...and think it's the greatest

...and think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, you might want to know that the RIAA and the MPAA are still trying to cram that worthless piece o' legislation---the
Internet Property Protection Act---through the lame duck congress. Why,
are they trying to push it through now, you ask? Well, Orrin Hatch, the
distinguished gentleman from freakin' Utah and a champion of this bill,
is losing his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to Arlen Specter,
who has very different views about this sort of thing.

The Senate might vote on HR2391, the Intellectual
Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge
could make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players
and other products criminally liable for copyright infringement. The
bill would also undo centuries of "fair use" -- the principle that
gives Americans the right to use small samples of the works of others
without having to ask permission or pay.
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. 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
language, viewers would not be allowed to use software or devices to
skip commericals or promotional announcements "that would otherwise be
performed or displayed before, during or after the performance of the
motion picture," like the previews on a DVD. The proposed law also
includes language from the Pirate Act (S2237), which would permit the
Justice Department to file civil lawsuits against alleged copyright
infringers.

Worrisome.
The basic gist of this whole thing: everything we, the technology
users, hold near and dear to our hearts is on the chopping block. As I
understand it, Bloggers could be screwed: no more excerpts of articles
because it would violate fair use. That little bit up there that I
excerpted from the Wired
article wouldn't be there if this bill is passed and signed. Anything
you would purchase on ITunes would be copyright infringement, even
though you legally purchased it, simply because it's a file sharing
service. And for the Tivo users, no more skipping through the commercials.
While I don't own a Tivo, I find the notion that the MPAA and the RIAA
(not my favorite organization)are throwing their entire arsenal to get
this thing passed revolting. Why they don't see they're fighting a
losing battle, I haven't the foggiest. Piracy cuts into their profits,
I know, but damn!
Why don't they realize that the reason this hurts so much is because
their business models suck? They're monoliths. Dinosaurs. They have no
clue. They believe it's more productive in the long run to lobby
congress to ram through Draconian legislation banning this sort of
behavior, rather than being clever and adopting it into their business.
It's not going to work. People will come up with a way around these
laws, like they always do. Enterprising individuals will come up with
hacks for Tivos that will enable the user to skip through the
commercials. I can already get a hack for my DVD player that will make
it region-free, enabling me to work around the movie industry's
worldwide regulation that decrees I can only watch Michael Mann's shitty expanded edition of Last of the Mohicans rather
than the theatrical version that's out in the UK and Australia, why
should Tivo be any different in this regard? The minute this
legislation goes through, I can guarantee you someone, somewhere, will
suss out a way around it. Nothing's foolproof, after all. Look at the
recent history of file-sharing for some clues as to what will happen
with Tivos. The RIAA and the MPAA cracked down on services like Napster
and the Gnutella network, which has enabled the joy (and I really mean
that) that is Bit Torrent, which is virtually impossible to crack. It's not going to work.

For every move the MPAA and RIAA make, the hackers make a countermove that essentially nullifies it. The information wants to be free.
As I see it, it's a losing battle for the MPAA and RIAA: throwing gobs
of money at the problem only makes the lawyers rich. If they were
smart, they'd rework their system entirely and try to figure out
something new. Alas, however, they won't because they're too stupid to
realize they don't have control of the game anymore. The consumer does.
And alienating the people who pay your bills is not a good long-term
strategy, capisce? {h/t: Techdirt}

Posted by Kathy at November 1, 2004 11:03 AM | TrackBack