Senator Plans Anti-Piracy Copyright Legislation

usurper_ii excerpts from a brief story at ComputerUser: 'Consumer electronics hardware makers, including computer manufacturers, would be required to develop anti-piracy technology to be included in their products under proposed legislation from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C.'" From the sound of it, not even Hollings is sure what his own proposal would cover. Hey, even the DMCA had to start somewhere.

Great.

[einTier]

Another piece of clueless legislation by a clueless congressman who basically says "well, we should be doing something."

I think it's time we just overhauled the whole copyright provision itself. The old model doesn't translate well to the digital age, where things can be copied at no cost, and it seems to serve only the copyright holders now, rather than the public at large it was supposed to protect. Let's just rip it out and start fresh.

Re:Great.

[Dyolf Knip]

The old model doesn't translate well to the digital age

We know;. That's what the DMCA was supposed to address. But what makes you think our oh-so tech-savvy legislators will do any better the second time around, espeially given the lobyists' and copyright office's glowing reviews of the current incarnation of the Copyright Lawyers' Employment Act?

It's an attempt at hashing the old way so it'll work with the new, and I agree, it's a pointless endeavor. They'll have to just start from scratch. But the people who are in a position of authority to do that are the ones least likely to try. The DMCA passed unanimously in the Senate, remember? Look at the IRS; there is nobody on this planet who thinks they run particularly well or could be totally fixed with just a few more laws, yet it continues. Why should copyright law be any different, particularly when the big money is pushing for even more restrictions on us.

Re: Great.

[eric434]

Well, the trouble is that that'll happen sometime near when the devil buys a snowmobile, a snowboard, and snowblower. Or when Jack Valenti becomes an anarchist.