Law Proposes Prison For Music Uploaders
The latest effort from US lawmakers to thwart the uploading of new, unreleased music and movies to peer to peer networks (such as KaZaA) goes like this: The bill, named the Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003 (or ACCOPS) says that if you upload a single file of copyrighted material (i.e., one song), it is a felony. The punishment can be anywhere from a $2,500 fine for first-time offenders to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Also, if you film a movie in a theater (with a HandyCam or something like that - which is blatantly pretty retarded), it is immediately considered a federal offense.
This sounds like a pretty scary law, if it ends up being passed. Here's a simple example that I noticed on the computer I am typing from as we speak:
Windows XP comes with a piece of music from David Byrne (Talking Heads) as an MP3 in the "My Music" folder when you install the software. If this computer is connected to any public network (including, but certainly not limited to, things like KaZaA - which scans your "My Music" folder when it opens), I immediately become a felon, unbeknownst to me - I'm sure that many users don't even know that the song is even on their hard drive.
Another example:
I own many, many CDs. More than a thousand, anyway. I like to listen to some of the music that I own on my Palm Tungsten (which, among many other things, is a portable MP3 player). So, sometimes as I am listening to a CD as I'm surfing around, I'll transfer some music from the CD to the SD (secure digital) card on my Palm. When you do this, it makes a copy of the file(s) in your "My Music" folder. Now, I legally own the license to the music, and I am only transferring the music to a portable player for my own enjoyment... Yet, if my machine is hooked into a public network - again, felon...
So you can see the potential for a law like this to cause some more serious damage to the industry by hooking up countless numbers of people that don't even realize they're doing anything wrong.
As best as I can tell, many of these really goofy-assed, invasive laws are being sponsored by democrats... which I've yet to be able to make much sense of...
Listening to: Big Brother close in on my doorstep...
The latest effort from US lawmakers to thwart the uploading of new, unreleased music and movies to peer to peer networks (such as KaZaA) goes like this: The bill, named the Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003 (or ACCOPS) says that if you upload a single file of copyrighted material (i.e., one song), it is a felony. The punishment can be anywhere from a $2,500 fine for first-time offenders to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Also, if you film a movie in a theater (with a HandyCam or something like that - which is blatantly pretty retarded), it is immediately considered a federal offense.
This sounds like a pretty scary law, if it ends up being passed. Here's a simple example that I noticed on the computer I am typing from as we speak:
Windows XP comes with a piece of music from David Byrne (Talking Heads) as an MP3 in the "My Music" folder when you install the software. If this computer is connected to any public network (including, but certainly not limited to, things like KaZaA - which scans your "My Music" folder when it opens), I immediately become a felon, unbeknownst to me - I'm sure that many users don't even know that the song is even on their hard drive.
Another example:
I own many, many CDs. More than a thousand, anyway. I like to listen to some of the music that I own on my Palm Tungsten (which, among many other things, is a portable MP3 player). So, sometimes as I am listening to a CD as I'm surfing around, I'll transfer some music from the CD to the SD (secure digital) card on my Palm. When you do this, it makes a copy of the file(s) in your "My Music" folder. Now, I legally own the license to the music, and I am only transferring the music to a portable player for my own enjoyment... Yet, if my machine is hooked into a public network - again, felon...
So you can see the potential for a law like this to cause some more serious damage to the industry by hooking up countless numbers of people that don't even realize they're doing anything wrong.
As best as I can tell, many of these really goofy-assed, invasive laws are being sponsored by democrats... which I've yet to be able to make much sense of...
Listening to: Big Brother close in on my doorstep...
posted by TONY at 11/15/2003 03:43:00 AM
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