Ugly legislation in the U.S.

Posted Jan 27, 2006 11:01 UTC (Fri) by ekj (guest, #1524)
In reply to: Ugly legislation in the U.S. by rknop
Parent article: Ugly legislation in the U.S.

You restate your position in terms they understand and care about. Yes it's hard. Yes it takes patience. Yes it's difficult to get the magnitude of the powergrab to register. It's easy to cross the line and be seen as a conspiracy-phanatic.

If someone is a Anime-fan, ask if they ever considered the reason why a DVD bougth in Japan won't in general work on a US DVD-player.

If someone has an Ipod, ask what they think about newly released CDs that you legally buy, but which don't work with their Ipod. (or other mp3-player)

If someone plays games and sells old ones they're no longer interested in on Ebay, ask what they think about media that *cannot* be resold if you're tired of them.

If someone is a librarian, ask if they think it's a good idea to have material that cannot practically be archived, and what this migth do to our cultural heritage. (though librarians are generally more-than-average aware of the situation anyway)

If someone is a politician, ask if they think it's a good idea that people who legally buy music or movies should be allowed to listen to this music in their car. Or if a person filming his own wedding with his camera should be allowed to make a copy of the film for his parents.

If someone is a DJ, ask if they've ever used a sample from some CD, and what they think of requirements to make such sampling impossible, illegal, impractical or all of the above.

It's hardest with people who have no personal interest or investment in culture at all. The people whose horizon is limited to passively watching tv and listening to radio. Aslong as that continues to work, many of them couldn't care less. Indeed that's mostly the same demographic that couldn't care less about *anything* that's not presented as a problem on the TV, but *do* care if it is, especially if it involved Paris Hilton.

Ugly legislation in the U.S.

Posted Jan 28, 2006 1:26 UTC (Sat) by amikins (guest, #451) [Link]

Even before digital content, some of these types of issues showed up with copyright law already.

For instance.. It is totally illegal for my mother to make reprints of her wedding photos. They were done by a professional photographer, so the photographer has copyright on the photos. The photographer can no longer be located -- could be dead for all we know -- and no photography studio will duplicate the images, since the photograph is marked.

It's really kinda insane, that someone is legally unable to reproduce a picture of themselves.