TetsuoShima Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 This Bill is one that should be of interest to anyone that has had a belly full of the RIAA and the MPAA, with their continuing attempts to bury our right to Fair Use. The problem is, since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA, it's illegal to circumvent copy control measures placed upon our purchases by the content providers. When this bill was passed, it was bad enough then, but now, it has become an ever increasing annoyance, due to advancements in consumer electronic devices and new innovative ways of enjoying our content. It effectively trumps Fair Use, it also has a chilling effect on innovation for hardware and software advances for the future. The EFF has posted an informative web page on the H.R. 1201 bill (or the DMCRA- Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act) introduced on March 9, 2005 and has since been referred to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, that speaks to this important consumer issue. Basically, this is an "Anti-DMCA" proposal that would pull the teeth out of DMCA in the respect of restoring Fair Use. You would have to be living under a rock if you don't see that more and more measures are being dreamed up by some very talented people, to make it harder for us to backup or utilize our purchases in the ways that todays society demands and desires. These are very sophisticated techniques that make todays weak measures such as Macrovision or Content-Scrambling System (CSS) look silly. Also, it's becoming very clear, that these so-called anti-piracy measures are merely a vehicle for content providers to start charging us to perform such actions as time shifting or ripping and has little to do with lost profits. It is more about enhancing profits and emptying your wallets in new ways. It's all about control of your actions with purchased products once you get them home. Without the laws to back them up though, to make it illegal to bypass such measures, they are pretty worthless as they can all be defeated most likely. So the lobbying is intense as there is a lot of money at stake. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been wreaking havoc on consumers' fair use rights for the past seven years. Now Congress is considering the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA, HR 1201), a bill that would reform part of the DMCA and formally protect the "Betamax defense" relied on by so many innovators. HR 1201 would give citizens the right to circumvent copy-protection measures as long as what they're doing is otherwise legal. For example, it would make sure that when you buy a CD, whether it is copy-protected or not, you can record it onto your computer and move the songs to an MP3 player. It would also protect a computer science professor who needs to bypass copy-protection to evaluate encryption technology. In addition, the bill would codify the Betamax defense, which has been under attack by the entertainment industries in the "INDUCE Act" and the MGM v. Grokster case. This kind of sanity would be a welcome change to our copyright law. Last year we sent 30,000+ letters of support for the DMCRA, and the bill got a hearing on Capitol Hill. It's time to double that number - take action at the link below, then urge your friends and family to support HR 1201, too! Text of HR 1201 On the EFF web page linked below, you may quickly and easily fill out a form that will be sent to your Representative and hopefully, this will have an impact for those of us that would like to see our legal right to Fair Use regained. It is about time that the content providers stopped turning us into criminals just because we enjoy the use of cutting edge consumer electronics devices, such as an iPod for our music or media centers for our movies. We should not have to purchase a copy of content for each device we own and we should be able to have our content available for use in the way that best suits our lifestyle. If you feel this way, then we urge you to take a few minutes and fill out this form. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magestorm Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I normally don't do these. However, this one is important, not only for now, but for the future. So I signed on for this one, and urge others to do the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Same here. I don't have much faith in the American legal system...but it's worth a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VonHelton Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 This is wishful thinking....... If Philips, who have the money & resources, can't win, no one can. ......It's Orwell's 1984, and we either have to be covert, or accept defeat. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USWhoFan Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Thanks TetsuoShima for the information! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
str82u Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 Thanks, those are important. Remember when Enterprise was on the chopping block last time? I did one of these and got a letter from my congressman who said he watched the show also and couldn't do much about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyran Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 Thanks, those are important. Remember when Enterprise was on the chopping block last time? I did one of these and got a letter from my congressman who said he watched the show also and couldn't do much about it. which proves that he read it don't it you got a good rep there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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