[iwar] Re: [iwar)Singers started whining, but software makers loose too

From: e.r. (fastflyer28@yahoo.com)
Date: 2002-02-17 22:00:49


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Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 22:00:49 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] Re: [iwar)Singers started whining, but software makers  loose too
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Both are concerns of Intellectual Property Rights.  And, the downside
is that it also impacts the software world.  We are skating on thinner
ice. A 1995 Law was passed by Congress that made it a crime if foreign
firms copied media but no royalties came back. In the US, it is up for
grabs. Lots of zero cost start up firms until that law was in place. 
Still a problems now as the US is the only country that wants IP
considered in trade talks.
 At present, the only way creators of IP-AKA-software creators- are
protected other then flimsy TM and copyrights law is through state law.
 Two T.I. scientists found out the hard way.  They were paid together
$5milllion over five years to write a complex and valuable program.
They were both given 15 years criminal time for downloading a great
deal of the program to one of their home PCs-no crime- but took home a
cd-rom on the same day that they left letters of resignation on their
desks. Their crime:  The theft of a highly valuable piece of software
that made the program function. Tangible matter such as screwdrivers,
socket wrenches, or a cd-rom  in this case BYTE!
We had this problem long before MP3s came along and Bon Jovi
nagged.What Fred noted below is just the next step in the law.
It is consumers v creators, but with software, who is the bad guy?
--- Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> wrote:
> Dan Gillmor: Entertainment industry's copyright fight puts consumers
> in cross hairs
> By Dan Gillmor
> Mercury News Technology Columnist
> 
> If the business people who rule the entertainment industry had been
> as
> powerful 25 years ago as they are today, you'd be breaking the law if
> you
> set your videocassette recorder to tape your favorite Olympic event
> for
> later viewing. The VCR, assuming the entertainment industry would
> have
> allowed a manufacturer to sell it, would not have a fast-forward
> button
> because it would let you skip through the commercials without viewing
> them.
> 
> As for tape recorders, you would not have been able to make a copy of
> the
> music you just bought so you could play it in your car.
> 
> If all this sounds fanciful, you should note the latest news from the
> copyright front. Hollywood has launched a new legal barrage against
> the
> makers of personal video recorders, while the record companies are
> getting
> ready to put copy protection on CDs.
> 
> Personal video recorders, also called PVRs, use computer hard disks
> to store
> your favorite shows. They let you search listings electronically and
> then
> set the devices to record programs based on your preferences, such as
> genres
> or the names of shows or even actors.
> 
> In its latest example of gross interference with the rights of
> average
> people, the big TV networks and Hollywood studios have sued several
> PVR
> companies, including SonicBlue, the Santa Clara-based company that
> makes the
> ReplayTV PVR. Replay is the most sophisticated of the current batch
> of such
> devices, but the lawsuit is ultimately aimed at all the PVR companies
> and
> their customers.
> 
> One of the new lawsuits is breathtaking in its arrogance. According
> to the
> Los Angeles Times, MGM's lawyers whine that the ability of ReplayTV
> customers to use the keyword function would ``cause substantial harm
> to the
> market for prerecorded DVD, videocassette and other copies of those
> episodes
> and films.'' To Hollywood, this is a massive bug in the system. To
> customers, it's a fabulous feature.
> 
> The studios and TV networks are also whining about the feature that
> lets
> users fast-forward through commercials or skip them entirely. The
> entertainment companies are understandably worried about this trend,
> but so
> what? My employer would like you to read the paper all the way
> through and
> at least glance at every advertisement, but the fact that you don't
> have to
> is one of the reader-friendly pieces of the transaction.
> 
> You may think Hollywood is overstepping with such tactics.
> Unfortunately,
> the industry and its allies, including those in the software
> business, are
> winning every legal battle they fight. They're winning because they
> wield
> the infamous 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, a law
> that
> gives producers of digital content nearly absolute control over how
> it can
> be used.
> 
> It's what the record companies used to stomp out Napster, and a key
> weapon
> in their new campaign to encrypt CDs or otherwise protect them
> against what
> they consider unauthorized copying. Never mind that Congress
> previously gave
> customers the explicit right to make personal copies of the music
> they'd
> purchased. If you buy one of these turkey CDs, take it back and
> demand a
> refund.
> 
> Give a hand to consumer-electronics manufacturer Philips
> (www.philips.com)
> for taking a stand on the side of customers. Philips, co-inventor of
> the CD,
> has called the copy-protected CDs what they are: dysfunctional goods.
> 
> Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., has asked the record
> companies
> just what they think they're doing with the copy-protected CDs, which
> may
> violate a law predating the DMCA. Boucher is one of an alarmingly few
> members of Congress who understands just how far the entertainment
> industry
> is willing to go in its greed.
> 
> Why should you care if you can't make a copy of a CD to play in your
> car?
> Because the industry's attack is much wider. Your rights are
> intertwined
> with scholarship, with the public commons of knowledge that the
> owners of
> information want to close off. The damage will be far-reaching if
> they
> succeed.
> 
> Dan Gillmor's column appears each Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday. 
> 



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