[free-sklyarov] [DMCA_discuss] Senator plans anti-piracy bill]

[Jeme A Brelin]

On Fri, 31 Aug 2001, Jay Sulzberger wrote:
> But after Congress passes the Universal Defense of Copyright Act, you
> will not be able to buy a new machine that you alone control.  And use
> of old "legacy piracy devices" on the Net will consitute a felony.

Oh, it won't be an act of Congress.  This will be a dictum from the
Computer Freedom Consortium made up of the largest and "most interested"
players in the internet (read: e-commerce and advertising).

Congress takes a "hands-off" approach to the internet and the White House
has stated that it is "best to let the market regulate itself".  So the
commissions of private industry will come to outweigh the citizens.

Listen to that statement again "let the market regulate itself".

This presupposes that the whole internet is a market and you and I are
participants in that market... and since we're not businesses, we must be
consumers.

But I'm not a consumer on the internet, I'm a citizen.  I'm not here to
practice commerce, I'm here to practice communication.  And I'm not a
participant in the market, I'm a participant in a community.

I say, let the community regulate itself.  And the community's commercial
interests are few compared with their non-commercial interests.

A community should have a democratic structure.

> Detection, accusation, no trial, and removal will be automatic.  
> Today the Velociraptor Sytem of Licensed Access is almost ready for
> mandated all Earth deployment.  The Microsoft component "Papers
> Please!" is already installed in all Starbucks.  For your convenience!

That part is completely accurate.  And we can thank NewsCorp, Disney,
Viacom, Bertelsman and AOL/TimeWarner for it.

J.
-- 
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     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
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 [cc] counter-copyright
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