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The RIAA's Halloween Tricks
deus42 writes "BoingBoing has an interesting article about a joint RIAA/MPAA move started yesterday on Capitol Hill. From the article: 'Hollywood has fielded a shockingly ambitious piece of Analog Hole legislation while everyone was out partying in costume. Under a new proposed Analog Hole bill, it will be illegal to make anything capable of digitizing video unless it either has all its outputs approved by the Hollywood studios, or is closed-source, proprietary and tamper-resistant. The idea is to make it impossible to create an MPEG from a video signal unless Hollywood approves it.'"
I agree with parent - what a load of crap from the RIAA. Video is becoming more and more mainstream, with the average consumer having access via traditional video camera's, webcams, and even phone's. And if I buy the recording device and shoot the video footage, don't I "own" it anyway. Heck, does this mean that I can't do my halloween webcam next year unless I have "permission" from the RIAA?
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
I heard a great analogy today. Software is like a vehicle. Software should be able to be modified just like buying a Harley and modifying it like West Coast Choppers does. As long as all the parties get paid, the Harley dealer, the suppliers of the mods, etc., then no one can stop it as long as it's not illegal.
Same with movies. If I owned a film copy of a movie, there is nothing that could stop me from splicing it together to make funny edits, have someone talking to themselves, flipping the picture backwards, etc.
Yet the *IAA want to prevent you from doing just exactly that. They want to force you to watch the commercials during broadcasts, and not do anything whatsoever with their material that they don't approve.
Freedom of expression - art made of books for instance - gives Americans the rights to do just exactly these things. In fact, we have the right to go taket the Harley, modify it, and sell it at a profit if we wish. CDs and DVDs come with printing on them that they may not be re-sold for any reason now. Not only can we not utilize a CD in art, we can't edit it to a new form and re-sell it with the same profit rules that we apply to any other physical property. How exactly is this fair?
Contact your local congressmen and senators. This is insidious and gives new meaning to underhanded tactics.