You are out of date, we now have even better anti-freedom acts. Take a look at the USA Patriot act or the act just passed and signed creating the Fatherland Security Department.
I have had the opposite experience. I have not yet encountered a company that was unwilling to negotiate on intellectual property agreements. I've negotiated and reached reasonable agreeements with seven companies ranging in size from 50,000+ to 11 employees. The first three employeed me as a chemist, the last four as a programmer. When I am interviewing I ask upfront to see their intellectual property agreement. I review it, and if I find it too restrictive ask if they are willing to negotiate. I don't know the count of companies I've interview with, but I would guess the number is in the 30 to 40 range. None have said they would not negotiate.
About a year ago I dug out my old disks for The Adventures of Willy Beamish, a game I loved and expected my nephew to enjoy. Disk 3 was bad and I couldn't install it. I contacted the manufacturer (Sierra) about purchasing a replacement disk, or a whole new copy if that was my only choice. They told me to forget it. They don't have disk, they don't sell the game, buy a new game. I legally own the game, but that didn't get rid of the errors whenever I inserted disk 3. So I found a copy on an abandonware site. Either the game companies should commit to supporting the old games or let those who are willing to do so alone.
If I read the threatening letter from the MPAA correctly, the MPAA thinks the judge has ruled the internet unlawful. They are say that any link that takes you to a site that has links, one of which could lead you by any route to a copy of DECSS is illegal. Since there's no limit to the length of the chain, a site can never know if one of it's link might be the starting point of a path to DECSS. Hence to avoid legal attack, the only safe course is to link only to sites that are dead ends. Anything else and expect to hear from the MPAA's lawyers.
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You are out of date, we now have even better anti-freedom acts. Take a look at the USA Patriot act or the act just passed and signed creating the Fatherland Security Department.
I have had the opposite experience. I have not yet encountered a company that was unwilling to negotiate on intellectual property agreements. I've negotiated and reached reasonable agreeements with seven companies ranging in size from 50,000+ to 11 employees. The first three employeed me as a chemist, the last four as a programmer. When I am interviewing I ask upfront to see their intellectual property agreement. I review it, and if I find it too restrictive ask if they are willing to negotiate. I don't know the count of companies I've interview with, but I would guess the number is in the 30 to 40 range. None have said they would not negotiate.
About a year ago I dug out my old disks for The Adventures of Willy Beamish, a game I loved and expected my nephew to enjoy. Disk 3 was bad and I couldn't install it. I contacted the manufacturer (Sierra) about purchasing a replacement disk, or a whole new copy if that was my only choice. They told me to forget it. They don't have disk, they don't sell the game, buy a new game. I legally own the game, but that didn't get rid of the errors whenever I inserted disk 3. So I found a copy on an abandonware site. Either the game companies should commit to supporting the old games or let those who are willing to do so alone.
If I read the threatening letter from the MPAA correctly, the MPAA thinks the judge has ruled the internet unlawful. They are say that any link that takes you to a site that has links, one of which could lead you by any route to a copy of DECSS is illegal. Since there's no limit to the length of the chain, a site can never know if one of it's link might be the starting point of a path to DECSS. Hence to avoid legal attack, the only safe course is to link only to sites that are dead ends. Anything else and expect to hear from the MPAA's lawyers.