Just got this from Public Knowledge:
Hollywood’s lobbyists are running all over the Hill to sneak in a copyright filtering provision into the stimulus package. The amendment [presented by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) will] allow ISPs to “deter†child pornography and copyright infringement through network management techniques. The amendment is very, very controversial for a couple of reasons:
- First, infringement can’t be found through “network management†techniques. There are legal uses for copyrighted works even without permission of the owner.
- Second, it would require Internet companies to examine every bit of information everyone puts on the Web in order to find those allegedly infringing works, without a hint of probable cause. That would be a massive invasion of privacy, done at the request of one industry, violating the rights of everyone who is online.
Right now, we need you to contact a few key Senators: Majority Leader Harry Reid, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee Daniel Inouye, and Chairman of the Commerce Committee Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Finance Committee Max Baucus, and senior member of the Appropriations Committee Senator Barbara Mikulski, and tell them to leave out this controversial provision.
Click here for Public Knowledge’s suggested letter/fax. Also, California, can you please do us a favor and make Feinstein your governor so the rest of us don’t have to suffer her any more? And don’t give me any noise about what a bad governor she’d be. We already know you have no standards.
Joel McDonald
I’m thinking I’m one of the few who knew how “packets” was defined prior to pulling up the post.
My assumption is the costs associated with trying to examine all traffic on the Internet, and the headaches any slowdown of information would cause, would be enough of a deterrent to any kind of legislation that would call for such measures.
Those holding copyrights need to be more user friendly, in both access and price. We’re seeing successful experiments in this. There’s got to be a good balance to be found. We’re too far away from it right now. Prices are too high for massive sales to those who would be willing, but can’t justify the cost, of purchasing copyrighted materials.
Peej
Ha ha ha…
(Item 1,and the resulting problems outlined in Joel’s second paragraph–not to mention dealing with the false positives that result–remind me of part of the daily nightmare that is my job, and so prompting my laughter. Oh, to be a fly in meetings that talk about how they actually propose to do this. Wait, right, this *is* just like our company–the senior VPs talk about signing off on something one of our subscribers want, just to push the contract through, without having a clue if it is even technically feasible, and then wave a hand airily and say, make it so.
Ha ha ha….)
MB
Lets remember that there’s no need for a demonstrable connection between actual capacity to carry out that which will be allowed by the law, and the actual law. The industry sees an opportunity to send in its Trojan Horse, and since Fritz Hollings isn’t there anymore (tho’ he’s not dead, did you know that?), Feinstein is the payload carrier of choice.*
(And to carry that bad analogy even further, Hatch would be the carrier if we had a Republican Senate. Leahy is the backup for both of them. And Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va) might be our best defense.)