Possible new copyright law

obie · Nov 16, 2004

This new proposed law is fascinating in how much it gives to the media companies in exchange for... well, for nothing, really.

The bill lumps together several pending copyright bills including HR4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, which would criminally punish a person who "infringes a copyright by ... offering for distribution to the public by electronic means, with reckless disregard of the risk of further infringement." Critics charge the vague language could apply to a person who uses the popular Apple iTunes music-sharing application.
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In other words, over a century of "fair use" rules would be gutted by this. If you copy a cd for a friend for free, the possibility that your friend might sell hundreds of other copies makes you liable for copyright infringement violations.

The bill would also permit people to use technology to skip objectionable content -- like a gory or sexually explicit scene -- in films, a right that consumers already have. However, under the proposed law, skipping any commercials or promotional announcements would be prohibited.
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Honey, don't use that fast-forward button on the VCR -- the feds are watching us!

Hollywood's involvement has even irked the American Conservative Union, which holds considerable sway with conservative Republicans in Congress. The ACU plans a major print ad campaign this week to oppose the bill, mainly because some provisions would require the Justice Department to file civil copyright lawsuits on behalf of the entertainment industry.
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It's nice to see that Congress is so concerned with terrorists -- you know, those file-sharing terrorists on Kazaa -- that they want to make the DOJ file civil suits on the media's behalf. This is what we pay our government for, to be the free lawyer for private industry?

I'm all for protecting artists' rights, and things like copying cd's and dvd's for resale are illegal already. But a law that prohibits the 30-second skip feature on ReplayTV and Tivo? The DOJ being required to use its lawyers to help Hollywood sue file sharers? I'm dying to hear anybody defend this bill from either side as a good use of our government's time.

eneste · Nov 16, 2004

It's amusing watching the government scramble in defense of the entertainment content industry. Without stringent regulation of the internet, and even that is debatable, they are fighting a battle that they are destined to lose terribly. It kind of makes sense for the government to intervene in the sense that they are trying to bail out a lucrative industry that might lose it's shirt due to its own reluctance to innovate and failure to see the future of technology. They have done it before in other industries.

Without Orwellian measures, which we are sort of seeing being introduced as potential law (INDUCE act), there is really very little that can stem the tide. Music, movies, television, etc. will be, hell they are right now, free to the populous to propagate at negligible cost and hardly any time delay. It's going to be a really interesting saga to watch unfold. Industry benefit vs. the Greater Good but this time the Greater Good really holds the best cards.