New Copyright Bill headed to DC (Democrat's Skylarov sequel)

Wired ^ | Sept 7, 2001 | Declan McCullagh

[Gladwin]

WASHINGTON -- Music and record industry lobbyists are quietly readying an all-out assault on Congress this fall in hopes of dramatically rewriting copyright laws. With the help of Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, they hope to embed copy-protection controls in nearly all consumer electronic devices and PCs. All types of digital content, including music, video and e-books, are covered.

[Gladwin]

5 years in prison and $500,000 fine is a little steep for pirating some mp3 music off the internet. Stop this Democrat Bill now!!!

[Bobalu]

Quite a few things would have to be made illegal in order to secure music and video files....

Linux
GPL
Cryptography
Old Video and audio recorders/players
Old Computers
High bandwidth net connections between private citizens
In fact even things like non-standard disk files and unregistered application programs would need to be made illegal.... programmers would have to submit source code to the gov for inspection... and all compilers would have to be licensed to an individual....and the list goes on and on...

Only a Joseph Stalin could (or would) manage to do all this...

Placing hardware protection into a general purpose computer is not possible... hollywood had total control over a single-purpose device (DVD) and was unable to make even that secure.... even if their crypto had been secure and >128 bit the video would still have been copied into divx format from the composite output.... any digital watermark scheme can be defeated.... and custom video codecs can be whipped up in a short time.... a computer would have to possess near human intelligence to figure out if a file contained a bootleg video sequence in a new codec.... and video and sound cards would have to have even greater intelligence to somehow (in real time) figure out that the content they were playing in an unknown codec without watermarking was bootleg... heck if Riaa-Mpaa can figure this out they are in the wrong business! they could make billions developing artificial intelligence software/hardware.

[Gladwin]

Common sense hasn't stopped the Democrats before. Why should it now? In fact, building Edison-style analog recorders from a do-it yourself kit would be illegal under this law. You know the one - it recorded sound on a wax cylinder. How would you make that compliant with this law?

[Paul C. Jesup]

I seriously doubt that Bush would sign such a Bill into law. Even if makes it to his desk, which I seriously doubt to begin with.

This Bill is basically the Hollywood and DemocRat Elites trying to tell everyone else what to do.

Bush knows this and he is not in their pocket. He practically snubbed them last week (rememeber the White House Dinner Newstory where they only invited the Fox News Reporter).

Also, two another things that Bush certainly realizes.

First, if this Bill becomes law, it would literally KILL the US Economy. Which would destroy Bush's dreams of being a Two Term President.

Second, this Bill, even if it does not become law, is going to PISS-OFF nearly every personal computer user and the nearly every Computer Company in the US. Mark my word, this Bill will come back to haunt the Hollywood and DemocRat Elites who support it.

Paul C. Jesup

[Mo1]

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[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

Look, we really shouldn't label this just a Democrat bill. There are too many Republicans who will support this on the mistaken notion that they are being "pro-capitalist, pro-free market". Remember, the DMCA is law, and it was passed by a GOP controlled Congress, which so far has not rescinded any of the more eggregious provisions of this law. The DMCA effectively guts fair use by making the tools of fair use illegal. It also effectively destroys the long established practice of reverse engineering, without which we would not today enjoy cheap, interchangeable PC hardware.

Too many people are standing around hoping that a court will overturn the DMCA. If the GOP had any guts, they would admit their mistake and repeal the DMCA. Yes, Clinton and the Dems are effectively joined at the hip with Hollywood and the recording industry, but the GOP has shown itself willing to go along with the Dems and Hollywood in stealing our rights away. Don't think this can't be done: hackers may find ways to break this stuff, but the RIAA, MPAA, and the rest are more than happy to throw lawyers at people and throw people in jail for doing what has been a lawful, recognized right for centuries: reverse enginneering a product to see how it works.

Just because something is technically feasible does not mean it will be done, if enough people are jailed or financially ruined. At best, this will screw up our information economy enough to put large hidden costs into the economy soley for the private benefit of the movie and music cartels. At worst....well, better not to speculate on worst case scenarios.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Give it some time. It is very likely the this current Anti-Computer-Freedom may backfire on its supporters. Also, it would give perfect ammunition for getting rid of DMCA.

Paul C. Jesup

[Gladwin]

Bush doesn't care about copyright law. He will sign it if that means he can get votes for his priorities. This is nothing against Bush and his team, but the computer industry is not among his support groups. So, any plea their lobby makes will fall on deaf ears.

[Gladwin]

Are the courts going to overturn the DMCA? I don't know enough about the law and the courts. It would be better if the DMCA was repealed by Congress, but that doesn't happen very often. Can you think of a law that was repealed in the last 20 years? The only thing I can think of are tax laws, but that is a shell game anyway.

This is a Democratic bill, even if they peel off a couple of Republicans to pass it. Bush would sign it, too, - the computer industry is not his lobbying group.

[Paul C. Jesup]

You two did not read what I said.

I said that it would be in Bush's best political interest to be against this Bill, because it would tank the US Economy.

Also, even though the computer industries are not part of Bush's supporters. Judging from his recent actions; Deciding NOT to break up MicroSoft and SNUBBING the Hollywood Elite. I seriously doubt he will support this Bill.

Also, an interesting note, over half the families in the US own computers. Only political idiots would support a Bill that would turn over half the US of the population against them.

Paul C. Jesup

[HiTech RedNeck]

I hope, too, that Bush would tend to be in favor of a "free enterprise" solution to the piracy challenges the publishers face. Rather than jackboot-force snoopy Big Brother design requirements upon all new software and hardware (even given that pre-existing software and hardware is grandfathered), publishers should work harder to make their protection systems as crackproof and as traceable as free enterprise technology permits, and as necessary (considering public relations factors) continue to pursue piracy cases in court.

[Paul C. Jesup]

This thread is NOT about piracy. This thread is about the Hollywood and DemocRat Elite using piracy as an excuse to further enslave the masses.

Paul C. Jesup

[steve-b]

If the Republicans weren't the Stupid Party, repeal of the DMCA would be the perfect payback for Hollyweird's support of the DemocRats.