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Senate Passes Bill Targeting College Piracy
An anonymous reader brings news that the College Opportunity and Affordability Act has passed in the US Senate and now awaits only the President's signature before becoming law. Hidden away in the lengthy bill are sections which tie college funding to "offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property as well as a plan to explore technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity." The EFF issued a statement expressing concern over the bill earlier this year, shortly before the House of Representatives approved it. We discussed the introduction of the bill last November. The Senate vote was 83-8, with 9 not voting. The full text of the bill is available. The relevant section is 494, at the end of the general provisions.
Someone (I don't have the needed skills) should make a website that correlates information on campaign donations from opensecrets with voting records of public officials. This was obviously bought by IP-industry lobbyists, and I think that if the general public could see this corruption more easily it would be a lot easier to root out.
Sorry to reply to myself, but I wanted to add one other point:
"offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property
Specifically relating to movies, what alternatives is a college to offer for zero-day releases, screeners, and so forth? I'd love to know what the MPAA has up its sleeve there..
Sigh.....I know you are probably a troll and I shouldn't feed the troll,but what the hell,this argument always stuck in my craw.
1. If you actually believe it is about musicians,I got some really nice swampland in AR to sell you,99% gator free! They rip off the bands something fierce, for example: Meatloaf had to sue for nearly 20 years because "Bat out of Hell I",which is STILL on the top 200,BTW,according to the record companies never made any money. They even have a "special" term for this,which is how widespread it is. It is called Hollywood Accounting.
2. The whole POINT of copyright was to grant a LIMITED monopoly in return for the enrichment of the people at the end of the term with a better and richer Public Domain which all of us,artists and laymen alike,could use to create new works and enrich our lives. So lets go download all that great '50s and 60's music from the Public Domain website now! Oh,wait,we can't,can we? Because thanks to the lobbyists buying off our corrupt politicians our great great grandkids will be dead before anything ever sees the Public Domain again,if ever. You see,THEY broke the contract with their greed,not We The People.
3. And finally,do you think you are honest? Do you have an MP3 player? Ever put your own store bought cd on it? Then according to RIAA you are a filthy pirate. Welcome to the club,coffee and donuts are on the table in the back. The simple facts are this: The old model doesn't work.Instead of coming up with new models that WILL work in a digital age,they think they can buy their way back to the old days. So while I haven't heard or seen anything worth stealing if you see something you want,I say help yourself.THEY broke the contract,we get NOTHING for enforcing their copyrights,and until we get a new contract,one in which BOTH sides actually get something out of it I say all bets are off. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.