Arstechnica has a pretty good write up on how the RIAA is freaked out about the Fair Use Act… even though it really doesn’t do enough on dealing with copyrights.
Although the FAIR USE Act introduced yesterday by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) will have little more than a symbolic effect on the DMCA, that isn’t stopping the Recording Industry Association of America from unloading on the bill with both barrels. In a statement released earlier today by the RIAA, the group said that Rep. Boucher’s bill would have the effect of kneecapping the DMCA.
“The DMCA has enabled consumers to enjoy creative works through popular new technologies,” the RIAA said in a statement. “The DVD, iPod and the iTunes Music Store can all be traced to the DMCA. Online games, on-demand movies, e-books, online libraries, and many other services are coming to market because of a secure environment rooted in the DMCA’s protections.”
Well, the DVD precedes the DMCA by a couple of years, but the “secure environment” bit is accurate. The DMCA limits the availability of tools that can be used to circumvent DRM, so content creators are free to impose draconian limitations on how their customers can view and listen to content. Without the protection of the DMCA, Big Content would be forced to make its offerings more palatable to consumers.
Once again, the RIAA finds itself at odds with the Consumer Electronics Association. CEA President and Gary Shapiro is welcoming the FAIR USE Act, saying that it “will reinforce the historical fair use protections of constitutionally-mandated copyright law that are reflected in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).”
And of course the RIAA is probably quick to blame the fact the Representatives “must not know anything about technology,” even though they themselves used that same “opening” to force through the DMCA, which has worked “wonderfully”.
The worst part is that the RIAA has a lot of money its extorted from various people to use in fighting this. Yet another reason I think they need to be cracked down on like organized crime. Their argument? Its legal extortion.
Tags: Interesting, Irony, Legal, News, Politics, Technology
Leave a Reply