Well, the Children's Internet Protection Act didn't go through...you know, litle thing called the first amendment. I'm suprised at the utter thoughtlessness of the people who come up with these bills. I haven't heard of anyone asking the people who run the porn sites just to voluntarily make a tag that browsers can read that says that their site is for 18, 21, whatever and over. If they did this, then there wouldn't be any more problems with netnannies labeling sites incorrectly, no more problems with kids stumbling upon porn when looking for stuff related to games (i've seen it pop up while my little brother was looking for cheat codes...shame) and hell...no more netnannies period.

-=Conspiracy Mode On=-

Mabye the filtering companies paid off some representatives like is done unfortunately commonly today, got them to make the bill to get more of their software sold and guarantee a future for their industry, similar to what the RIAA and MPAA are doing. But they didn't count on the Supreme Court stepping in and deeming their law unconstutional.

-=Conspiracy Mode Off=-

If this is really just a bid to keep their industry from falling through, then mabye it should die. Mabye they should just stop taking donations from corporations. If they did, mabye congress would be a little bit more honest and true to their constituents. I guess I'll just keep hoping for that perfect government.

Music and piracy. It's getting hard to find a site without the two words in the same sentence. But is the whole file-shring phenomenon really piracy?

      I don't think so for the reason that people who share files don't make money off of it. Well, most of us. If this was the definition tied to the now demonized word piracy, then the RIAA and MPAA's cases would look much less potent. Now there's a new recruit to the dark side from the west coast, congressman Adam Schiff. Schiff represents the 27th district of California who's residents include Disney, Warner Bros, NBC and ABC, Nickelodeon studios, Dreamworks SKG, and Black Entertainment Television. That's a lot of corporate ass to kiss and be pimped by.

      So...what do we do now that there's a Media parasite in both the Senate and House of Representatives? I don't know. A "million geek march" might be enough, but then Valenti(1) would attempt to dismiss many participants as "pirates". But if it was called the "million formerly faithful music CD buyers march", it might have a pretty big impact since participants would be seen has a force with lots of money not to be messed with. Not to say that we aren't now, but the name would instill fear in the meaty blood pump(2) of Hilary Rosen especially.

      These organizations think they're losing money every time a movie or song is downloaded. If this is so, I would like to see the like to theior bank accounts that shows every time a song is copied, a withdrawal is made. If not ten they are only losing prospective sales due to their "copy-protection is necessary" theme.

      I think that we shouldn't follow this bill if it passes. I mean, if it does, I think the RIAA and MPAA should have to foot the bill. They damn well better be able to replace every computer in this country if this passes. If not, then STAY THE F*** AWAY FROM MY (key word MY, as in you paid nothing for it) COMPUTER!!!

1. I did enjoy The O' Reilly Factor when he grilled Valenti over the R movies targeted to kids, too bad he didn't grill him on the much more important subject at hand...
2. I believe having a heart requires you to have some consideration for others; if she had any consideration for the listeners and artists instead of lining her pocketbook with crap taxes on CD-Rs to combat their definition of piracy, I would have had different wording

Wow. This place is really messed up right now. We currently have many representatives in the government that listen to their "cash constituents" instead of the people who put them in office, another crap copy-protection bill apparently intended to destroy most fair-use rights that we have now.
      The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion act is the uber-bill to give the RIAA and MPAA the keys to the kingdom. They would have control over the coputers of the world, basically turning the intenet from a free-speech haven (for most of us...) into the next media craze, to pimp Britney Spears or whatever else the RIAA or MPAA wants everyone to go head over heels for onto our computers.
      Mabye they're scared because the internet allows the people to have a choice of who they want their movies to come from. Mabye they want to see an independent flick over the internet. I say so be it. If this Consumer Broadband and Digit...f$&# it, the name's too long...passes, then independent films and music could very well become blocked in every computer in the United States.
      Sometimes, I feel like a major act of civil disobedience is the only way to counteract this atrtocity of corrupt leadership and overambitious , multi-national corporations. I'm talking about something huge. Somehting that would wake the US up from it's TV-fueled stupor and realize who's really in control. Mabye having every Slashdot reader place a call or two to their senators isn't a bad idea. If anyone has any ideas that would get everyone off of their ass, short of a major revolution, i'm open to suggestions.
      With the cartels armed with the DMCA and CBDTPA, and the current pimping of the whole intellectual property bit, 1984 and its "thoughtcrimes" are much closer than I thought. I know I sould a little bit paranoid, but it's around 11 at night, past my ranting prime time. Later.