(afterdawn.com)
NBC triggered Vista broadcast flag On Monday night it appears that users trying to record NBC TV shows using Microsoft Vista's Media Center were unable to, the reason being that NBC sent off a broadcast flag that in turn activated Media Center's built in DRM copy protection measures, and stopped recordings of over-the-air and cable broadcasts.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota single mother of two, for sharing songs on Kazza back in 2005. Trial was held this week in Duluth. In over 26,000 lawsuits brought by RIAA, this is the first to go to trial and is considered to be a landmark case in the war between the entertainment industry and file sharers.
At issue were about two dozen songs copyrighted by Virgin Records, Capitol Records, Sony BMG, Arista Records, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records and UMG Recordings.
Ms. Thomas said that she never heard of Kazaa. An ex-boyfriend also testified that Ms. Thomas was not involved in file-sharing. RIAA tracked down Thomas using her IP address and ISP records. Ms. Thomas's attorney suggested she might have been a victim of malware. Twelve jurors found Thomas liable for the copyright infringements and set the penalty at $9,250 per song, for a total of $222,000. She will also have to pay the studio's legal fees (probably another $250,000).
Before the entertainment industry began to file lawsuits, there were 6.9 million households using file-sharing programs. As of March 2007, that number has increased to 7.8 million. In the past 3 years, over a thousand "brick-and-mortar" record stores have closed, partly because their younger customers are downloading music. Despite facts to the contrary, the RIAA claims that their "sue everybody" campaign is working and will continue.
The world has gone crazy. Let's presume that she did it. A single-mom, living paycheck-to-paycheck, has to pay a half-million dollars, for sharing a couple-dozen files? The penalty does not fit the crime.
Photo: www.signonsandiego.com
The record industry thinks that copying your CD to your MP3 player is piracy. "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song," Jennifer Pariser, head of litigation and anti-piracy for Sony BMG Music Entertainment, testified Tuesday.
Even sampling the briefest snippet of a song, and using the sample in your own song, movie, or website, requires a license.
Major League Baseball asserted that player's names and statistics are protected by copyright, and that watching your local baseball broadcast on Slingbox is illegal.
The application of the Copyright has gone too far.
An idea is just an idea. Once communicated, that idea is released for analysis, discussion, and even re-use as part of something else. This concept is widely accepted. However, reasonable people seem to agree that it is wrong to outright copy and sell someone else's work as if it were your own.
Just like CD and DVD burners make it easy to copy recorded music, the printing press makes it easy to copy written works. In fact, shortly after the invention of the printing press, competing printers began selling unauthorized copies of various works. This free-for-all undercut the income of authors and editors of the original work. The need for the copyright was born.
The US Constitution requires the Congress to, "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." And the Congress did, protecting works with a copyright lasting for 14 years with a renewable 14-year term if the author was still alive.
Over 200 years of lobbying have corrupted the Constitution's simple directive. Now a copyright lasts until 70 years beyond the death of the author, and corporate works (something created by a company) are protected for 95 years after publication or 120 years after the creation.
As a barbershop-quartet singer, I've provided the musical entertainment for birthday parties. At the end of the show, I've directed the audience in a round of "Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You! (and etc.)." Guess what? That's a copyright violation! How stupid is that?
The copyright law as it exists and is applied today totally ignores that people naturally re-use the ideas of others as part of their own ideas, and the expressions of others as part of their own expressions. It ignores the fact that, at some point, ideas and expressions are so widespread that they are part of the culture and cannot be controlled.
It's time to stop the madness. It's time to return to a simple 14-year term, renewable once -- or some similar law that recognizes both the rights of the creators and the nature of ideas and art.
sick