The Customer is Always Wrong 539
McSpew writes "Hackers author Steven Levy so far is the only person in the mainstream press to pick up on the the travesty of the SSSCA hearings. He points out that only the media giants could be so stupid as to think treating their customers like criminals will increase sales." Steven's a very smart guy - and very well said on this issue.
Give thanks to Democrats, Republicans, Greens, etc (Score:4, Informative)
Advocating liberty means supporting the decrease of big government. Stop asking for handouts, no matter what type (corporate subsidies, welfare, social security, etc) because those handouts come with reductions in our rights, like the big corporations want. If you want to end these ludicrous and obviously unconstitutional laws, then vote for the only party that advocates disassembling any law that is unconstitutional: the Libertarian Party [lp.org].
I hate being a broken record, but ALL these laws (SSSCA, DMCA, etc) are unconstitutional, but as long as Congress is more powerful than the Constitution allows, they will never be repealed.
My view on copy protection: let manufacturers make an unbreakable copy protection scheme if they want. Let hardware developers get in bed with software developers. But DO NOT LET THEM have laws that prevent reverse engineering. Do let the free market consumer power choose between an encrypted uncopyable format, and possibly an open format advocated by another group of software publishers.
As long as we allow the RIAA and MPAA and other large organizations lobby Congress to overextend Congressional power, we'll always be victims. The free market works, but only if you get government out of it.
Libertarian Blogs have been on this for a week... (Score:2, Informative)
The good news is that the "evil" republican House seems to be willing to tell Hollings to take a leap.
Donut
Please rate the article! (Score:5, Informative)
A real world example (Score:5, Informative)
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. was probably one of the most pirated companies in the history of media when it comes to original content. I don't know about you, but I've read hundreds of articles talking about Pamela Anderson or whoever being #1 on most search engines, etc etc.
So what did PEI do? They capitalized on the market. They didn't try to prevent you from copying JPG's and MOV's. They gave you a service so killer that it's not worth the time trying to pirate it. Most adult companies try and charge like $30 a month for a crap ass website with lousy content and slutty women.
Not Playboy. They charge like 6 bux a month. The price of a paper magazine. All of their playmates in an online archive. HUGE libraries of content. New features weekly if not daily.
Playboy recognized it could benefit from a potential source of huge revenue or it could be like the RIAA and MPAA and try to prevent it's content from being copied. By providing a service with such value at such a reasonable price point, I'm quite sure Playboy is making a killing.
I wish the RIAA and MPAA could pull their heads of out their respective a$$es and open their eyes to the REAL market they COULD capitalize on without screwing things for us: the consumers.
Re:If this had been done right... (Score:4, Informative)
Stop the SSSCA Bill (Score:3, Informative)
For those who are unfamiliar with the details of the bill, you will find them here [stoppoliceware.org]
Also, please sign the online petition that is posted online here [petitiononline.com]
It would also be good if you write your elected officials, but at least add your name to the petition.
The future you save just might be your own...
Re:If the MPAA/RIAA want copy protected PCs... (Score:3, Informative)
The thing is that much of this technology is patented by some companies...such as Microsoft, who can determine who is permitted to license it. Not only are particular implementations of content control closed, but so are general patents for concepts related to content control. An anti-GPL company (such as Microsoft) would likely restrict licensing of its SSSCA-mandated technlogy to open source projects, effectively destroying or crippling their capability.
If the SSSCA passes, all open source software (and open hardware for that matter) would have to accomodate the content-control requirements of the law. Any open source stuff that's inherently "free" (as in speech) or meant to support and encourage free use of media would also have to accomodate the law.
Furthermore, if hardware locks are used to restrict a user's access to certain files, open source software run on that hardware could be unable to tap into the full functionality that some hardware supports. (We see this already with DVD-playing support because of the DMCA). The SSSCA would make the same artificial limitations on open software even more pervasive.
Re:it's not about piracy (Score:5, Informative)
This is the only method that will really "stop" piracy. As long as recording devices are legal, a "pirate" can work on stripping enough of the copy controls that the recording device is fooled into thinking the sound is a new live recording. But if there is no device that will record any sound and turn it into a form that the average user can play, it will completely control copies!
Well, it will stop the average user from being a "pirate". Piracy for money will always be worth enough that somebody will break into a factory, steal one of the machines, and pirate millions of copies. In fact piracy will become more lucrative and profitable and will probably be greater than before because the real disks will have their prices inflated to the maximum the market will bear.
It also has the side effect that you *cannot* record music without a recording industry contract! This is of course the real purpose of this, but they are going to scream "pirate" for years until everybody has been brainwashed to go along with this.
Re:When CD burners are outlawed... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:If the MPAA/RIAA want copy protected PCs... (Score:2, Informative)
Also this may be wrong, but if you have the source that tells you how to decrypt the encrypted content, you can do namely that, decrypt the content. But of course PGP/GPG is free source, but PGPed messages are still secure.
Re:Media (Score:3, Informative)
[siliconvalley.com]
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/