Software Firms Lobby for Stronger Copyright Laws

Spy Handler writes "According to an article on CNN, the Business Software Alliance went before the Congress yesterday and lobbied for stronger copyright protection. Their key point: Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should be required to reveal the names of customers who may be distributing illegal wares on peer-to-peer networks. I guess they feel that the DMCA is too lax for them to be allowed to carry out RIAA-style raids on college students."

Comments

And how cleverly they want to pass it

[kompiluj]

In the news.com.com.com.com article you read:
The white paper also suggests tightening the rules under which patents are issued to allow both proposed and issued patents to be challenged more easily.
This is very, very funny, indeed... emphasis mine.

They're stealing from ME...

[dmayle]

I've been waiting for just such an article as this to point out something that I've recently come to realize. Everytime there's a copyright article on Slashdot, there is the inevitable discussion on "piracy", "copyright infringement", and "stealing". In going over all of the arguments, I've come to realize that it is stealing, only everyone's got it backwards, the *AA, et al, are stealing from ME...

The U.S. constitution makes it clear that works protected by copyright belong to the public, and granting of copyright should apply only to authors and inventors to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts".

Well, each time Congress extends the length of copyright or strengthens patent law, they're stealing from me, they're stealing from you, and they're stealing from each person in this country who could gain anything from that work, even if it's just 90 minutes of enjoyment from watching an old movie for free. I, for one, am outraged, and now that Congress has turned to looting from me for the benefit of the few who are wealthy and powerful, I will feel no remorse when I download music, or copy DVDs.

It's high time we started taking back our country, and if you think that control of information isn't the most important thing we have to fight for, then you've never studied oppressive regimes. So, copy a DVD for your family, download some MP3s, and help to start a revolution (in thought)...

Encrypted Networks

[syukton]

So why don't we just encrypt everything (including filenames) so nobody can tell who is downloading what? It sounds like big business wants an ISP to track suspicious activity and report back if they see anybody transferring copyrighted materials. Well if everything was encrypted, only the people who are supposed to know what's being transferred will ever know that it is actually BEING transferred.

outlaw professional lobbyists

[bgs4]

Groups such as the Business Software Alliance spend however many millions of dollars every year on lobbyists only because they get many more millions in return through their influence on government.

Using money to influence government in this way is, in its end result, bribery. But it is different than bribery in that it does not require corrupt politicians-- it requires only politicians who are not all knowing. Even intelligent, well-intentioned people can be convinced of something if only one side of an argument is heard. This is especially true for a topic as complex as government policy.

Professional lobbying, because it is effectively bribery, needs to be outlawed-- it should be illegal to pay someone to speak to a government representative on your behalf. Instead of hiring lobbyists, companies can ask their employees and shareholders to contact, in their spare time, their representatives. If that is not sufficient, companies can, through advertisement, raise public awareness of their concerns. In this way, the influence of money will move one more step away from government.

Public interests groups, such as groups opposed to overreaching copyright and patent laws, will have little problem recruiting volunteer lobbysists, as many of them already do. Such lobbyists, since they are unpaid, would be perfectly legal. Not only will public interest groups be able to lobby almost as effectively as before, but they will also no longer have to compete with highly paid professional lobbying firms.

Who else will this law change benefit? STALKERS

[macdaddy]

Even worse, assume for a moment that a disgruntled ex-husband calls up Hotmail, claims that user X is infringing on his copyrights for ficticious product X, and demands to have the contact information of that user (his ex-wife). He then uses that contact info (probably her current ISP's email account) to again allege a copyright violation and demand her contact and billing information. Now he has her credit card info and mailing address. He goes to the address, kills her, and takes their child (that the mother had full custody of and a protection order against the father). Or take the same scenario but this time apply it to a female celebrity and her website. This time use a mentally unbalanced stalker instead of a disgruntled ex-husband. Perhaps the celebrity sent the bills to her secret, private (unpublicized so the paparazzi don't find it) condo in Montana. Of course since noone knows about the condo but her family and closest friends the security will probably be much more lax or even non-existent. Opps. Now this mentally unbalanced stalker has her private mailing address. How many female celebrities have been confronted, assaulted or killed by their deranged stalkers? Lets count just who we can easily recall:

Sheryl Crow - confronted by Ambrose Kappos

Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis - confronted

Gwyneth Paltrow - confronted by Ron Galella

Rebecca Schaeffer - MURDERED by Robert Bardo

Barbara Mandrell - confronted by Edwin John Carlson

Madonna - confronted by Robert Hoskins who was ultimately shot (not killed by one of her bodyguards.

Olivia Newton John - confronted by Michael Perry who was found camping behind her house. He wasn't charged though and was sent home to his family, which he ultimately MURDERED.

Jodie Foster and Ronald Reagan - John Hinckley Jr. shot President Reagan to impress Jodi Fostter, whom he was stalking.

This doesn't only happen to female celebs. It happens to male ones too:

John Lennon - MURDERED by Mark David Chapman

Michael J. Fox - confronted by Tina Ledbetter

Scott Bakula - confronted by Tina Ledbetter

Steven Spielberg - confronted by Jonathan Norman

David Letterman

Rebecca Schaeffer, Theresa Saldana, Cher, Olivia Newton-John, Sheena Easton, Barbara Mandrell, Maddona, Michael Jackson, Michael J. Fox, Justine Bateman, Sarah McGlocklin, Belinda Carlisle, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, Vanessa Williams, Sharon Gless, Brad Pitt, Monica Sales, Nicole Kidman. Jeri Ryan, Meg Ryan, Mel Gibson, Anne Murray, Sonny Bono and even Steven Spielberg are just a few of the celebrities who have been stalked.

A law change to allow anyone to allege copyright infringement to gain personal data is absurd and will be a boon to stalkers everywhere.

How can the average American compete?

[i41Overlord]

It takes money to get laws passed. Lobby groups have tons of money and they can easily get laws passed in their favor. When it's business vs. business, it's still ~somewhat fair because their respective lobbying groups counteract each other.

But when it's lobby groups backed by the industry as a whole that lobby for laws that go against everyday people, how can we compete? How are we going to stop the billions of dollars of lobbying money that the industry has? This is a very lopsided match here. The companies can get laws passed almost unimpeded while the average citizen just has to sit there and live under those new laws. Some of these new laws, such as ones that favor patents and IP have the effect of stomping out anything open source or free (since it takes loads of money to get your ideas patented and if you're not working for profit, you won't have the money to get your ideas patented).

I'll use an example just to give you an idea of what I mean. Let's say there was an "open source" pharmaceutical effort that came out with a drug to cure xxxx disease. That drug would never be allowed to be sold. Being open source, you wouldn't have the money to "convince" the FDA to approve your drug, and you wouldn't have the money to defend yourself against the bully lawsuits that the big rich established pharm companies would surely throw at you. Even though your product would help mankind, it wouldn't generate the money needed to defend itself. Instead, a company which generates lots of money by selling a product to *treat* the disease instead of curing it would have the money (and therefore political power) to stifle you.

Big Money rules the government in the US. Non-profit can no longer compete with for-profit, and that's a bad thing when the point of the organization was to donate their time and skill to give to the community. When you look at the net effect of all these laws as a whole, they basically amount to you *having* to give companies your money.

I'm sorry for the long post but I see where things are going and this is getting out of hand.

Shouldn't be specific to copyright

[Sloppy]

Copyright infringement is just the current and topical reason this is coming up. But the more general question is: should IP addresses be anonymous xor accountable?

I would prefer that society deal with and answer that general question, rather than just make a special case or limit the decision to just situations where copyright infringement is suspected.

My opinion is that pseudo-anonymity just isn't worth much, and that we should go one of two ways:

1. Anonymity is guaranteed: ISPs are required to maintain customer anonymity, not keeps logs except for billing purposes, and this information should not be available to third parties by any means, including court orders.
2. Accountability is guaranteed: ISPs should be required to maintain logs for a reasonable period, and automatically furnish information about who was responsible for an IP address as of a given time (within a reasonable window into the past).

Right now, we're sort of in between those two situations, where the ISP has discretion. This makes everyone a loser. Nobody can count on anonymity, so perceived anonymity is of dubious value (e.g. you can't really spread samizdat against your own government, if they can just order that you be exposed). Nobody can count on accountability, because there may be prohibitively expensive legal requirements to getting desired information, and even then, you don't have a guarantee that the ISP ever maintained a log (e.g. Joe-open-wireless-access-point didn't even know he was an ISP until he got a letter from a lawyer).

Going either way would be fine with me. Each has problems, but also, each is better than an in-between situation.