New RIAA/MPAA "Customary Historic Use" Plan

Random_Transit writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the EFF has dug up plans by the RIAA/MPAA to stifle the consumer electronics market by replacing it's "fair use" policy with something called "Customary Historic Use". This new policy would effectively keep anyone from inventing any new type of media device without the RIAA/MPAA's say-so."

Is anyone here an Oregon voter?

[MaelstromX]

Please contact your lamebrained Senator [senate.gov] to let him know what you think of the bill he's introducing.

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[account_deleted]

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Lovely.

[Jaazaniah]

When technology first came along and swept music into our lives, it did so en mass. Further broadening the broadcasts will cost someone, that's for sure, but locking codecs into laws, linking ridiculous software patents to laws that won't expire without being smited by a judge with common sense? Here's a funny story. When Phillips and Sony finalized Red Book [wikipedia.org] in 1979, it was done based off another technology source, Laserdiscs. If someone tried that today, they would be swamped by roughly 30 letters of patent infringment warnings, and if this law passes a startup that builds it's own machine (and for arguement's sake avoids stepping on toes) based on HD broadcasts would get slapped with a violation of this new ridiculous bill. (by way of bypassing the Customary Historic Use hardware regulations) Not only is this a blatant slap in the face for creativity in business, but it is also a "Pay to use our patented broadcast flag technology in your hardware or get sued for not doing so anyways!"

And just so I don't fire people up without giving them an outlet, here's some useful links. We need to hound the government EN MASS to get this proposal squashed.

Contact List
U.S. Chamber of Commerce [uschamber.com] - This law is anti-competitive for the above reasons (and likely more). Let them know.

State-sorted contact list of state senators [senate.gov] - Can you write effectively, and do you want to make a difference? Go here and DO it. There's no reason to sit idle if you, as a citizen here, have an objection. Get others to do it too. Send them the link. Mass email it, mail in an old fashioned petition. Senators don't read Slashdot, and don't consult geeks unless it involves upgrading computers. Go here.

Re:20 years or bust

[stud9920]

and you want to buy "A Clockwork Orange" only to find out it's blocked by your country for being subversive or obscene (like England did)

like england did not. Some copycat crimes happened in the UK, Stanley Kubrick, in no way linked to her majesty's government, retired the film in the UKuntil he died.

Downloading in Holland

[tsa]

In my country (The Netherlands) downloading for your own use is legal [slashdot.org] (sorry - the links you get are mostly in Dutch). I hope it stays this way for a long time; this prevents moronic laws as the one described in the article to enter Europe for a long time to come. Hopefully.

Re:It's all moot...

[jibjibjib]

Even the analog signals will contain a "broadcast flag" which means they're not allowed to be copied It will be illegal to build a device which ignores this flag and copies the signal anyway.

Re:They can't kill you, yet

[Anonymous Coward]

>Our forefathers started this country because they hated repression.

Well, except for those that were in it for reasons of tax evasion. Or those that came for reasons of self-repression like the pilgrims.

Re:Oy

[Metasquares]

4b. Bill gets tacked on to other unrelated bill and is passed because everyone thinks they're improving hopitals or something by passing that second bill.

Voice Your Concern

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell Gordon Smith, (R) from Oregon what you think of him and his law:

Washington, DC Office
404 Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Portland, OR Office
One World Trade Center
121 SW Salmon Street, Suite 1250
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Pendleton, OR Office
Jager Building
116 South Main Street, Suite 3
Pendleton, OR 97801
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Medford, OR Office
Security Plaza
1175 East Main, Suite 2D
Medford, OR 97504
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Eugene, OR Office
Federal Building
211 East 7th Avenue, Room 202
Eugene, OR 97401
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Bend, OR Office
Jamison Building
131 NW Hawthorne Avenue, Suite 208
Bend, OR 97701
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Controlling ADC

[tepples]

ADCs are used amost anywhere any sensor would get used to convert voltages to numbers.

But it might be a violation to sell a bare ADC circuit with a bandwidth of 32 kHz or greater and an SNR of 60 dB or greater without a business license.

Re:Obligatory Anti-copyright rant

[typicallyterrific]

3. You can get a job with a larger company and be a salaried artist.

Do I really even need to dissect this idea? A salaried artist? I can imagine the societal and artistic value of the creations produced by such a system.

I don't know whether you're being sarcastic or not, but it seems Bach [wikipedia.org] fared alright (they were called court musicians back in the day). Same deal with Mozart's earlier career working for the archbishop of Salzburg and pretty much every single Rennaisance artist.

Art has *never* been untainted by some form of commercial venue.

RIAA tried to shut down the web altogether once

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember back in 1993, most "pirate" music was destributed via ftp. The web was considered a lawless place, and the RIAA actually publicly stated that they wanted the web to be shut down. That's right, the World Wide Web would not exist if the RIAA had its way in the early 1990's.

I laughed when they attacked P2P. Finally companies are taking advantage of it and it is becoming "legal".

Re: Controlling ADC

[Thomas Shaddack]

But it might be a violation to sell a bare ADC circuit with a bandwidth of 32 kHz or greater and an SNR of 60 dB or greater without a business license.

Two words: black market.

Alternatively, sell measuring instruments that are very easy to convert to audio input devices. With high enough demand, digital oscilloscopes with USB interface will become dirt cheap.

Re:post-mp3

[Mal-2]

MP3s *can* sound bad, but that is almost always due to over-compression, bad settings (such as mismatched sample rates), encoders that can't handle certain conversions well, etc. I'm quite certain you can make an AAC or WMA suck just as bad. Any lossy format (audio or otherwise) can turn an input file to mush if it's set up to do that. The problem is that computers aren't smart enough to say "These settings will sound like shit. Continue? Y/N". Then the person hosting the file either has a tin ear, or has never listened to it, or perhaps just can't find any better rip, and it propagates.

Mal-2