Mark Gilbert’s Blog

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been updated and seems to be giving off some very odd signals. The upgraded act, which has the blessing of the entertainment industry and the Bush government, chnages maximum sentences and updates some other issues. It would appear that the DMCA will provide a maximum sentence of ten years inside for the crime of software and music piracy. Less related to us here is the fact that the FBI will be given the powers to wiretap suspected pirates. Worse still the update gives 10 years for attempted piracy, suggesting you only have to try to pirate a film or music.

10 Years imprisonment is a very long time, and sends the wrong message to society.

For example assaulting a police officer will earn you five years, downloading child porn will attract you seven years, assaulting without a weapon will get you ten years and aggravated assault carries just six years.

So if I copy a music CD I am deemed a worse person and a bigger risk to society than a paedophile who distributes pictures of sexual attacks on children?

If I copy a DVD I will get 10 years or if I punch someone in the face and then pound them into a coma I’ll get off with 6 years.

All seems wrong somehow. But this is the kind of upside down world we live in. A world where law makes are in the pockets of big media organisation. A world where little Timmy who copies a Disney film would get a longer sentence than a man who sexually assaults him.

Worse still, the bill would expand section 1201 of the DMCA that bars trafficking in or distributing software capable of bypassing DRM systems to make it a crime to “make, import, export, obtain control of, or possess” such software. So that means if I have a DVD that I want to transfer to my iPod, I’m a criminal for using Handbrake to do it. The route they’re going down is that if you want a DVD you buy a DVD, but if you want to watch it on your iPod you have to buy another iPod version. Why the fuck should I have to buy the same film again in iPod format when I already own it on DVD? This is what the entertainment industry wants though. They want me to buy a CD in digital format from iTunes then buy it on CD to use in my car.

This madness really has to stop, it’s getting well beyond a joke now. I hope you all agree with me on this.

Cheers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 26th, 2006 at 10:54 and is filed under Music, Personal, Politics, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.