Bill Would Allow Copying of Music, Movies

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,108578,tk,dn010803X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article...n010803X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>All hail the DMCR! What's that you might ask? It's a new bill that might actually allow you to use the music and videos you paid for in whatever way you wish (as long as it's for personal use). But will this bill come to pass in the US? I have my doubts - I think the RIAA will gather their army of lawyers together and send them to Congress in a mad rush of paperwork and jabbber jowls. It will get ugly.<br /><br />"The Digital Media Consumer Rights Acts, reintroduced Tuesday by Representative Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and three other lawmakers, would trump the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anticircumvention provisions, allowing consumers to break copy controls in order to do such things as make personal copies of songs or movies from discs they already own. If the consumer's action has a substantial legitimate use, it falls under the fair use rights protected in the Boucher bill, instead of constituting a copyright violation, Boucher said."<br /><br />(as a side note, I think I'm using Microsoft products too much lately - when I saw the title of that article, I thought "Bill" was referring to Bill Gates :lol: )

[T-Will]

(as a side note, I think I'm using Microsoft products too much lately - when I saw the title of that article, I thought "Bill" was referring to Bill Gates :lol: )

LOL! :D Same here...

[Bandito]

I hate to say it, but me too :roll:

[bikeman]

Me three! :D I was expecting something about one of MS new media products! On a serious note, any thought to starting a grassroots email campaign in support of this? I have seen those before with a form letter in support of legislation, where you select your state and it is automatically routed to your Senators and Congressmen. I don't know how to do that, but I am sure some Thoughts reader (or moderator) must know.

[T-Will]

That's pretty sad that we would even think that Bill Gates controls what music or movies we copy... :roll:

[Hyperluminal]

Me too. :)

That bill certainly does sound nice; it's certainly refreshing after all of these other bills, especially the one that would actually put a chip in all consumer hardware to prevent copying...

[jet8810]

LOL...me too! I thought it was bill gates hehe...:).

Anyway, I fully support this Bill!

[Thefo]

(as a side note, I think I'm using Microsoft products too much lately - when I saw the title of that article, I thought "Bill" was referring to Bill Gates )

Wow, this getting scary....me too 8O

[R K]

I think the RIAA will gather their army of lawyers together and send them to Congress in a mad rush of paperwork and jabbber jowls. It will get ugly.

That means we need to get together an army of supporters for this bill to outnumber their army of lawyers. Who knows, we just might make democracy work this time!

[Rirath]

Me as well with Bill. :oops: Wishful thinking someone that powerful on the side of the consumer perhaps?

Ack... post 666 just has to be about Bill. >_&lt; (All the old Bill = evil stuff)

[Janak Parekh]

FYI, Rick Boucher is one of the congresspeople who "gets it". Check out this Slashdot interview (http://slashdot.org/interviews/01/03/27/1432221.shtml) of the man. Worthwhile reading IMHO. Unfortunately, as Jason says, most of Congress is in the (RI|MP)AA's pocket...

--janak

[Duncan]

Philips (the company) may well turn out to be unlikely heroes in the fight against the DMCA (and the equivalent EU Act that is being introduced). I understand that, as owners of the 'Compact Disc' copyright (and creators of the 'red book'), they are suing a record company (BMG I think) for using the CD logo on a 'copy protected' disc - as the disc vilates the red book standard.

Small victories are what is needed - chipping away at these unjust acts and increasing the awareness of the general public. Eventually the AOL Time Warners of this world will have to chnage things - DCMA or not!

BTW - didn't Bill Gates recently express support for one of the peer-to-peer file swapping networks...?

[st63z]

FYI, Rick Boucher is one of the congresspeople who "gets it". Check out this Slashdot interview (http://slashdot.org/interviews/01/03/27/1432221.shtml) of the man. Worthwhile reading IMHO. Unfortunately, as Jason says, most of Congress is in the (RI|MP)AA's pocket...

--janak

As I recall from a few months back before the session break, there were like two different pro-consumer Congressional proposals in the air, this one from Boucher and another from some female Representative I think. Did they merge the two, anyone knows?

[st63z]

Wishful thinking someone that powerful on the side of the consumer perhaps?


Did I hear someone mention Nader? Those pesky Naderites and Geshels...

(finally finished Eon)

[Jonathan1]

*sighs* Me as well. Of course Bill probably doesn't care either way. At any rate this bill will be dead before it makes it to the house anyways. Big business rules supreme in the US and common sense doesn't. :(

[KevinK]

Oh my gosh - I did the same thing. THis is sad, how much influence one man has over our minds!

-Kevin

[ECOslin]

I might enjoy a Bill like that. Though there's not time enough in the world for me to make my own edits to correct all the various crappy movies I'd like to change.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Well Bill Gates certainly IS more powerful than any specific individual involved...

You know, I'm not one to vote very often (uhhh... maybe not at all...), but I'd be willing to round up all of my friends / family / coworkers / neighbors / acquaintences / gardeners / city workers / strangers / pan-handlers / etc. I could find to get this bill through...

[Kati Compton]

Unfortunately, we the voters don't always have the same influence over our representatives as the corporate donors.

[kagayaki1]

Uh oh, I thought it was about Bill Gates also...

[The Big Jay]

I think the RIAA will gather their army of lawyers together and send them to Congress in a mad rush of paperwork and jabbber jowls. It will get ugly.

That means we need to get together an army of supporters for this bill to outnumber their army of lawyers. Who knows, we just might make democracy work this time!

The EFF www.eff.org is a good place to start. But unfortunately they don't seem to know about this yet.

[Jason Dunn]

Well, in some ways, it is "Bill" who wants to allow this (because Bill Gates = technology). The entertainment industry HATES the technology industry for promoting the "burn your own music CD" concept, and the 9 Series Windows Media has them a little worried too (though Microsoft is fairly pro-DRM as we all know). Witness the fury of the RIAA aimed at Gateway, and Gateway buying the public rights to a certain song and giving it away for free to prove that there are legitimate reasons for burning a CD.

[Janak Parekh]

The entertainment industry HATES the technology industry for promoting the "burn your own music CD" concept
Except in Canada - don't you guys pay a tax on blank CD's, since obviously you can't do anything with them except for illegally copying music? :roll:

--janak

[R K]

Hmmm... I'm begining to get a little discouraged over the responses in this thread. If the responses here are a representation of the response we'll get from the general public, there's no chance this bill will get through.
I may sound like I'm pointing the finger here, but I hardly think the "Those powerful lawyers are too big for us, we might as well give up." response can get anything done, but I guess it's also hard to blame you guys.
This really isn't a matter of life and death, and I'm sure the battle between Copyrights vs Fair Use will continue even long after this bill has been passed, so I can sympathize with why you might be so discouraged.
Yet if we technophiles don't take a stand try to get this bill through, who will?

[vincentsiaw]

damn, you got me, i really think it's bill gates who said that in the articel, man i must have been overdose by microsoft !!

[dean_shan]

When I read the headline I thought it was going to be about a new WMP patch that would let you rip DVDs :D. I guess I'll stick with Smart Ripper and FlaskMPEG.

I think that this bill was a long time coming. I'm glad that someone is going to stick up for the consumer. Three cheers for Rick Boucher! :D

[Daniel]

Me 11! I thought it was Billy Gee too! How embarrassing!

It would be a very Good Thing&trade; if this bill made it through, lets hope they don't try to tack on the "Funding for Iraqy dictators" or the "More nukes for the North Korea" bills to this one though! ;)

The current DCMA legislation is just ridiculous, I mean I buy all my CDs and then rip them because it's more convenient for me. Heaven forbid that the government or [MP|RI]AA (cool notation!) would ever want me to do something that adds value for myself! Unfortunately it's the "fair use" clauses that are being removed from legislation that is really causing problems (IMO).

I would vote for this if I could (Green Card) whether it would win or lose!

Daniel

[Jason Dunn]

The entertainment industry HATES the technology industry for promoting the "burn your own music CD" concept
Except in Canada - don't you guys pay a tax on blank CD's, since obviously you can't do anything with them except for illegally copying music? :roll:

--janak

Yup, we have that - and the prices are supposed to be going up. But, just as I knew it would happen, a "grey market" sprung up. I bought a 100 spindle of CD-Rs at a local computer store "tax free", so you know that the computer store isn't paying the government taxes on it. And when I went down to the US a few months ago, I had a friend buy me some blank DVD-R discs for $1 US a piece - up here, I pay $9 US a piece, and that's WITHOUT the new tax increase! :evil:

I use 80%+ of my CD-Rs for data anyway...damn Canadian government!

[Janak Parekh]

But, just as I knew it would happen, a "grey market" sprung up.
Be careful Jason, they might be knocking on your door just now... ;)

At least, it's good to know that the US gov't is not the only one that doesn't "get it".

--janak