Posted on 03/28/2002 7:15:34 PM PST by steve-b
March 27, 2002
Promote Consumer Use of Broadband and Prevent Digital Piracy!
Dear Colleague
I invite you to join me in supporting legislation that would encourage demand for broadband Internet service and protect creative enterprise from the threat of digital piracy.
The promise of the Internet has not been fully met. While consumers have unprecedented access to information resources on the web, there is still a demand for more. Congress has recently debated ways to better serve our constituents by improving access to broadband Internet service, yet the demand for this technology is severely lacking. This is simply because consumers can't get what they want -- high quality digital content like movies, music, and video games.
The reason for this has become very clear. Our nation's creative enterprises have been hesitant to offer their products over the Internet out of fear of piracy -- intellectual theft. And their concerns are justified. The movie studios estimate that they lose over $3 billion annually to piracy, yet private industry has stalled in developing technology to prevent this illegal activity.
I would like to direct your attention to the following op-ed written by Michael Eisner, Chairman and CEO of Disney. Mr. Eisner points out the profound historical significance of intellectual property rights and draws on one early and aggressive advocate of protecting such property rights, the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
I plan to introduce legislation that would safeguard digital content by spurring the rapid development of copyright protection technology. Similar legislation, S. 2048, has been introduced in the Senate by Senators Hollings, Stevens, Inouye, Breaux, Nelson and Feinstein. I believe this is a necessary step and I encourage you to join me in this effort.
If you have any questions or would like to become an original cosponsor, please contact me or Jen Briggs of my staff at 5-4176.
Sincerely,
Adam B. Schiff
Member of Congress
The criminals in the district have hated and feared the power computers give average people to communicate and route around their censorship since they first realized how dangerous it was to them. This is but one shot on this front. They already have a lot of the rest of it in place, (see the 'patriot act', the DMCA, and other freedom killing acts).
If I am parsing this sentence correctly, Rep. Schiff is saying that Congress is hard at work trying to give people something they don't particularly want.
This is simply because consumers can't get what they want -- high quality digital content like movies, music, and video games.
Geez, the media President Bush the Elder because he allegedly didn't know about electronic checkout scanners. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the gibes at the congressman who never heard of Blockbuster, Tower Records, or Microsoft.
Congress has recently debated ways to better serve our constituents by improving access to broadband Internet service, yet the demand for this technology is severely lacking.
If I am parsing this sentence correctly, Rep. Schiff is saying that Congress is hard at work trying to give people something they don't particularly want.
This is simply because consumers can't get what they want -- high quality digital content like movies, music, and video games.
Geez, the media roasted President Bush the Elder because he allegedly didn't know about electronic checkout scanners. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the gibes at the congressman who never heard of Blockbuster, Tower Records, or Microsoft.
Yes there is, but you obviously don't have the perversely thuggish streak necessary to envision a world like that. No jackboots for you, sorry ;)
True, but there are more rational ways to combat copyright infringement.
Such as... oh, I dunno... punish the people who commit it and leave the rest of us the hell alone?
I read an essay about this practice of punishing people because they may do something wrong. It talked about a new law requiring everyone with a penis to be monitored and pay a tax to help rape victims because everyone with a penis is a potential rapist.
Everyone with a PC is a potential copyright infringer.
To make this worse, in my ignorance in the past I didn't know there was a large levy on blank recordable media such as CD-Rs, cassettes and minidiscs where I am, plus the CD burners themselves. Those hundreds of CDs I purchased to put backups, data, family video, etc., on included payment to the entertainment industries because I could have used the media for copyright infringement.
I figure I've paid for the product. Time to start "infringing" to actually get the product.
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