MyDD :: New Intellectual Property Bill in Senate is a Direct Threat to Blogging

New Intellectual Property Bill in Senate is a Direct Threat to Blogging

by Chris Bowers, Mon Jul 26, 2004 at 01:34:18 PM EST

On the day we when bloggers have "officially" become bigtime and mainstream, the Senate is crafting a bill that could lead to our untimely demise. The Record Industry Association of America, already more than a quarter century into its attempt to destroy music through draconian intellectual property laws, has now allied with Orin Hatch in an attempt to destroy all technology:

The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a bill Thursday that would hold technology companies liable for any product they make that encourages people to steal copyright materials.(...)

"We think this is a recipe for disaster for the Internet," said Markham Erickson, general counsel for NetCoalition, a public policy group that represents Internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Internet service providers. "The bill as it is currently drafted is extremely broad and not entirely clear. It would, at a minimum, undermine the Sony Betamax decision."

In the Betamax decision, the Supreme Court ruled that any technology that people use for legal purposes would be legal -- even if the device could be used for illegal purposes, like content piracy. Because of the ruling, the consumer electronics industry and Hollywood went on to develop a thriving market in home video and DVDs.

"This takes an objective standard and replaces it with a subjective one that allows a copyright holder to try and determine the intent of a company when producing a product," Erickson said. "It's not outside the realm of possibility that you would be placing the entertainment industry in charge of technological innovation if this law were passed."

In addition to its widespread impact throughout the technology sector, this law could potentially be used to sue several existing blogger platforms, including moveable type and typepad, out of existence. Don't think for a minute that large media conglomerates wouldn't at least entertain the thought of putting their new competitors, on both the right and left, out of business.

Update: Contact your Senators about this bill. It is called the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, and is Senate Bill 2560.

Tags: Blogosphere (all tags)

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help (none / 0)

Can someone give me the # of the bill so when
I write my reps about this I can reference it
correctly? thnx.

by Anonymous Citizen on Mon Jul 26, 2004 at 02:45:08 PM EST

destroy all monsters! (5.00 / 1)

First, yes, this is a really bad idea and has lots of potentially ugly consequences. "Destroy all technology" is a bit over the top, though. Wired News likes! to be! excited! (I used to work there)

Ernest Miller has all over this story (LawMeme has a good index to the work he's done). They actually ended up holding hearings, when they were originally going to try to slide it through without any, so I guess there's some small hope.

What really gets me about it, though, is that it is NOT just Orrin Hatch. Other co-sponsors of the bill: Tom Daschle, Patrick Leahy, Barbara Boxer.

Uh, go team? Geez.

by tatere on Mon Jul 26, 2004 at 02:49:06 PM EST

It's worse than you think (none / 0)

Look at the real motivation behind this bill and its relatives: to shut down public access to mass communications. Here's a DKOS thread about it (I keep wanting to write a big diary there about it, but the flesh is weak):

http://dailykos.com/comments/2004/7/9/11835/15672/25#25

And adapted from another dkos post:

The INDUCE bill is worse than Clinton's 1996 telecom bill that signed the broadcast media over to the Republicans. I'll even say it's worse than the PATRIOT Act and the Iraq war put together. The immediate effect won't be worse, of course, but the difference is there's nowhere near as much money with a vested interest in keeping the PATRIOT Act or the Iraq War going forever. So those things are mere politics and will change with as the political climate changes.

The INDUCE Act is different in that it amounts to a massive privatization of what's up til now been civil rights. It turns control over public communication, and even control over the technology that makes public communication possible, over to corporations, who will then spend whatever it takes to defend that control. If it passes, will never be undone (unless the courts throw it out rather quickly, which is unlikely). See Jessica Litman, Digital Copyright for how it's always been like that.

Getting rid of (e.g.) racial segregation through the civil rights movement was possible because while there was some cultural resistance from rednecks, there weren't any powerful financial interests profiting from keeping segregation in place. Getting rid of the INDUCE Act will be more like getting rid of slavery, which did run up against powerful interests, and which took a civil war that killed more Americans than WW1 and WW2 put together.

--clyde

by Anonymous Citizen on Mon Jul 26, 2004 at 03:10:33 PM EST
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