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IEEE heads off RIAA at the Congressional pass
http://www.timesrepublican.com/columns/story/1014202004_colcol.asp
By STEVE HILL
While you were looking the other direction, Congress nearly enacted a piece of legislation that would have thrown the United States into a technological dark-age.
Had it passed, it would have outlawed basically any device that could be used to make a copy of a copyright protected work.
Orrin Hatch, the senator from Utah authored and spear-headed this bill at the behest of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). RIAA has made sizable contributions to Hatch's re-election funds. He also has the dubious honor of crafting more legislation that has ultimately been found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court than any other law maker in history.
Hatch is hardly an unbiased instrument in all of this. He is a self-proclaimed recording artist who writes and records songs that he makes available for sale. Surf to
http://www.hatchmusic.com/songs.html and you can select from any one of his nine CD's he has recorded. I wonder if he would have that many CD's out if he wasn't in a position to reap huge campaign donations from the music recording industry.
The Induce Act that recently died in committee after its fourth re-write was opposed by the large influential IEEE, (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). The consortium was really all that stood between you and your i-pod or your copying machine or tape recorder and the trash can. At
http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/issues/INDUCE/index.html you can read about their position and subsequent battle against the proposed legislation.
The Induce Act would have left any manufacturer of technology that could be used to copy and or reproduce a copyrighted work open to lawsuits and potential government action against them. It was a loosely worded bill that would have left the determination of inducement up to the "reasonable man" standard. If a reasonable man could be convinced there was an act of copyright inducement caused by a technology, the maker of that technology would be held legally responsible.
This loosely written bill could have been applied to many items including the copying machine at the library, your VCR, and even digital cameras to name a few. While this bill would have stymied technological development and advance in America, the rest of the world would pass us by as they continue to develop products on those lines.
This bill was only stopped when Hatch asked the IEEE consortium to sit down with the RIAA and work out language that was acceptable to both. RIAA showed their true selves when they refused any type of compromise and came to the table with the bill's fourth re-write that was even more restrictive than the previous three.
The IEEE stated "The recording industry continues to propose language that would not solve the piracy problems in the manner (Hatch) identified, but instead would effectively put at risk all consumer electronics, information technology products, and Internet products and services that aren't designed to the industry's liking," the groups wrote. "In fact, the most recent draft put forward by the recording industry at 1 a.m. this morning is a large step backwards from previous drafts in that it would jeopardize more legitimate products and would create a flood of litigation, and thus would hurt vital sectors of the U.S. economy. In short, the draft is unacceptable." according to an article at
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000661869
The fact that this bill nearly passed, and probably would have without the intervention of big private consortiums indicated a wider problem. The American public and their desires and wants on this topic were widely ignored. It wasn't until big non-public entities got involved was there a change in the atmosphere.
The bill would have basically reversed the Sony Beta-max decision that allowed VCRs to be manufactured because there were many applications for the VCR other than recording copyrighted works. RIAA wants there to be no copying allowed, and have been working with congress for the last 10 years to chip away at the ability of the general public to make fair-use copies of copyrighted material.
In a nutshell, RIAA wants you to buy a second CD for the car rather that have the ability to create a backup disc and play the backup in the car.
The really interesting thing in all of this is the fact that the music sales that RIAA is working to protect represents 1 percent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) while the industry they are trying to control through legislation, represents an estimated 10-15 percent of our GDP.
In this instance our legislative process worked ... barely. Unfortunately it isn't until the goliaths of lobbying started swinging at each other that the public got the best end of the deal. We might not be that fortunate the next time.
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Steve Hill is an Independent computer tech. He can be contacted at: Steve@GorillaPC.net or by calling 641-750-5757.
DeadMan2003
fjones987
