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June 06, 2006
Redefining Copyright?
From iPAC:
Simply put, SIRA fundamentally redefines copyright and fair use in the digital world. It would require all incidental copies of music to be licensed separately from the originating copy. Even copies of songs that are cached in your computer's memory or buffered over a network would need yet another license. Once again, Big Copyright is looking for a way to double-dip into your wallet, extracting payment for the same content at multiple levels.Today, so-called "incidental" copies don't need to be licensed; they're made in the process of doing *other* things, like listening to your MP3 library or plugging into a Net radio station. If you paid for the MP3 and the radio station is up-to-date with its bookkeeping, nobody should have to pay again, right? Not if SIRA becomes law. Out of the blue, copyright holders would have created an entire new market to charge for -- and sue over. Good for them. Bad for us.
EFF, iPAC and other copyfighters are asking people to call members of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property to put off bringing SIRA to a vote ... you can find a list here.
Posted by misseli at June 6, 2006 10:02 PM
Comments
The Showtime Smithsonian controversy is not about selling our history, or giving the museum a source of income. It is about putting in place a mechanism for censorship and revisionist history. Do the math. How many homes would PAY for a Smithsonian extravaganza? But how many SCHOOLS would? And, you can bet the charge for a "public assembly" use would be a lot higher than for home use. Unlike a rented or purchased video, which can be used again and again, this on demand setup would sock it to the same taxpayers who already paid to support the Smithsonian with taxes every time it was used.
Aside from that ripoff, this agreement would effectively prevent videos with any divergent view from being made. Our kids would get the official version--and that would be all.
If showtime wants to get into the educational material business, they should get in line with everyone else, pay the same price as everyone else, and compete with everyone else.
By the way, PBS, Moore, Burns etc. have been getting a sweetheart deal. The Smithsonian lawyers were asleep at the switch when they wrote contracts which failed to include adequate royalties on projects that involved big bux, ancillary rights etc.
Like the attacks on public domain, fair use,the over-long copyright length etc. this is just another way to keep material and ideas not pleasing to politicos or corporations from surfacing.
Posted by: annon emouse at June 8, 2006 03:00 AM