| AngelicVampire |
05-03-2005 03:10 AM |
Downloading = Terrorism:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/new...474673,00.html
Quote:
Illicit downloading is now tantamount to domestic terrorism
A little sneaky law-making - and suddenly illicit downloading and file-sharing is a federal crime in the US
John Sutherland
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
Interesting battle lines were drawn with the family entertainment and copyright bill, 2005, signed into law by President Bush last week. American drafters habitually smuggle in tough regulation under the skirts of something beguilingly innocent. On the face of it, the "Family Movie Act" (which the new measure incorporates) is all motherhood and apple pie.
Specifically, the act opens the way for companies like ClearPlay legally to sell their product. The firm operates out of Utah (the most straitlaced state in the union). You get a DVD, from Blockbusters or wherever, and ClearPlay's little black box, sitting like a benign leech on your DVD player, sucks out "objectionable" material of a violent or sexual nature.
Fourteen levels of filter are available. Teams of "movie professionals" have pre-identified questionable scenes and dialogue which are duly muted or skipped. ClearPlay monitors all the latest releases and most in-stock titles. The black box can be fitted, like a chastity belt, on junior's bedroom TV. It can be programmed to peremptorily block anything certified PG13 or harder. The package costs a mere $80 a year.
There was anxiety that the bill might open the way to ad-skipping - something that Congress (at the behest of commercial lobbyists) dislikes. The last thing lawmakers want is to keep the honest salesman from getting his foot in the door.
That settled, the act was passed with acclaim. What congressman was going to oppose family values? ClearPlay's stock soared. Senator Orrin G Hatch (Republican, Utah), the moral dinosaur who had introduced the measure, hailed it as a mighty "shield" for the American home. The Brady Bunch could sit down of a night and watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Mysteriously, of course, the movie might only last half an hour - but, early to bed, early to rise.
Hatch noted in passing that there were, attached to his family bill, some piddling "intellectual property" provisions relating to "rampant piracy" from the internet. In fact, tagged-on clauses now make illicit downloading and file-sharing tantamount to domestic terrorism.
It is now a federal crime to use a video camera to record films in cinemas, punishable by up to three years in prison for the first offence. It is 10 years for sharing a movie or a song prior to its commercial release. These draconian penalties were clearly the result of lobbying by the Motion Picture Association and the Recording Industry Association of America. Without the smokescreen of family protection, such excessive penalties would never have passed into law - at least not without opposition.
One breach in the copyright dam is staunched. Another, even more gaping, opens up.
Technological advances in music-delivery systems have developed at bewildering speed over the last five years: from Walkman, through MiniDisc player, to iPod. Apple's device is itself increasing in power by 20 gigabytes a year. The latest models can hold nigh on 10,000 tracks: all instantly retrieved, shuffled, and playlisted.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Where can you get a thousand albums' worth of music to fill the iPod's vast archival capacity? Commercial downloading will cost five grand. And there is all that time and hassle involved in the loading procedure.
Students simply swap archives. One loaded Apple laptop in a college dorm will stock any number of iPods in neighbouring bedrooms. Crossloading of this kind, without charge, is, I think, not illegal. But it is not merely the latest hits one wants. Nor does one want someone else's preferences. I am fond of 1950s jazz. My iPod could contain the whole of the Vogue, Blue Note, Vanguard, and Verve catalogues. But where would I find those gems? Not in a student dorm.
Three solutions are emerging. Last month www.jayci.com launched its range of "pre-populated" Super iPods. Jayci will preload music of your choice at $1.29 a track. Alternatively, they'll customise your iPod with a package of 100 tracks in some preferred style (blues, classical or whatever) for $119. The Jayci concierge service is convenient but pricey.
For the more freebootingly inclined, pre-owned and pre-populated iPods are appearing on eBay. How long before "faux" pre-owned iPods appear, artfully customised for a whole spectrum of tastes, at budget prices? Not long. Nor will it be long before the lawmakers realise that copyright is being massively evaded. Before the legal chopper comes down, perhaps I'll get my 50s jazz archive. Any help in that direction appreciated.
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Seems a little overboard, does anyone actually support treating downloading (theft at worst, most of the time its stuff people would not buy anyway) as terrorism?
I suppose its also linked, would/do you purchase what you download (basically a taster) or do you only download stuff that you would never purchase?
Personally I buy what I download (basically if I would watch it twice then I buy it, it seems fair to the industry that they get something for my enjoyment). I would however like to see movies for download legally (spends too much time on computer), say £3 for a 700Mb CD rip, £4 for a 1.5Gb rip and £6 for a DVD rip because its the bargain basement (£5ish) for a DVD/VHS that makes me purchase movies that I would like to see once but probably never again (and owning the thing is nice)... example is Road to Eldorado by Disney (now own it on VHS... £2.50).
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