torrentprime
09-13-2004, 10:23 PM
Hey all--serious issue for this year, threatening pretty much every piece of technology we all use every day.
Our wonderful senators are considering a industry-sponsored bill which will, in essence, override the Betamax decision. This was the Supreme Court decision where VCRs were found not to be illegal, since they had substantial legal uses as well as potentially illegal ones. Without this decision, VCRs would have been removed from the market. Not too foresighted of the MPAA, etc., since home video turned out to be a massive revenue stream, but just as they sued to stop the first MP3 player, DVD-backup software, etc. in recent years, they are now trying to get a law through Congress which will allow producers/manufacturers of technology to be held sued if their product or technology is even CAPABLE of violating copyright.
iPods, scanners, CD/DVD burners, even modems and fax machines can all be found to 'induce' copyright violation and therefore could have been found liable. Also, it creates a civil action and not criminal, which lowers the standard for liability, allows more liberal discovery, etc., all of which can bury any new technology or technology-maker in lawsuits before anything is ever made or shipped. Essentially, if this was law 20 years ago, we never would have had a VCR.
Bad, bad, bad... This matters, as passing and signing this bill can stifle innovation for a very, very long time. The list of technologies that it will effectively ban is staggering.
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1549
What will happen of course is that recording and movie industries will be able to pick, choose, and control what new technologies are developed. The DMCA was bad enough; this will make things even worse. For those of you in California, please email or call Senator Boxer, as she is sponsoring this crazy bill.
Opponents include Yahoo!, Ebay and Google.
Check it out:
http://www.savebetamax.org/
Our wonderful senators are considering a industry-sponsored bill which will, in essence, override the Betamax decision. This was the Supreme Court decision where VCRs were found not to be illegal, since they had substantial legal uses as well as potentially illegal ones. Without this decision, VCRs would have been removed from the market. Not too foresighted of the MPAA, etc., since home video turned out to be a massive revenue stream, but just as they sued to stop the first MP3 player, DVD-backup software, etc. in recent years, they are now trying to get a law through Congress which will allow producers/manufacturers of technology to be held sued if their product or technology is even CAPABLE of violating copyright.
iPods, scanners, CD/DVD burners, even modems and fax machines can all be found to 'induce' copyright violation and therefore could have been found liable. Also, it creates a civil action and not criminal, which lowers the standard for liability, allows more liberal discovery, etc., all of which can bury any new technology or technology-maker in lawsuits before anything is ever made or shipped. Essentially, if this was law 20 years ago, we never would have had a VCR.
Bad, bad, bad... This matters, as passing and signing this bill can stifle innovation for a very, very long time. The list of technologies that it will effectively ban is staggering.
http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1549
What will happen of course is that recording and movie industries will be able to pick, choose, and control what new technologies are developed. The DMCA was bad enough; this will make things even worse. For those of you in California, please email or call Senator Boxer, as she is sponsoring this crazy bill.
Opponents include Yahoo!, Ebay and Google.
Check it out:
http://www.savebetamax.org/