Thanks nexty for the heads up on this one.
If you"ve ever made a copy of a videotape or a CD, or if you"re old enough to remember the absurd attempts of Hollywood to squelch the Betamax, you might want to take an hour before Monday to read — and react to — something that proposes a major change in how you"ll use technology in the future.
It"s called The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, or CBDTPA. The name and its acronym are clumsy mouthfuls, but the upshot of the proposed legislation is clear. Should it pass, technology you buy down the road will prohibit you from copying any of your media in any way, shape or form. "Policeware," some are calling it.
You can thank the Napster-heads for this one: Because of the frenzied greed-fest unleashed by file-sharing between you and the immediate world a few years ago, now our ever-so-cutting-edge and ever-so-influenced-by-Hollywood elected officials are trying to clamp down on our ability to make copies of any media we own.
For the record, historically, you were legally allowed to copy a CD for your own personal use. That"s called "fair use," and it"s already starting to dissipate thanks to these new encrypted CDs that are on the market.
That"s connected to the Napsterites, who took the notion of fair use to an extreme and copied music, etcetera and then posted it online for all who cared to access it. But there"s an enormous gulf between the former and the latter situation. This new bill is trying to punish those in the first category because of the second — although of course in typical wonk-speak lawyers are trying to spin it as "consumer protection."
Senator Fritz Hollings recently introduced this legislation, and you have until Monday to submit reaction to it. Remember how you promised to stop being laissez-fair about the state of the world after 9-11? Now"s your chance, if you are so inclined.