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Congressman Hollywood Wants To Make DMCA Tougher
Stormy seas writes "Congressman 'Hollywood' Howard Berman (D-CA) used a House subcommittee hearing today to express his view that the DMCA was in need of a rewrite. In his view, it doesn't go far enough. During his opening remarks for a hearing on the PRO-IP Act, Berman said that the DMCA's Safe Harbor needs further scrutiny and that it might be time to make filtering mandatory. There's more: Berman also 'wants to examine the "effectiveness of takedown notices" under the DMCA, and he'd like to take another look at whether filtering technology has advanced to the point where Congress ought to mandate it in certain situations.'"
It's not complete, but if you look at this link here you can see he's in the top two of getting contributions from music/movie industries. This really shouldn't be too much of a surprise as we do live in a country where your money buys your influence.
The founders were smarter than that. The US Constitution instead assumes that people have these rights (as expressed in the Declaration of Independence), and limits government interference with them. Read the 1st amendment: "Congress shall make no law...", later clarified to mean that no branch of the government at any level can do those things (interfere with speech, religion, the press, gathering).
Do you have ESP?
It's worth mentioning that this only applies to the House, and not to all of Congress. Senators serve a 6 year term, with 1/3rd being up for election every 2 years. I'm sure most US slashdotters would know that, but just in case...
California is a democrat stronghold. Anyone with a D generally doesn't get voted out. And this old geezer has been there about 25 years.
Actually, you are mostly wrong. Switzerland is an example of very well-functioning direct democracy. Also you're wrong about its effects on people. You can get more information in the book at http://democracy-international.org/.