Summit: DMCA Blocks Tech Progress

wired news ^ | 2/18/03 | Katie Dean

[freepatriot32]

SANTA CLARA, California -- The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is threatening innovation in Silicon Valley, and it's time for businesses and consumers to mobilize to change the law.

That was the message at the Digital Rights Summit here on Wednesday. Intel hosted the event at its Santa Clara headquarters with Digitalconsumer.org, an organization dedicated to protecting consumers' fair-use rights with regard to digital media.

[ThinkDifferent]

Good article. The DMCA is far too unbalanced and needs to be revised. Kraus is actually too kind here:

"It's the over application of a law meant to prevent Internet piracy being used to prevent legitimate competition"

The DMCA was never meant to stop piracy (which is already illegal, note parallels to gun control); it was always intended to protect the business models of established players. The consequences are not at all unintended.

[Smogger]

Reverse engineering has always been protected by the courts and is the cornerstone of technological innovation.

No reverse engineering no innovation. You might as well go back to the horse and buggy. DMCA is a joke.

[shadowman99]

>>"ClearPlay creates filters that allow people to strip movies of gore, profanity and nudity. Multiple movie studios, the Directors Guild of America and 15 individual directors are suing ClearPlay for applying its technology to certain films"

I remember when DVDs first went on the market, one of the selling point was how movies could be pre screened and offensive content flagged so young family members would be able to watch a film that otherwise would be R or PG. It was a BS claim at the time, and now that somebody has made such a capability possible the MPAA is attempting to stop them.

If YOU want your kids to only see parts of YOUR DVDs why is it Jack Valenti's business?

[Windcatcher]

The gun control/gun rights issue is very pertinent here. The movie moguls and record companies have been pushing for controls on every digital device because you might commit piracy with them. Not "have", not "would", but "might". Just like HCI wants to take the guns away because you "might" commit a crime with them. The question is, are we willing to let our PC's, music players, video players, etc. be castrated, or are we willing to fight these people?

One other peron I didn't see in the article (I admit I skimmed it as this issue isn't new to me) is Sen. Hollings (D-SC). He's known as "Senator Disney" in tech circles because he'll do whatever they want, since they lavish campaign contributions on him every election. He's one of Valenti et. al.'s most powerful lackeys.