is the model of democracy and things being done for the people rather than for the oligarchs (read the corporations the politicians seem to owe their souls to) then I would hate to see a country really in need of liberation.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World" 1 John 4:14
"Friends, The legislation I propose today, will make our great country a better place. In this doccument is decisive legislation to outlaw that menace to all, Orin Hatch!
When it is passed, he will be placed in a wooden box (with plenty of food and water), and shipped to the place where he can do the most damage: North Korea. We expect the regime to be toppled within two weeks of his arrival."
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Database of US Senator's Email Addresses
And here are some tips on how to compose the email.
I already sent mine.
I don't think the motive behind this bill is evil. Artists deserve to be paid for their work. With that being said, I don't think Senator Hatch, Senator Daschle, Senator Frist, Senator Graham, Senator Boxer, and Senator Leahy realize the consequences of this bill.
Members of both parties support this bill. What does that say? Think about it. Officials will not be re-elected if iPods, DVD burners, ect. are outlawed.
Contact these Senators. Tell them how you feel about this bill. Point out the consequences created by this bill. Lastly, please stop making copyright laws a one party issue because it is not.
We could give them Utah if they agreed never to let Celine Dion leave the country ever again or record another CD.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Sen. Hatch is only protecting himself from these damn pirates, since it is practically assured that his music is on the top of pirates most wanted music lists around the globe. Or maybe hes a just the fascist pinhead he asserts himself to be.
I was crazy back when being crazy really meant something. (Charles Manson)
How are people supposed to create copyrighted works in the first place?
Er... are you suggesting that for a copyright holder to make a copy of their own works, that they can self-infringe? That's as ridiculous as saying that for someone to drive their own car, they have committed grand theft auto (the crime, not the game
No, he's not saying this at all.
Under Induce, manufacturers are forbidden from making devices that could conceivably be used to infringe. Which means that you couldn't burn copies of your own CDs, because CD burners could be used to burn other people's CDs, and would hence be illegal.
This is somewhat reminiscent of the laws in Demolition Man: "Red meat is bad for you; therefore it is illegal".
It occurs to me, that as radical as this bill sounds, it is exactly what we need.
Suppose that it was indeed illegal to merely manufacture a device that could be used for copyright infringement. Consider how society would react:
To make a long story short, people would simply stop consuming digital media. Instead, they'd get out and socialize, or play sports, etc... instead of sitting at home in front of a computer or television. This bill would radically alter the spending habits of the American consumer, destroying the entertainment industry in the process:
I gaurantee this wouldn't last five years before it would be overturned.
What the RIAA and MPAA don't realize is that a substantial part of the value of a CD or DVD is the ability to 1.) make a backup copy, and 2.) mix MP3 tracks for mix CD's. Without this, there's not much point - I can simply listen to the songs on the radio and never bother to buy the CD. If this law actually passed, the dearth of technology improvements would actually drive the MPAA and RIAA out of business - who will buy a CD when electronics makers no longer make CD players for fear of legal liability? Who will make a DVD player when you could be sued for doing so?
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
But a paper and ink will be illegal too under this bill, by definition.
I still remember the times, when in deep communism it was illegal to own a private or non-registered typing machine (or is it typewriter in english?). At more relaxed times later, the same rule was about photo-copiers.
So many blacklisted books were copied hand-written. You can't imagine what a breaktrough in totalitarian regime mind control was made with early 8-bit computers with dot-matrix printers.
It seems, America is suddenly jumping backwards some 60 years of world political culture. What I cannot understand is which economy motives are driving such trend.
There you are, staring at me again.
High-tech industry seem to get what it wants on H1B/L1, R&D tax credits, unrestricted outsourcing. They've learned their lesson about paying off Congress. How do you think DOJ was persuaded to back off MS after they were declared guilty?
Why did DMCA pass? Our technology industry just doesn't care. Why aren't technology industries trying to stop this?
The only recent example of a united tech industry not getting what they want was the P2P bill, and IMHO, the only reason why they didn't get it stopped was that they didn't care enough to play hardball.
People forget that the net gross revenue of the Hollywood cartel combined would be considered a roundoff error with respect to what the high-tech sector of the economy pulls in. Why do high-tech industries let themselves be the dog in the "wag the dog" scenario? Presumably, they're still hypnotized by visions of infinite future profits driven by complete customer access to all Hollywood's content (unlikely) over universal broadband (even more unlikely) with the happy customers happy to pay whatever is asked for pay-per-view/listen for content they are no longer allowed to own.
Why hasn't the high-tech user community organized a mass action PAC along the lines of the NRA/AARP model to get what we want?
None of us who actually has the money to start one gives a fuck. Losing on this sort of thing is just another excuse to "save money" by offshore R&D using the excuse "Sorry, but we can't employ Americans in America to do R&D, you know how much paperwork Hollywood requires to get our products approved."
The people who've benefited from the efforts and purchases of our community are not interested in giving back, they just want to strip-mine what they can of value from us before going on to other labor/consumer markets.
There's no useful political leadership in this area, i.e. nobody willing to buy politicians to protect our freedom to create technology, and the odds that any will develop are slim to none.
There aren't even people we can vote for to get this sort of thing stopped. This measure has bi-partisan support, just like the DMCA had.
The only solutions to this problem at this point are individual ones. If you want to innovate and you live in America, find a nation more friendly to innovation. That's what I'm trying to figure out how to afford to do.
In a few years, the really cool consumer products aren't going to be coming from America anymore, and there's a good chance that they either won't be sold here or will only be available via black market.
"Citizens always get the kind of local government they deserve."
E.E."Doc" Smith
Tech Public Policy stuff
doesn't that also include harddrives, digital cameras (think smartmedia card, memorystick, etc), computers, cell phones, notebooks (can write down song lyrics), pens, pencils, markers, knives (can carve copies of pictures), film, eyeballs, ears, brains, humans, etc, etc, etc??!?!?!?!
I don't see any way of enforcing this or even wording it so that it would be posible and not infringe on our everyday rights. Not only do I not see any way of doing this, I don't want people to even try.
i propose a mass suicide if the world gets that restrictive. A world that restrictive is not worth living in. A world that restrictive is worse than slavery. We're nearing that, now, with all this RIAA/MPAA bullshit.
I understand the need to protect what's yours, but I believe it's starting to be taken too far.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
Does anyone know where that site is that lists all contributions made to senators and such (how much and where from)? You know, these people legally have to report all contributions and such. I've looked around for links here on slashdot, and also through numerous google searches.
What I haven't figured out is how the heck these people (if you can call them that) can claim to be representing THEIR constituents with bills like this. California legislators (especially those in Southern California districts) I can understand, and maybe some of the New York ones...but as far as I can tell, Utah is about as dependent on Big Media for their economy as South Carolina (i.e. Fritz Hollings) is...This particular senator's wild-eyed berserk enthusiasm for grossly overeager "Copyright Protection(tm)" particularly baffles me in light of the fact that it puts him AGAINST the "Clean Flicks"** people in their case, and his state especially seems to like those.
Is it really just that "The Two Parties(tm)" really ARE the Disneycrats and Ruperticans* as I've been calling them for the past several years, run by their respective media masters?
(* - as in Rupert Murdoch/Fox Network, in case anyone didn't guess that...)
(** - "Clean Flicks" is a company that buys original media, then edits out the "objectionable" parts that might offend the delicate sensibilities of viewers, especially in the Utah/Idaho area, such as naked people, discussions of icky things, and bad words. While my personal feelings towards this attitude range from contempt to disgust to anger, it is for philosophical/artistic reasons, and I nonetheless think that they are FIRMLY within what ought to be obviously legal actions within the doctrines of "Fair Use" and "First Sale" to anyone that isn't being paid off by media lobbyists...or at least that's my opinion.)
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
I'm inclined to set up a website that urges people to ask Sony for replacement CDs of their PS2 games (assuming this case is about PS2?).
If they won't provide replacements, they've proven themselves liars in court. If they charge for replacements, they've undone their argument that there's no reason to have a backup.
Wanna help?
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
Do they really do this? For no charge?
The games are free, but there is a shipping and handling fee that runs from $30-$50, depending on the game.