MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-06-15 |
| FROM | Michael Richardson
|
| SUBJECT | RE: [hangout] NY Times Article on DRM - Follow Up
|
Can any thing be done by individual members of NYLXS?
--
"In The Business World
An Executive Knows Something About Everything,
A Technician Knows Everything About Something,
And the Switchboard Operator Knows Everything."
No one person is smarter than their team!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ruben I Safir [mailto:ruben-at-mrbrklyn.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 11:30 AM
> To: Ruben I Safir
> Cc: hangout-at-nylxs.com; fairuse-at-nylxs.com
> Subject: Re: [hangout] NY Times Article on DRM - Follow Up
>
>
> WASHINGTON ? Some lawmakers are introducing a bill that Hollywood is not
> happy about ? one that would allow consumers to make personal copies of
> digital entertainment like DVDs to be played on whatever device they
> want.
>
> Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., author of the Digital Media Consumers' Rights
> Act (search), says consumers should not always have to worry about being
> slapped with a lawsuit every time they make a copy of their favorite
> videos.
>
> "We are seeking to empower the purchasers of digital media so that they
> can use the media in ways that are more convenient to them," Boucher
> told Foxnews.com.
>
> Boucher said that empowerment would mean "for example, by being able to
> move digital material ? whether it's video on a DVD or materials on a
> compact disc or the text of an electronic book ? around from digital
> device to digital device in their home or in their extended personal
> environment."
>
> The new bill amends the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (search) of
> 1998, which allowed copyright holders to put digital locks on their work
> and makes it illegal to break those locks.
>
> Boucher's bill allows owners of DVDs and other works that have a digital
> lock to bypass the security and copy the work so long as the user is
> engaging in "fair use" of the product and not infringing upon its
> copyright.
>
> A hearing on the bill has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
>
> The Motion Picture Association of America (search), which represents
> Hollywood's interests in Washington, D.C., has been the most vocal
> critic of moves to change the DMCA to allow people to make personal
> copies of movies.
>
> "Anything that allows you to decrypt the DVD would not be a legal
> product," said MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor.
>
> "There is no right in the copyright law to make backup copies of motion
> pictures, so the whole argument that people should have the right to
> make backup copies of DVDs has no legal support whatsoever," said Fritz
> Attaway, executive vice president of the MPAA.
>
> "It's against consumers' interests to permit devices that make backup
> copies," he added, "because there is no way that a device can
> distinguish between a backup copy for personal use and making a copy for
> friends, family acquaintances or even selling on the street corner."
>
> The MPAA recently sued 321 Studios (search), which makes a tool commonly
> called a "ripper," which circumvents the digital locks so consumers can
> make back up copies of DVDs.
>
> 321 Studio's software does include piracy provisions ? a screen is
> inserted into the copy warning the user that the copy is only for
> personal use within the home and watermarking technology allows each
> copy to be tracked and traced.
>
> Judges have ruled against the technology, but the company says it's
> merely helping people get the most for their money and that Boucher's
> bill would help further the "fair use" cause.
>
> One former lawmaker said he didn't realize that the DMCA would restrict
> digital-content copying to the extent that it has.
>
> "I, like most members of Congress, had no idea that what would be deemed
> to be fair use for books, CDs, and TV programs is not the case for DVDs
> ? and nobody intended that the people that would enable you to make a
> single copy of a DVD should be held criminally liable and go to jail and
> that's insane," Bob Livingston (search), former U.S. Republican
> representative from Louisiana and House Appropriations Committee
> chairman, told Foxnews.com.
>
> Livingston is now a lobbyist for 321 Studios.
>
> "Moms and dads shouldn't have to fork over another $20-$30 every time
> little Johnny or Suzie scratches their DVD. The technology exists to
> prevent them from having to do that," said 321 Studios President Robert
> Moore.
>
> "We're not talking about free use here and we're not talking about
> providing consumers the skeleton key to everyone else's property," he
> added. "We're talking about giving people lawful use of the property
> they lawfully acquired."
>
> Livingston and others say the MPAA was merely trying to maintain a vise
> grip on content and pointed out that MPAA President Jack Valenti
> (search) in 1982 famously said the VCR would prove to be the "Boston
> Strangler" of the movie industry.
>
> "They make the same argument about the new technology that's come out
> within the past 50 years ... from the VHS to the CD burner to now this
> technology," Moore said.
>
> "The MPAA has chosen to seek a scapegoat for their very real problems
> that occur in China and other countries where they get their movies
> knocked off in mass production lines and sold for a tremendous
> discount," Livingston added.
>
> The MPAA argues that it's in consumers' best interests that the digital
> locks not be bypassed.
>
> "These products like 321 allow people to be free riders," Attaway said.
> "It's the concept of buy-one-get-one-free, only it's not just
> get-one-free but it's get-as-many-as-you-want-to-make-free ... It raises
> the prices for legitimate copies and it also reduces the availability of
> the copies."
>
> Boucher has been spending the past two years garnering support for his
> bill. The likes of Intel, the Consumer Electronics Association, the
> American Library Association, the Digital Future Coalition, Consumers
> Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are now throwing their
> weight behind it.
>
> "Making this change is manifestly in the public interest. It's in the
> interest of empowering the consumer," Boucher said. "Once the consumer
> is more empowered to use media he lawfully acquires ... he will want to
> buy more media ... even the content creators, the people who oppose this
> bill, will in the long-term, benefit."
>
> Livingston said he thought support existed for the bill but 321 still
> may not have luck.
>
> "We think that when the average member of Congress who voted for the
> DMCA in 1998 understands the inequity here that these people will make
> their case very clearly and simply and be overwhelmingly approved by a
> majority of members of Congress," Livingston said. "The trick is getting
> members to pay attention in a political [election] year."
> On 2004.06.15 11:15 Ruben I Safir wrote:
> >
> > ermissions on Digital Media Drive Scholars to Lawbooks By TOM ZELLER
> Jr.
> >
> > Published: June 14, 2004
> >
> > When some 20,000 first-year American medical students reported to
> their
> > schools last summer, they received a free 20-minute multimedia collage
> > of music, text and short video clips from television doctor dramas,
> past
> > and present, burned onto a CD-ROM.
> >
> > "The patients you meet in the coming years may have doubts about you
> > because of the doctors they see on prime-time television," the
> > introduction reads. "The aim of this presentation is to explore why
> that
> > is, and suggest what you can do about it."
> >
> > But the CD was perhaps more of an education for its developer, Joseph
> > Turow, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg
> School
> > for Communication.
> >
> > "It's crazy," Professor Turow said of the labyrinth of permissions,
> > waivers and fees he navigated to get the roughly three minutes of
> video
> > clips included on the CD, which was paid for by a grant from the
> Robert
> > Wood Johnson Foundation. The process took months, Professor Turow
> said,
> > and cost about $17,000 in fees and royalties paid to the various
> studios
> > and guilds for the use of clips. The film used ranged from, for
> example,
> > a 1961 episode of "Ben Casey" to a more-recent scene from "ER."
> >
> > This Friday, Professor Turow and other experts will meet at a
> conference
> > sponsored by the Annenberg School to debate how digital media fits
> into
> > the concept of "fair use" - a murky safe harbor in copyright law that
> > allows scholars and researchers limited use of protected materials for
> > educational or commentary purposes.
> >
> > The conference title itself is a lament: "Knowledge Held Hostage:
> > Scholarly Versus Corporate Rights in the Digital Age." Many scholars,
> > librarians and legal experts see rich promise for the use of
> multimedia
> > materials in research and education. But the possibility of litigation
> > over file-sharing and confusion over digital copyright protections
> have
> > scholars feeling threatened about venturing beyond the more familiar
> > world of printed texts, Professor Turow said.
> >
> > "It's a pain in the tuchis, frankly," said Rachel Durkin-Drga, the
> > production manager at the Performing Arts Center at the University of
> > Texas at Austin, recalling 10 years of attempting to secure permission
> > to use various pieces of music. Even when educators seek to pay for
> use,
> > she said, simply finding and contacting all of the people and agencies
> > necessary to get clearance can be prohibitively daunting.
> >
> > In one instance, she tried unsuccessfully for months to secure
> > permission to use a song to accompany a piece choreographed by a
> faculty
> > member for students in an undergraduate dance program. The dance was
> > performed in silence.
> >
> > Edward W. Felten, a professor of computer science at Princeton
> > University, was at the center of a legal battle in 2001, when
> > representatives of the recording industry threatened to sue him and
> the
> > university over the publication of a paper analyzing a set of digital
> > watermarking technologies designed to secure music files. The
> recording
> > industry based its claim on the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
> > which makes it a crime to circumvent antipiracy measures built into
> > digital media.
> >
> > "After a long legal fight involving withdrawal and later resubmission
> of
> > our paper, and our filing of a lawsuit against the parties who tried
> to
> > suppress our work," Professor Felten wrote in response to a call from
> > conference moderators for tales of copyright woe, "we won the right to
> > publish our paper. Attempts to create a research exemption to the
> > D.M.C.A. have failed thus far."
> >
> > Whether academia's difficulties in navigating the world of multimedia
> > copyrights is entirely the result of corporate bullying is a matter of
> > debate, however.
> >
> > Bruce A. Lehman, who ran the federal patent and trademark office from
> > 1993 to 1998 and who was at the forefront of the contentious battles
> > over digital rights legislation, has long insisted that criticisms and
> > complaints about copyright controls are overblown. He has argued that
> > academia and industry simply need to find ways of streamlining the
> > licensing process for digital media in the same way they have for
> > printed material.
> >
> > "There is an element in the user community that just wants to get it
> all
> > for free," said Mr. Lehman, who is now senior counsel in Washington at
> > Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, a law firm. He added that
> demonizing
> > copyright holders simply causes "fear where there really shouldn't be
> > any."
> >
> > That echoes the thinking of Peter Andrew Jaszi, a professor of law at
> > American University's Washington College of Law and one of the panel
> > members scheduled to speak at Friday's conference. Professor Jaszi
> > concedes that "in some cases, the fair-use doctrine in copyright law
> may
> > actually not be adequate in its present form for the uses of
> > researchers," but he also believes part of the problem is that
> scholars
> > are poorly informed about what they can and cannot do.
> >
> > "The likelihood of litigation is low to begin with," Professor Jaszi
> > said, but the lack of coordination in academia on these issues
> probably
> > makes the confusion worse.
> >
> > "There are no disciplinary rules of best practice for cultural
> > historians or film scholars or medical historians," he noted. "And, in
> > the absence of that kind of collective understanding, it's no wonder
> > that individuals give up the game before it begins."
> >
> > The conference is intended, in part, to change this situation. But
> > persuading scholars to test the boundaries of fair use in the digital
> > age will be an uphill battle.
> >
> > "A lot of this is self-censorship," Ms. Durkin-Drga said, "but,
> frankly,
> > who can afford to take a chance?" After all, she pointed out, the
> > Recording Industry Association of America "is going after teenagers."
> >
> >
> > Free Trial of The New York Times Electronic Edition.
> >
> > -- __________________________ Brooklyn Linux Solutions
> >
> > So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn,
> like
> > Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world -
> RI
> > Safir 1998
> >
> > DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
> > http://fairuse.nylxs.com
> >
> > http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting http://www.inns.net <-- Happy
> > Clients http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
> > http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories
> and
> > articles from around the net http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/downtown.html -
> > See the New Downtown Brooklyn....
> >
> > 1-718-382-0585
> > ____________________________
> > NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
> > Fair Use -
> > because it's either fair use or useless....
> > NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
> >
> --
> __________________________
> Brooklyn Linux Solutions
>
> So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
> that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
> proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
>
> DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
> http://fairuse.nylxs.com
>
> http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting
> http://www.inns.net <-- Happy Clients
> http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
> http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories and
> articles from around the net
> http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/downtown.html - See the New Downtown
> Brooklyn....
>
> 1-718-382-0585
> ____________________________
> NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
> Fair Use -
> because it's either fair use or useless....
> NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
____________________________
NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
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