A big ole FUCK YOU goes out today to Representative Howard Berman for sucking the long hard cock of the record industry. Now generally speaking, I don't fall prey to using stupid and inflammatory language for no reason, but here I'll make an exception for myself. I don't like Howard Berman. I don't like the recording industry or its interest groups, and I don't like the other bozos on Capital Hill (Fritz Hollings comes to mind...) who cannot get their collective heads wedged far enough up the ass of anyone or anything in entertainment.
That said, her specifically is the text of Rep. Berman's prposed legislation that I object to:
>"A copyright holder shall not be liable in any criminal or civil action
>for disabling, interfering with, blocking, diverting, or otherwise
>impairing the unauthorized distribution, display, performance, or
>reproduction of his or her copyrighted work on a publicly accessible
>peer-to-peer file trading network."
What???? Are you fucking kidding me? So Captain Recording Company can hack my PC, mess up my stuff, damage my property, and they're not liable because they hold a copyright? Where do they get off? And this dopey legislation only requires that the copyright holder have "a reasonable suspicion." Great Representative. Thanks for the trust....
Alright, so off my lunatic ravings.... here are my objections more clearly and concisely:
1. No private party should have the right to destroy or damage the property of another
2. Government is the only entity which should have this power and it should be used sparingly if at all
3. All government seizures or "destructions" must respect Constitutional restrictions afforded under due process and probable cause
4. The music industry could likely solve this problem without legislation by providing a marketable product that meets consumers demands. In a nutshell, they could offer high quality downloadable music in a multitude of formats. They could price items by the song or in an "all-you-can-eat" subscription format. There are complications with such a formula but given the choice I believe many individuals would rather have quality music lawfully, rather than scour the net for hours looking at random downlaod sites that may or may not offer quality reproductions. Unfortunately, the companies cling to their outdated method of selling only full CDs with a majority of songs that users do not want to pay to hear. Sell a single or a download and watch your sales rise. Reports in Reason (or maybe Salon) Online indicated as much noting that sales declined as companies discontinued the CD-Single format.
Anyway, there is a good discussion about all of this on Politech. Here's the link:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03793.html
posted by JM at 5:01 PM
