INDUCE act redux
Ok, folks, i've had enough...Congress and "The Senator from Disney" are working hard to take away our TiVos and Fair Use rights for just about anything media related.
For those not in the know, the INDUCE act contained language that would have made it a crime to transmit any type of media by any electronic means that would make it *possible* for someone to potentially, maybe, if they wanted to use it or make a copy of it without that right being explicitly assigned by the rights holder. I'll give you a hypothetical: i have a wireless network and i (well, not yet) have an AirTunes adapter that allows me to broadcast my iTunes library from one end of my apartment to the other without wires. If my neighbor happened to have an AirTunes adapter and could pick up that signal and listen to my music as well, I could go to jail and suffer criminal penalties for exercising my fair use rights. Ridiculous? Yes.
This is what happens when suits get in to technology. Kinda like the mess that marketing makes of just about anything technology related, except with these guys people end up in jail.
Here's the latest move by Hatch et al to erode our rights and make the government pick up the tab for enforcement of private property rights:
http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/026477.php
They want to make it a CRIME to skip commercials, to record programs without consent, to share music with friends (yes, even one).
"offering for distribution" and "making available" would now be a crime with newly increased penalties (like $150,000 per song). INDUCE was gunned down for this term, but someone must have one hell of a line in to a few senators because this was placed up for consideration this weekend. It's evil...all of it...and I don't think we in the tech community have been effective at rallying together on these kinds of serious abuses of power.
admittedly an excitable source if you're looking for more:
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/10/08/2030232.shtml?tid=103&tid=17
For those not in the know, the INDUCE act contained language that would have made it a crime to transmit any type of media by any electronic means that would make it *possible* for someone to potentially, maybe, if they wanted to use it or make a copy of it without that right being explicitly assigned by the rights holder. I'll give you a hypothetical: i have a wireless network and i (well, not yet) have an AirTunes adapter that allows me to broadcast my iTunes library from one end of my apartment to the other without wires. If my neighbor happened to have an AirTunes adapter and could pick up that signal and listen to my music as well, I could go to jail and suffer criminal penalties for exercising my fair use rights. Ridiculous? Yes.
This is what happens when suits get in to technology. Kinda like the mess that marketing makes of just about anything technology related, except with these guys people end up in jail.
Here's the latest move by Hatch et al to erode our rights and make the government pick up the tab for enforcement of private property rights:
http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/026477.php
They want to make it a CRIME to skip commercials, to record programs without consent, to share music with friends (yes, even one).
"offering for distribution" and "making available" would now be a crime with newly increased penalties (like $150,000 per song). INDUCE was gunned down for this term, but someone must have one hell of a line in to a few senators because this was placed up for consideration this weekend. It's evil...all of it...and I don't think we in the tech community have been effective at rallying together on these kinds of serious abuses of power.
admittedly an excitable source if you're looking for more:
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/10/08/2030232.shtml?tid=103&tid=17