Mark Fowler wrote:
> Ah, but you have a computer. That can play videos downloaded from the
> 'net. The net is a broadcast[1] medium.
>
> (thank god the BBC don't enforce this one)
They've been thinking about doing this in Germany for quite a while -- that
any computer connected to the Internet can also receive and reproduce
television and radio signals.
And then there's the bit about a sum of money per computer sold going to the
company that deals with copyrights and distributes sums to musicians[2] etc
-- recently there have been noises that they've been considering this
seriously. Something along the lines of "computers are suitable for making
illegal copies of copyrighted stuff and are, in fact, used for that
purpose". Hence, anyone with a computer is automatically considered guilty
of regularly using it for illegal copying.
They also recently got HP to cough up money for each CD recorder sold.
It's all rather ridiculous.
Cheers,
Philip
[1] NMF
[2] No idea what it's called in English. But, for example, for each audio
cassette sold in Germany, a certain portion of the sale price goes to this
company, who distribute their earnings to some originators of music etc.
Similarly for some copying machines. The attitude is something like "we
can't prevent people from copying stuff [due partly to the guaranteed
inviolability of the home] so we'll just take a lump sum".
