FC: CBDTPA update: Gateway, Libertarian Party slam copyright bill

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Apr 10 2002 - 21:05:43 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: News Corp: CBDTPA already is spurring anti-piracy standards"

    Text of bill and background:
    http://www.politechbot.com/docs/cbdtpa/
    
    Politech posts:
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cbdtpa
    
    -Declan
    
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    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.
    [...]
    
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    NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
    2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
    Washington DC 20037
    World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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    For release: April 10, 2002
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    For additional information:
    George Getz, Press Secretary
    Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
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    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."
    
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