aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Poppycock!

Trot out that same old argument:

Ultimately, if consumers are going to be able to fully benefit from the flexibility and ease of access afforded by the Internet, they must not have their choices curtailed by misguided federal legislation.

A well-meaning U.S. Congressman, Rick Boucher of Virginia, is the author of the legislation in question. He first tried to make circumvention of copy-protection mechanisms legal back in 1998, when Congress was debating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. His effort to amend the bill failed. Since then he has been continuing his crusade through standalone bills; his version in this Congress is HR-1201. Boucher claims DRM on DVDs, CDs, etc., can stifle fair use. The U.S. Copyright Office largely has disagreed in DMCA review proceedings, but nonetheless, Boucher persists.

Fortunately, his argument is not persuasive; it will affirm our already held positions. I read it twice and still don’t understand it, and I’d have to say I’m at least somewhat familiar with the topic.

It did include this piece of hokum:

[A]t The Progress & Freedom Foundation’s recent Aspen Summit, we heard Warner Music Group Chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr., promise an e-label for up-and-coming artists. At an event we hosted earlier this year, Motion Picture Association of America President Dan Glickman said his members are hard at work on new online distribution methods for motion pictures. And more anecdotally, the increasing number of e-books on my PDA attests to the potential of that growing market.

How long have we been hearing this kind of claptrap??? As far back as I can remember. They’re fighting a rear-guard action and only interested in preserving their turf. They trot out the innovation rhetoric to cover their tracks.

He does note in passing that fair use isn’t codified. Maybe we should work on that? That way we wouldn’t have to build all of our machines to lock up all the content because we’d know just exactly what’s legal and what’s not.

Progress and Freedom wouldn’t want that. A look at their list of supporters suggests why they take the positions they do.

Here’s the Electronic Frontiers Foundation on Boucher:

Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) continues to be one of the smartest voices on technology policy in Washington, and a strong advocates on the Hill for fair use and reform of the DMCA. He’s been involved in Net issues for over a decade (his first Internet legislation helped open the Internet up for public use in 1992), and has worked hard to reconcile all sides in the copyfight.

Now check out where EFF gets its money. (Guidestar requires registration and login, but it’s well worth it, providing a wealth of information on non-profits.)

My money, my allegiance, my advice is, support EFF. They’re supporting your interests.