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Senate Passes Scaled-Back Copyright Bill
Finalnight writes "The Senate has voted to outlaw several favorite techniques of people who illegally copy and distribute movies, but has dropped other measures that could have led to jail time for Internet song-swappers..."
Im not happy about this passing but at least most of the really stupid things were removed. Maybe my letters to good ol' Orrin helped.
That only some of these got through than all of them or is it worse that any got through at all.
I call it the "Be glad we only broke your kneecap. We were going break both your arms as well." approach.
(Sponsored by cheeseSource for President 2012)
Glad to see that this part was left out of the final bill, as I'm a little uncomfortable for busting people for just making files available to download- and people not actually downloading. It's kind of like someone who makes lots of books they've purchased available to friends to borrow.
I'm a little worried that this might actually pop back in for the final version of the bill. The bills that passed the House and Senate are different, so negociators will smooth out differences. Sometimes nasty provisions like this can make it in, and everyone can say that they didn't vote for that provision.
People who secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters could go to prison for up to three years under the measure, which passed the Senate on Saturday.
Why do we send people to jail that are at most causing loss of revenues for a certain industry? It's not removing the right for people to go see the movie. Why not just fine him for every copy he sent out? $1000/upload sounds like it would be more fit for the crime.
Get paid to code OSS
"This bill strengthens the intellectual-property laws that are vital to the ongoing growth of our economy," Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said.
Maybe it's the fact that they need to create a new business model. That and not use the political puppets to create legislation that goes against the PEOPLE and for the CORPORATIONS.
Get paid to code OSS
A section that would have made it illegal to edit out commercials was removed.
;-)
I feel like for once, contacting my congressman worked!
...Either that or they have TiVo's themselves
Get paid to code OSS
A section that would have made it illegal to edit out commercials was removed
"All that complaining and speculating for nothing"
Since the section was removed, perhaps the complaining and speculating was indeed for something.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65796,00 .html?tw=wn_tophead_7/: "A Kinder, Gentler Copyright Bill?"
This is one of those cases, where the name says it all. What were they thinking?
The official name is: Family Entertainment and Copyright Act
How about if we add the fact that this is legislation:
Family Entertainment and Copyright Act Legislation
(FECAL). Guess that is fairly self-descriptive.
Now, if your car was a WunderCar 6000, with a innovative new design © 2004 by you, and I made a copy and sold it, then you could sue me for infringement, but that is NOT a criminal offense. The new law was threatening to make it so, and that is wrong.
Yeah, right.
But it doesn't!!! At least not in my case: I usually watch movies first at home, and then at the theather if I think the experience would be good. The films I can't download, I will not watch at all. I will buy a good DVD with a lot of extras instead of downloading the KVCD version of the movie. The cost (to me) would be the same (a good DVD with 1 disc here costs approx US$ 15 -- the same price of one hour of work + one day of processing I have in downloading/transcoding the same movie). I watch Enterprise, which is not broadcast to my country, and that I would watch for free OTA if I lived in the USofA anyway.
And I am certain that this is the majority of P2P user's cases here and in the US.
Now, the message to the *AA:
You are losing revenue because your products are getting crappier and crappier, not because of P2P.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
They introduce the bill, put draconian measures into it, and fight to pass draconian measures that would seriously impact the way Americans live their daily lives.
Then an outcry develops, they strip out the draconian measures and leave behind innocuous, small-step leftovers that they were hoping to pass in the first place, to make it look like they were being magnanimous by compromising.
The more they do this, the more they can get bills passed that erode the rights of US citizens and turn the US into a nation of good little worker bees making the elite upper class richer and richer.
I wonder what it'll look like in 15 years, when another five or six of these bills gets passed in succession?
You guys are so fucked.
People who secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters could go to prison for up to three years
Hackers and industry insiders who distribute music, movies or other copyrighted works before their official release date also face stiffened penalties under the bill.
Well, I hope the industry insiders face a stiffer penalty than three years in prison -- they make much better, more watch-able copies, so the damage is much worse.
But, somehow, I don't think the industry will want such stiff penalties for their own people. And, if so, why the long sentence for taping in a theater? Hopefully someone will eventually realize that jail time is not appropriate & copyright should be kept a civil matter.
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