Surefire Way To Stifle Innovation 350
denissmith writes "C|NET has a very funny piece by Patrick Ross, where he pooh-pooh's Congressman Rick Boucher's (D-VA) efforts to protect Fair Use by claiming that it will stifle innovation." From the article: "If HR-1201 becomes law, every consumer could legally hack any TPM by claiming fair use, and as fair use isn't codified, there would be as many definitions of it as there are consumers. Consumers would be legally sanctioned to break their contracts with the content provider. No sane business operator enters a contract in which one party has the right to disregard its terms at will, but that's what HR-1201 permits. That hated TPM would disappear from the market, as there's no reason to employ a lock if everyone has a legal right to the key. But as TPM leaves, so do the digital offerings that come with it."
Re:Surest Way To Stifle Innovation (Score:2, Informative)
Rebuttal (Score:5, Informative)
I am notnthis person, and as far as I know, the original poster owns all copyright. I claim nothing. It is a good rebuttal.
Who let this hack post on CNet?
Posted by: Billy Herman
Posted on: October 6, 2005, 8:33 AM PDT
Story: Here's a surefire way to stifle innovation
While the PFF is generally an awful source for awful, pro-
industry rhetoric, this article slips to a new low.
First and foremost, Ross simply doesn't understand the legal
issues that are at stake. "Fair use isn't codified?" Try 17 USC 107.
It may not be cut-and-dried, but it's in the book.
Second, all of his rhetoric that TPMs are being developed in a
way that will stop harming consumers doesn't answer Boucher's
deeper issues with fair use. Even if we enter TPM utopia, where I
can buy locked-down media in my choice of TPM-laden format,
I'm still denied important rights of free speech. It's still illegal for
me to hack a DVD in order to make a 15 second clip of it for a
media criticism documentary. As a Ph.D. candidate in
communication, I can assure you that this is stifling innovative
forms of doing media studies, and that's just my corner of the
very large TPM-handicapped world.
Third, HR 1201 would neither uniquely lead to nor permit wide
scale, wholesale infringement. The last section insists that fair
use would stand as a defense to the section and that the Sony
standard, "substantial noninfringing uses," should guide which
tools can be marketed. This means it's still illegal for me to hack
rented DVDs to create my own library, to distribute software
serial numbers online, or to sell "black box" devices that are
designed primarily to help me commit infringements.
Additionally, Ross provides no response to the obvious fact that
all of these things are already happening despite the DMCA;
clearly, the law under the status quo isn't slowing down the
willful infringers.
What does the bill permit? The same things we were allowed to
do in the analog era: home recording of music for personal use
(e.g., mix CDs), fair use quotations of encrypted media, and
reverse engineering out of mere curiosity (subject to EULA).
As a fourth bit of shoddy quasi-journalism, Ross is totally
unresponsive to concerns about fair labeling. In ANARCHIST IN
THE LIBRARY, Siva V tells a terrifying story about a customer who
unknowingly bought a TPM-laden CD. When he found out it
wouldn't play on his home player, he wrote the record company.
Not only did they not fix his problem, they wrote a letter
assuring him that they were hell bent on releasing all CDs in
protected formats and that there's nothing he can do about it.
Does this sound like a fair business practice? HR 1201 requires
full disclosure of TPM restrictions so that customers can make
informed choices.
Fifth, Ross confidently cites the Register of Copyrights, Marybeth
Peters, in her conclusion that there's generally no problem here.
Ross commits a radical misquotation. Peters insists that the
statute is riddled with problems that handicap her ability to
preserve fair use through the exemption proceedings. She
explicitly states that important uses such as library archiving are
left out in the cold. She expresses deep reservations about the
statute's inability to effect the intended dichotomy between
access-controlling and use-controlling TPMs The former is
intended to make sure that people pay for their stuff, and it is
illegal to hack them. The latter is an inconvenience to the paying
customer, but users may hack them without breaking the law.
Unfortunately, a lot of TPMs control access but function
primarily as use controls; the DVD encryption scheme (CSS) is
the paradigm example, but there are many. In the final rulings,
Peters expressed her inability to solve this "dual-purpose"
problem. On these and other issues, Peters explicitly encourages
No disclosure of who paid for this article? (Score:4, Informative)
Business Software Alliance
Disney
MGM
Microsoft
NBC Universal
Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
Time Warner
Vivendi
Re:Surest Way To Stifle Innovation (Score:5, Informative)
Which is really just a new meta-term for DRM (Digital Rights Management). Don't you just love TLAs? Just be glad you're not in the USN (US Navy) or other GMB (Government Military Branch). They love their acronyms.
Great legislation! (Score:5, Informative)
H. R. 1201
To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to provide that the advertising or sale of a mislabeled copy-protected music disc is an unfair method of competition and an unfair and deceptive act or practice, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 9, 2005
Mr. BOUCHER (for himself, Mr. DOOLITTLE, and Mr. BARTON of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to provide that the advertising or sale of a mislabeled copy-protected music disc is an unfair method of competition and an unfair and deceptive act or practice, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2005'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The limited introduction into commerce of `copy-protected compact discs' has caused consumer confusion and placed increased, unwarranted burdens on retailers, consumer electronics manufacturers, and personal computer manufacturers responding to consumer complaints, conditions which will worsen as larger numbers of such discs are introduced into commerce.
(2) Recording companies introducing new forms of copy protection should have the freedom to innovate, but should also be responsible for providing adequate notice to consumers about restrictions on the playability and recordability of `copy-protected compact discs'.
(3) The Federal Trade Commission should be empowered and directed to ensure the adequate labeling of prerecorded digital music disc products.
SEC. 3. INADEQUATELY LABELED COPY-PROTECTED COMPACT DISCS.
The Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 24 the following new section:
SEC. 24A. INADEQUATELY LABELED COPY-PROTECTED COMPACT DISCS.
(a) Definitions- In this section:
(1) The term `Commission' means the Federal Trade Commission.
(2) The term `audio compact disc' means a substrate packaged as a commercial prerecorded audio product, containing a sound recording or recordings, that conforms to all specifications and requirements for Red Book Audio and bears a duly licensed and authorized `Compact disc Digital Audio' logo.
(3) The term `prerecorded digital music disc product' means a commercial audio product comprised of a substrate in the form of a disc in which is recorded a sound recording or sound recordings generally in accordance with Red Book Audio specifications but that does not conform to all licensed requirements for Red Book Audio: Provided, That a substrate containing a prerecorded sound recording that conforms to the licensing requirements applicable to a DVD-Audio disc or a Super Audio Compact Disc is not a prerecorded digital music disc product.
(4) The term `Red Book Audio' means audio data digitized at 44,100 samples per second (44.1 kHz) with a range of 65,536 possible values as defined in the `Compact Disc-Digital Audio System Description' (first published in 1980 by Philips N.V. and Sony Corporation, as updated from time to time).
(b) Prohibited Acts-
(1) The introduction into commerce, sale, offering for sale, or advertising for sale of a prerecorded digital music disc product which is mislabeled or falsely or d
Fair Use is Codified (Score:5, Informative)
The Federal Home Recording Act is more empowering since it allows complete copies for purposes of making backups and porting to different media. The only gray area there is the simultaneous use of your copies such as listening to an album legally copied to your MP3 player while a family member listens to the same CD at home.
Re:Sorry buddy but show some proof (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.pff.org/about/supporters.html [pff.org]
Re:Surest Way To Stifle Innovation (Score:5, Informative)
Progress & Freedom Foundation "Supporters" (Score:5, Informative)
- Clear Channel
- MGM
- Sony Music Entertainment
- Time Warner
- VIACOM
- Vivendi
Patrick Ross is nothing but a whore turning tricks for his pimps.
Re:Surest Way To Stifle Innovation (Score:3, Informative)
I thought it was Toilet Paper Malfunction.
Wrong (Score:3, Informative)
Yeaaaaah right. (Score:4, Informative)
Suuuuure. Yet, half the products I buy have a licensing agreement that not only tells me I don't actually own the product, but that the "licensing company" has the rights to revoke my rights at any time they please.
So what the original post really means to me is, that no sane Business would accept a contract like that, but hell, every consumer already has to.
Re:Surest Way To Stifle Innovation (Score:3, Informative)
No, I think you had it right the first time :)
The Amish (Score:4, Informative)
That's not really true. In fact, visit any amish community today, and you shouldn't be too surprised if you see an old woman on a handmade rocking chair talking on a cell phone, for example. Amish use electric lights, and even computers at times.
The Amish don't outright reject electricty, and they don't outright reject technology. Unlike us ("the English", to them), however, they don't automatically accept any new technology, either. The more liberal members of the amish community start using new technologies when they come out. The effects of the technology are looked at - if the people who use the technology start spending less time bonding with their families and communities, or other "social ills" start to come of the technology, then Amish leaders reject the technology, and those who use it are discouraged from doing so. This is why home telephones are not allowed (people chat on the phone instead of with their families and neighbors), but the most modern gas grills are allowed (cookouts bring communities together). The amish also like to be more technologically independent (for example, they prefer heat-powered devices over electric powered, even if it's propane heat, and manually haul the propane; they could always switch to other heat sources), but technological independence isn't the prime driving factor.
Often, compromises (for example, allowed at work, not allowed at home) are made. Work generally tends to be higher tech, as they need to remain competitive with "the English". Cell phones seem to be moving in that direction. Unlike regular phones, however, cell phones may prove more problematic for the amish - while the whole community could see phone lines heading to the house of a family that used a regular phone, cell phones are "hidden", and thus they don't have as much social pressure on home cell phone users.
Re:Confused (Score:2, Informative)
First off, we have the ElcomSoft case mentioned here at slashdot [slashdot.org]. More recently, there was the Cisco security issue that earned the research a lawsuit that was also written about here [slashdot.org].
And, yes there have been articles about security researchers refusing to travel to US conferences because of these issues. Although if you try searching, you will find articles about the impact that the Patriot Act and 'no fly' lists have on science conferences are dominant.
Cheers