Digital Consumer Rights Bill

Yes, you read the subject correctly. Zoe Lofgren (D), 16th district of California, has put forth a bill that will attempt to protect the rights that Hollywood and the recording industry have been trying to get stripped away from us. For a decent run-down on the bill, click here. Rep Rick Boucher (D) of Virginia is scheduled to release a second bill aimed at protecting consumer rights in the digital domain later today, so keep your eyes peeled for news on this one too. Don't expect to hear about either of these pieces making any progress until after the first of the year though, as it's too late in the game for either one to make an impact of any kind during the current session.

Well its about time someone with some power stodd up for the people. Afterall isn't that what government is for? For the people? Not the corporations rapeing of the people.

Xmadness, I agree with you completely. Also, isn't the Senators and House of Reps. suppose to introduce these kinds of bill's because the PEOPLE send them in to be introduced. I'm happy that this one senator is willing to introduce it and is "representing" the people in this case. We kinda need someone with a tad bit of political pull to help us.

w00t, w00t, w0000000000000t! Hot dog! It's about time a congressional representative stood up and tried to do their job!

I don't know how much support it will get, but I like the fact that someone in Congress recognizes that when I pay good money for a CD or a DVD that I have the right to expect to be able to use it the way I expect to. I'll be the first to admit that I will rip a DVD to DivX so that I can copy it to my hard drive to watch while I am on a trip. I have had several DVD's ruined by ambitious baggage screeners that throw the contents of my carryon all over the place with little regard for my personal items, and there isn't enough room on the plane to twist and swivel a laptop to change a CD.

I will definitely get behind this idea!

In reading the article the bill seems very balanced as well. It doesn't really address the Napster etc issue but it does address the issues that legal consumers are really worried about. I especially like it tie in with traditional non-digital products.

I read a lot of books and I have to get a call from McGraw-Hill about me sharing a book with a friend. I don't see Barnes and Noble sueing Libraries because they are cutting into their profits. If I buy a record I can sell the record but the way some agreements are being written I cannot sell some of my video games even if I remove them from my system (heck I cannot even legally load them on my other systems). Yet I can play my cd in any cd player.

I understand that the sharing of music borders on or may even be illegal. However, the extent the industries are going to protect themselves certainly seems to be inpinging on our consumer rights. I am glad to see someone addressing this. I am astonished about how fair and intelligent it seems. If I was in the 16th district I might even vote for Congresswoman Lofgren even though I am a staunch Conservative. However, intelligence is so rare in Congress we should not be partisan about electing smart people for a change (sig really fits here :D )

It's ironic that you mention libraries and their loan system. The libraries here loan out CDs, including various modern albums. Does this mean they will have to pay royalties?

But when you barrow a book from the library you do not photocopy the whole thing.

But I could. What stops me from making a copy and keeping it at home? Heck, I could make extra copies for friends. Are they going to check every book? How about every CD that is released from there?

I'm just playing devil's advocate on this. I understand why (copyright and protection of author's rights in what they create) but if they don't look at all the venues rather than just targetting technology they aren't truly fixing the problem. It will continue. It is a cultural and societal issue, not one of technology.

Maybe the best way of fixing this in the long run is to have mandatory ethics classes.

OK you know what hear is where the rubber meets the road. We all sit an moan about how goverment doesn't do anything and we want to change it... well.. contact your Congresional Representative and ask them to support the legislation above. Contact your Senators and ask them to introduce similar legislation in the US Senate. If every member here does this then we can have an impact on what dicisions are made. You can find our who you Representative/Senators are by search the .gov websites it wasn't to hard I just did it myself.

US Senate
US House of Representative

Um, Paldie, did you mean actually do something? :eek: Not just sit here and editorialize, debate, and moralize? :eek: How many negs did you get for that suggestion? :confused:

Thanks for the links will contact my reps today (or maybe tomorrow since procrastination isn't a problem, it's a way of life).

As I mentioned above, Rick Boucher has introduced seperate legislation that, like the Lofgren bill, is attempting to give us back our rights to make a backup copy of a CD. I noted that the language of the bill is formulated as to also allow the development of technologies the circumvent copy protection which are illegal according to the DMCA. If you want, read the article and follow the link it contains to the bill itself.

I recently saw this article on CNN. Any thoughts on this in relation to DMCA?

A very interesting read to be sure...thank you for sharing Ms Mittens. I would venture to say that anything that alters the basic rules underlying copyrights will affect the DMCA, but if the supreme court lets this one stand, it basically means that NOTHING that is granted a copyright within ones lifetime will become public property during said lifetime. Thats sad...just outright sad. I can understand tha a copyright protects your ownership of intellectual material...but for 70 to 95 years?? As much as I liked Sonny Bono, I think he screwed up on this one. But then again, this serves as a classic example of how the US government serves special interest groups rather than the best interests of its citizens.