-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 00:05:43 -0400 From: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FC: CBDTPA update: Gateway, Libertarian Party slam copyright bill Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Text of bill and background: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/ Politech posts: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cbdtpa -Declan --- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020410/wr_nm/tech_ copyright_gateway_dc_2 Gateway Launches Ad Campaign Against Copyright Bill Wed Apr 10, 5:46 PM ET By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The country's fourth-largest computer maker is taking to the airwaves in a bid to rally consumers against a copyright-protection bill that would prevent computers from playing pirated movies and music. Starting Wednesday night, computer maker Gateway Inc. will launch a radio and TV ad campaign urging consumers to visit its Web site to download free music and learn more about a copyright debate that so far has been that so far has been dominated by Washington lobbyists and corporate lawyers. [...] --- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- =============================== NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org =============================== For release: April 10, 2002 =============================== For additional information: George Getz, Press Secretary Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] =============================== New copyright protection bill would turn government into entertainment 'rent-a-cop' WASHINGTON, DC -- The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), a bill that would supposedly reduce digital piracy, should be rejected by Congress because it would turn the government into a "rent-a-cop" for the entertainment industry, the Libertarian Party said today. "The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act will not only inconvenience consumers and throw roadblocks in the way of new technology, it will vastly expand the power of the government," warned the party's executive director, Steve Dasbach. "While the federal government may have a legitimate role in protecting copyrighted material, that role does not extend to acting as a technology rent-a-cop to protect the profits of huge entertainment corporations like Disney, Sony, and DreamWorks." Last week, Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) filed S-2048, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act. The bill would make it a federal crime -- punishable by five years in jail and a $500,000 fine -- to sell software or hardware that does not contain shielding measures that make it impossible to play or copy protected materials like songs, movies, or TV shows. The bill's provisions would apply to computers, video-editing software, CD players, VCRs, MP3 players and software, DVD players, and televisions, among others. The copyright-protection technology would be determined either by manufacturers and entertainment companies, or mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The CBDTPA is allegedly designed to stop digital piracy, which has become an increasing problem now that everything from songs to movies are in digital form, and downloadable from the Internet. But the CBDTPA goes far beyond any reasonable role the government might have in protecting copyrighted works, said Dasbach. "According to the Constitution, the federal government has the power to 'promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries,'" he noted. "In other words, Congress can grant exclusive copyrights, which entertainers can defend, as necessary, by filing copyright infringement lawsuits. "The CBDTPA, by contrast, gets the federal government involved in the production of everything from televisions to computers, and software programs to operating systems. And, instead of just targeting criminals who illegally steal copyrighted materials, it treats every consumer as a potential digital pirate -- while turning federal bureaucrats into the Digital Police." Further, said Dasbach, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act would: * Inconvenience consumers who want to use copyrighted materials they legitimately purchased. "The bill would make it impossible for you to turn a CD you purchased into MP3 songs to play on your computer," he said. "It guts the traditional notion of 'fair use,' which allows consumers non-commercial reproduction rights." * Act as an expensive form of "corporate welfare." "Federally mandated copyright-protection technology will not only drive up the cost of computers, DVD players, and VCRs, it may force consumers to purchase multiple copies of movies and albums -- pouring billions of extra dollars into the pockets of wealthy conglomerates," he said. * Make "open-access" operating systems like Linux illegal. Linux's source code is freely available, making it impossible to guarantee the secrecy of the copy-protection scheme, as required by the CBDTPA. "The bill is a dream come true for Bill Gates, because it could make it illegal to own one of the most successful operating system competitors to Microsoft Windows," he said. "The result would be to stifle competition in the computer industry." In short, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act is an overly broad, overly rigid, and overly intrusive response to the problem of digital piracy, said Dasbach. "Digital piracy is a real dilemma, and the entertainment industry has a real challenge ahead of it -- to figure out how to make a profit and protect artists in a digital age," he said. "But the solution is not to pass the CBDTPA, which would turn the federal government into the omnipresent technology police, and treat every consumer like a criminal." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBPLTQq9CSe1KnQG7RAQEE3AP9FMfiIQZYqeTh8Dkoochsk2qYYQv2T me3 ybjoX8VDPZuomiwe7guQ6F6aPmzss5djxgVo2bpol00Z3URf2zZ5fr0eiwY6ZAdV yZJYYd0HRlwFmQW+UxXXOrcl7yDAGsMI1IDoOt3xnw7Bf8BJdqnj2jPuiKfHgQw0 ZzK5Yl2+qjM= =1te+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/ 2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008 Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - For subscription changes, please use the WWW form at: http://www.lp.org/action/email.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. 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