DMCA Foes Find Allies in House (Wired)

Posted Jun 17, 2004 23:36 UTC (Thu) by frazier (subscriber, #3060) [Link]

I know it's an election year in the USA and all, and it seems everyone's out to explain how the other party and/or candidate is worse than their own. Well, both parties decisively got us into the DMCA mess we have today.

• DMCA Senate vote in 1998.

I hope some party-minded people out there who care about fair use rights will spend more effort this election barking at their own party about fair use rights and less about how the other party sucks. Both look very bad when you can't play a DVD on a default install on your laptop with the DVD you own.

Posted Jun 18, 2004 4:45 UTC (Fri) by einstein (subscriber, #2052) [Link]

you may soon be able to hack DVDs and CDs to get around copy protections and make as many copies of albums and movies as you want

My, all this talk of hacking and copying - so dramatic...

All I really want is to be able to watch the DVD's I've legally purchased without fear of fines or imprisonment... Is that so much to ask, here in the home of the brave, and land of the free?

But, Jack Valenti thinks I should be locked up if I play my DVDs on my computer, and that really creeps me out

Posted Jun 18, 2004 15:47 UTC (Fri) by verzonnen (guest, #9406) [Link]

America never stops to amaze me. Guns are allowed, even though they have no other purpose than to maim or kill! Yet a computer program to play the music or films that you own legaly can be unlawful. The illegal copies can often be played legaly anyway (as the copy protection is taken of)

A president who had sex in the oval office (and lied about it, even though it's nobody's business) should be impeached, while a president that is invading other countries (under false pretenses) is a hero.

Picture I am getting it's ok to kill (and torture) in the US, but sex and listening to music is somehow bad. Grow up America and get real. None of us would be on this world if there was no sex and none of us will be here if we continue to judge kill each other.

Posted Jun 18, 2004 16:21 UTC (Fri) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link]

It's annoying when the person writing the article doesn't understand what he's writing about. Nobody is worried about police "breaking down the door" because for backing up DVDs. Hardly anybody makes backup copies of their DVDs anyway.

The problem is that the law makes it a crime to even to distribute software to play DVDs the way you want them played. It outlaws distributing lots of other software, too, that has legitimate uses. If the supporters of these bills can't articulate the real injustices they are trying to address, how can they hope ever to get the bills through Congress?