LWN: Comments on "DMCA critics say reform still needed (News.com)"

DMCA critics say reform still needed (News.com)

purslow — Fri, 20 Dec 2002 05:39:19 +0000

The problem in the UK is that it doesn't have a constitution,
so there's no limit on majority-party power. The problem in the USA
is that its inhabitants think theirs is the only country in the World,
so they can't really conceive of a place where Congress' laws don't apply.

China, India, France, Germany & Brazil are already showing they know
all too well how far dependence on foreign proprietary software undermines
their independence in other ways & are taking Linux seriously as a result.
The more the USA & its corporations try to throw their weight around
in the rest of the World, the more they generate that sort of reaction.
Luckily, many of the good people in the USA are well aware of the limits
of military & financial power & their influence has an effect.

Just buy a compass & follow those African-Americans 150 yrs ago,
who heard of the land of real freedom to the north where anyone belongs
who tolerates his/her neighbours, there's no DMCA or Homeland Security
& we have a constitution & a supreme court which really protect us.
We also use & contribute to free software & no Canadian government
is likely to try to interfere with that freedom & would fail if it did.

DMCA critics say reform still needed (News.com)

beejaybee — Thu, 19 Dec 2002 09:46:00 +0000

"It's encouraging to see the ENTIRE legislative branch hasn't lost its mind,"

This is one nice aspect of having a jury system. Juries can, and do, signal displeasure at bad legislation by refusing to convict.

Here in the UK we now have a government which not only continues to make bad laws (in fact, restrictive legislation is being introduced faster and faster), but is now attempting to "rebalance" the criminal justice system "in favour of the victim" by (amongst other things) stamping down heavily on the right to trial by jury.

Think yourself lucky to be living in the "land of the free" (even if it is significantly less free than it once was). Civil rights are being frittered away by the rest of the world, too. The _real_ problem here is that Joe Public seems to think this is not a Bad Idea - failing completely to take into account that terrorists, in fact criminals in general, don't give a damn as to what the letter of the law might say.

BTW the US computer hardware/software market is so large, and the business interests promoting restrictive legislation are so widespread, that the chance of the market splitting into seperate US and "foreign" factions are, to all intents and purposes, nil. We are going to have to face up to Palladium on consumer equipment. The positive aspect here is that the "true" computer market may have a chance to emerge from under the crushing burden of the multimedia guff which is accreting onto our systems.

DMCA critics say reform still needed (News.com)

Duncan — Thu, 19 Dec 2002 04:46:06 +0000

I really hope he can get the changes through.

After 9/11, the trend seems to be the other way, and I'm actually looking at potentially
being forced to move out of the US in a few years to continue to pursue my free source
interests, in ordered to avoid being jailed for it, here. If the trend continues the way
it's headed, just as the US remains the only nation of significant trading size still
standardized on non-metric, it will be the only nation still standardized on proprietary
OSs, with the rest of the world standardized on Linux and other Software Libre. The US
will under that scenario platform on Paladium/MS, and require "pay-per-play" of
everything from music to video to e-books, on pain of imprisonment or certainly civil
suit for not complying, or continuing to attempt "free" and non-comformant use. That
road is certainly headed for disaster, IMO, but even if not, should we be headed much
farther down it, I'm anticipating having to move, rather than go with it.

It's encouraging to see the ENTIRE legislative branch hasn't lost its mind, and headed
with the lemmings for the virtual cliff, even if it IS a few miles (years) off, presently.