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I know some of you are bored with my paranoia about copyrights, but check this out. The Obama administration’s “Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator” has asked for public input on copyright policy, and the recording and movie industries promptly proposed the most ridiculous, industry-slanted rules George Orwell could possible imagine:The RIAA and MPAA want spyware installed on your computers that would automatically delete “infringing content.” They want network-monitoring software that would halt an illegal download in its tracks. They want to deputize the FBI, Homeland Security, and border crossing guards to examine and seize MP3 players and laptops (something so egregious it even came out of the wildly over-the-top ACTA agreement).
We though “three strikes” was bad enough, but this is definitely far over the line into “guilty without recourse”. Stuff will get deleted from your computer without your knowledge, with no way to get it back, just based on their say-so. It will be basically impossible to travel with a laptop if the FBI can just seize it at any time and hold it until they feel like verifying that you don’t have any illegal downloads.
Trust the industry-friendly Obama administration to reject such ridiculous invasion of privacy? I wouldn’t, not after seeing their ongoing efforts to keep Bush-era wiretapping secret.
Update: Now there are Pirate Parties (political parties advocating relaxing copyright laws) in Canada and the UK as well as Sweden. Your agenda is really out there when single-issue political parties crop up worldwide to oppose it.
donald patriquin says
Orwellian indeed! Two ways, at least, to respond: mobilize and instill.
Firstly – Short-term: Representation to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (in the USA) and parallel bodies in Canada from organizations that have to do with the promotion of the arts. In the case of music, for example, those such as ACDA in the USA, ACCC in Canada, all performance rights orgs, composer orgs such as the Canadian League of Composers, and so on. These groups MUST mobilize all their efforts to combat such ridiculous laissez-faire measures along with their Orwellian implications.
Secondly – Long-term – educators must make every effort at all levels to instill in their students the notion on which copyright is based – fair practice. This can most effectively be done at the school level. If everyone engages in fair practice, and I suspect that most of us on either side of the fence know what that is, then the need for Orwellian (Obamian?) strictures will be greatly diminished. When a society shows signs of over-regulation, that is strong indication that all is not well on the inside.