I think it's important that people understand what Hollywood is up to, and
why fighting this is important. I apologize for taking up so much list
space on this issue, but it's important to anyone who is a fan of any TV
show - this directly pertains to our future enjoyment of Enterprise, or any
other program. Actually, it's important to everyone, because it involves
basic freedoms that we have enjoyed for a long time. Anyway, here goes:
Hollywood views the coming age of super-broadband Internet into American
homes with both terror and excitement. Terror, because of the opportunity
for mass-piracy, and excitement because of completely new business models
that they stand to make a fortune from. The studios really don't like the
idea of people purchasing movies and watching them again and again, because
they only make money once. What they really would like to do is move the
business to a "pay-per-view" model. Video-on-demand and watch-once,
disposable DVDs are where they see the future going. They want to make
money *every time* you watch something, or listen to something.
Because of this, they want to eliminate all possiblity of home copying. We
have come to take it for granted that when we own a movie or CD, we can do
whatever we want with it for our own use. Back it up, copy it to another
device such as an MP3 player, etc. The entertainment industry HATES this,
because they want to control when, where, and how you enjoy their media.
The purpose for legislation like INDUCE is not to protect against copyright
violation. Copyright violation is already illegal. It is to put an end to
consumers using media that they own LEGALLY in whatever way they want. If
the industry has its way, the following would be prevented or outlawed:
- Copying music to your computer or MP3 player
- Copying movies to your computer or backing them up
- Recording TV and copying it to your computer or recordable DVDs
- Recording TV itself
- Editing any media that you have legally obtained.
They can't do this all at once, but they are trying to slowly chip away at
fair use, until it is eliminated - either by making the fair use illegal, or
making the technology that enables fair use illegal. INDUCE is just the
first step. With HDTV on the way, they are fighting to cripple consumers'
ability to record and archive television (The digital nature of HDTV makes
this technically feasible, and once plain old analog TV is done away with,
home recording will become a thing of the past). They are lobbying for all
sorts of mandatory technologies to be incorporated into ALL digital devices
(PVRs, computers, cell phones, cameras, you name it) to make sure that all
of this pesky fair use is wiped out. The fact that this also leads to the
"collateral damage" that the innovation of new products will hampered by
forced conformity to some arbitrary, federally-imposed standard, isn't even
given consideration.
Their claims that they need to protect themselves from piracy are just a
smokescreen for the industry's agenda to wipe out fair use. They know full
well that these measures won't do a thing to stop piracy. All of these new
protection schemes will be cracked, and the impact on the bootleg market
(the real threat to their business) will be zero.
So, it's very, very important to stand up against this. If you are a
citizen of a country where this type of legislation is being proposed, let
your elected representitive know that you are against it, and let them know
why.
Inspiration
