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Copyright Law Mashup Moving Through Congress
The Importance of writes "The INDUCE Act may be dead (for now), but that doesn't mean that Congress won't pass any copyright laws this year. Right now, HR 4077, the "Piracy Deterrence in Education" bill pulls together a number of different initiatives to not only get the government involved in civil copyright enforcement, but change fundamental definitions in copyright, and make certain types of home video viewing illegal. The Senate version (brought to you by Sen. Hatch and Leahy) adds even more copyright law changes. According to Public Knowledge, 'The recording industry and Hollywood are making headway! Threatening bills are positioned to move possibly today or tomorrow (yes, even Saturday!) in the Senate and we need your help, now. Not only do they want to rewrite copyright law (again) to lower the standard required for criminal enforcement of copyright infringement; but now they're changing how you watch TV or DVDs in your own home! The bills (H.R. 4077 and H.R. 2391) also are written to make the way you use iTunes and WiFi a crime. '"
$20 says INDUCE gets tagged onto this one before it's voted on... any takers?
-lk
I can stand that they try to make hardware developers criminals (Induce Act vs. PS2-chip makers)... I can stand that they want to ban Kazaa (piracying is illegal)...
but MAKING something that we already do ILLEGAL? Who do they think they are, The Sheriff of Nottingham?
They're bringing doom upon themselves. Soon many (WAY MANY) Robin Hoods from outside the US will crush them and take from them whatever they love the most: Money.
In the discussion about the INDUCE Act stalling, several people predicted that the plan was to have the consumer (copyright) rights proponents expend all their energy and finances on opposing the INDUCE Act and that the real draconian act would sneak by the victory parade. Looks like they were right.
Since when is not waching an advertisement illegal? That seems a constitutional violation - No one has a right to FORCE me to watch/listen to anything.
If the people living in the states of the politicians sponsoring this mess would vote them out, maybe the fascist/socialist elements in our government will finally be 'mashed'.
Seriously, you could argue that the advertising reduces the cost of the product, and therefore users must view them. But where does it end? Would you force people to spend 15 seconds looking at the ad on the side of a bus before they get on?
Bottom line: advertisers should NEVER have the power to force people to look at their ads, lest our lives become a living hell.
If they keep this up it'll be illegal to watch movies or listen to music anywhere other than the theatre!
wifi = re-emitting as electromagnetic radiation,
light = electromagnetic radiation,
therefore your television = broadcast station, same as an AP.
Now if we can just fool them into legislating that you can't watch movies at the theatre, or listen to a home stereo either, we'll have em.
Somebody want to invent / commercialize an ultrasonic WiFi or bluetooth protocol compatable network? That should trigger legislation to kill all audio systems
If the vast majority of clueless people who either use TiVo, or know someone who does, are told that their toy is illegal, hell will be raised, and the pendulum will start swinging the other way...
It'll still suck for the next ten years, I admit.
Just kidding. i am playing devils advocate here and I agree with you 100%. Tons of our rights have been stripped away in the USA. However, we have to suck it up because the Dems and Repubs have a monopoly on the voting system and prevent 3rd party candidates.
Our law makers pretty much just give in to whoever has the most cash and let the courts (our tax dollars) pick the winner in disputes. However, most of our judges are corrupted as well. Some supreme judges ruled that corporations have "freedom of speech" and are allowed to give bribes (campaign contributions), to the law makers. It is really sad that a non-human (corporation) is given _MORE_ rights in the USA then a US citizen. As a US Marine, I say it is time for a revolution to take back what is ours.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
First I would like to say, everyone comparing fastforwarding through a boring part of a movie or skipping past a boring part of a book as being illegal by this law are just dumb (not trying to flame). Advertising pays for your free television channels or keeps the prices down if you have a pay for service.
With that said, yes, they can not force you to watch these ads and I do not believe there should be laws created to guarantee you can't bypass these commercials. I for one did NOT sign any agreement with any television broadcasting company saying that in exchange for free entertainment I would inturn watch their brain washing commercials.
What happened to our representatives representing the PEOPLE. Though corporations might have some of the same rights as a person (though not being held to their crimes like a person) they do not qualify as a person and should not be represented as one by our politicians.
This government was created by and for the people and I for one do not feel that these types of laws represent the best interest of 99.99% of the population of the United States. Tax payers money should not be spent on educating children on copyright laws. 1) It's ineffective, we've all been to school.... 2) Why not start spending tax payers money of educating kids at school on why product A is better than product B?? Or better yet they can teach us about Jesus!!!
Maybe there should be some laws seperating corporations from state as we do with religion and state. And for the same reasons too....
"In all seriousness, WHY do you suppose copying a copyrighted music file illegally is already a felony in most cases (along with things like murder, kidnapping, and rape), whereas running into a store and swiping the actual CD is just a simple misdemeanor?"
Here's the primary difference. How many CD's can you walk out of the store with? How many digital copies can you distribute over the internet?
"For those few who will no doubt comment on this article and say "blah blah, good - people swapping files are criminals and should be punished" I ask you this - does the punishment even come CLOSE to fitting the crime?"
So how much crime does there have to be, before the punishment does fit the crime, and why is the line drawn so arbitrarily?
"And now they want to make the punishment even more harsh?"
As I've said elsewere piracy (not just now, but piracy in general) has turned this into a war situation. Wars do one thing and one thing only. They escalate, and people get hurt. Ego unfortunately is invested on both sides, and neither side will back down.
He's not a dumbass at all. He's just greedy and corrupt. There is a slight difference.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
"potential" be damned, you can't attach penalties for "potential" and regardless of where you got the media it can be spread, why isn't the kid who shoplifts a cd charged with a felony if he has a computer? He has the potential to rip it and distribute it.
This P.I.G. will walk on the water, This P.I.G. will walk on the sea, This P.I.G. will walk whereever he wants.
Until you know why we elected corruptable men to office, voting them out of office will probably result in different corrupt men in office.
Laws are horrible moral guides, moral guides make even worse laws.
I'm watching the US from a distance, it's slowly going to hell. A real hell where real people live right now, not the imaginary one that doesn't exist.
I think the topic of this discussion is a side-effect. I think, the question this all starts with is: how can you stop American politicians from being legally bribed?
It's really obvious looking from the outside in that America is rotting, it's more difficult to see from the inside because the ones that are trying to control the government, and succeeding in my opinion, are the ones that feed you information through TV.
You guys and girls have to do something because it's going to influence the rest of the world when America, with it's giant military/industrial complex is going to hell. You either vote for Republicans so they speed up the nastyness and it's obvious to everyone. Or you have to slowly take back control. We've already had a Hitler and it gets pounded into us at school, the events that lead up to his rise to power. You want to have a live example before you realize? Or take our word for it that it's not such a good idea.
It's so obvious to outsiders that republicans are lyars, and we're like, "why can't Americans see the truth?".
- -- Truth addict for life.
The government hasn't taken away any of your weapons. They just haven't given you new ones to keep up to date with the latest military technology.
Thus, you can't go down to the store and buy an ICBM, an aircraft carrier, a 1MT thermonuclear warhead or an M1 tank.
If you think that either (a) it would be a good idea to make those weapons available to the general public, or (b) that you're going to ever win a revolution against the modern military with the weapons that you do have (or ever did have), then you're smoking some serious crack.
All this nonsense about the people bearing pistols and hunting rifles as keeping a check on the government is just a red herring to keep you pacified. Take Iraq, it was awash in guns while Saddam was in power. That didn't help them keep tyranny at bay.
Here's a tip: Forget your handguns. The last few years have shown that the most effective weapon in today's revolutionary arsenal is the suicide bomber. However, it is still highly doubtful whether even that has a chance of actually winning any conflict, and like most terrorist tactics it would be totally ineffective without heavy press coverage (which would be censored as soon as your revolution starts in earnest).
Bottom line: when your government has the means to destroy every city on planet earth, your only options are either to work within the system to keep it under control, or (as happened in the CCCP) convince the armed forces to see your side of things. Neither of these things has anything to do with the puny peashooter weapons that you ever have a chance of getting your hands on.
Alright, so it won't actually stop a politician from being bribed, but it can make you feel real good aftwards.
We need to keep repeating this to everyone we can. Its a truth that needs 100 million repetitions.
-I.V.
"These laws they're passing won't even compile anymore, let alone execute." - anon
Add 1 line to the bill that is completely nonrelated:
n al .tree.ap/
Title III designates the national tree as the oak tree.
Instruct our "free" media to tell everyone about the bill:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/28/natio
It's good to know we can trust the media in this free country, eh?
...they live in washington DC, which if you think on it, is THE most "welfare" run city in the world. Virtually every penny that gets spent and respent there has been forceably TAKEN from someone else originally. And I say "welfare" because they don't produce anything, the politicians and bureaucrats just take it! So of course they think weirdly about things. It's artifically an expensive city to live in, but, the people making the decision don't have to sweat a roof or meals or a limo ride, it's all free stuff, and when they aren't getting it by the bucket load from the public trough, bigco,inc. is lining up to give them more! Thou$ands just to go speak at some luncheon? Huh? That's employment, but I wouldn't call it "work". They lose touch with what things cost, what it really means to be joe average. To them, 20 buck CDs are chump change, they wouldn't stoop to grab a jackson if it fell out of their wallets and was blowing away in the wind. A ten dollar movie? eh, less than what they tip for a few drinks. And the big hollywood and music guys are the same way, they just don't get it on predatory pricing and how much they are charging for in essence a dimes worth of copy. Or, maybe they do and just want to keep it that way.
THEY want everything that modern advanced technology can bring THEM, they just don't want you or me to have the same deal. That's the real bottom line in this thing, monopolization of technology,the good stuff only for the "elites", none or very limited for the proles and serfs.
A common myth. You could put anything in a package, unsealed, mail it to yourself, getting the postmark. At any later time you could replace the contents and then seal it. Unless you can find a way to prove you mailed a sealed package, it doesn't prove anything.
But you can just ask someone (anyone, but a notary would of course be better) to sign and date the bound copy (or each page), or chop and sign on a seal.
You bash the Republicans, but how are the democrats any better?
Classic retort. I love how whenever anyone questions the Republicans that someone always has to say something like the Democrats are just as bad.
But the sad thing is that even as little as 20 years ago this was more true than it is now. The neo-cons have turned the republican party into a farce of what it's values were supposed to represent. Smaller government, more freedom (ie liberty), national independence (ie a self-sustaining nation).
It's easy to point at the Democrats and say they have done bad things because all politicians have but the simple fact of the matter is that the Republicans have done more damage to the liberty, safety, and overall strength of the USA than anyone else has in recent history. And all for the glory, power, and wealth of the few. Stick that in your pipe and smoke on it for a while.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
This is why any talk of John Kerry flip-flopping is nonsense. Regardless of which candidate you support, you should be aware that voting for or against a bill on a certain subject, say taxes, does not mean what it would seem.
A senator or congressman may vote to raise taxes because the tax raise is minor and one of the riders is really important. He may vote against gun control because the bill has a loathesome rider.
Any representative who was honestly and intelligently representing his consituents *would* flip-flop, rather than voting on the hot button name of the bill. The result is a voting record that's speckled and looks inconsistent.
Legislation doesn't tabulate that way.
You have to remember over 50% of the voters, voted against BUSH, and more voted for GORE than BUSH. Yet due to the screwed-up Electorial College (which may have served a purpose long ago but is useless now), we unfortunately got BUSH.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
always nice to see a group of people who are among those who know the least about technology writing the laws that will dictate how it will progress.
All the torrents you could want.
Seriously, we have "under God" in our pledge (though introduced in the 1950's) and have had "in God we trust" on all of our currency since long before I was born.
This is something I see all the time. You are confused. Separation of church and state, does not mean that state can not make reference to, or imply that others worship in a church. The sole intent of this is to prevent a) a national religion, b) ensure that government does not trample on the rights of other religions, c) ensure that government is not unduly influenced by church authority (eg, the Pope/Vatican), and d) ensure that those that do, or do not, practice a religion, are not persecruted by members of government.
Specifically, as it relates to your pledge reference, it does not qualify, any more than references to god on a coin means anything, from a government perspective. This is a historically accurate statement and seeingly, recently (and historically) re-enforced by the SC.
Those that seem to take your wacky, hardline position, to me, see as far out in left field as the wacky religious zealots are in right. Simple fact is, those trying to take "god" references off of money and out of the pledge are attempting to serve their own corrupt agenda and hide behind ignornance of "seporation of church and state".