No, it’s not a joke: Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers.
It’s bad enough that they’re planning on joining the USA in their overblown, pro-corporation, anti-personal-freedom DMCA style copyright laws, but in addition:
The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that “infringes” on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies.
The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not.
Cross the border and in addition to searching your car for purchases you haven’t claimed, but the border guard can snoop through your iPod and laptop computer looking for unlicensed media! Don’t bother thinking you have any privacy, because that border guard is going to have to inspect those racy digital photos you and your wife took while on vacation to make sure that they’re not really owned by Disney.
There is absolutely no way we can let this go through. The DMCA in the US is an utter travesty, and this is worse!
Here’s something I’ve realized about copyright law recently: It’s pro-monopoly. Monopolies break the proper working of capitalism, which is why there are laws against them. Material that can be copyrighted — a movie like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, for example — is a mini-monopoly. Sure, there are other movies out there that can compete, but there is only one company that controls the sales and viewing of that Indiana Jones movie. The way the law used to work, copyright lapsed after 28 years. This changed, however, when Mickey Mouse approached 28 and Disney lobbied the government to extend it. When that extension was almost up, they lobbied again, and again.
It appears that copyright will never, ever lapse because the US government is rolling over the corporations like Disney and allowing them to maintain their mini-monopolies forever.
On top of that, they’re creating laws to make more government employess enforce that monpolistic power!
Don’t let them. Write your MP.
Humourous update: Tom the Dancing Bug seems to agree about the Disney copyright problem.
Is it legal to rip CD’s you own onto your computer?
It is, though music publishers wish it wasn’t, and want to get the law changed so it isn’t. Thankfully Fair Use has a lot of support and public awareness, so the media companies are trying other methods to control how you use the product you’ve legally purchased.
Phew! Boy am I glad I didn’t buy that iPod!
PS Imaybe the real issue is that no countries want anyone to travel anymore…?
oh… it is a joke… just a really sad and sick one :p
Here’s what I’m curious about – how do they plan to tell the difference between mp3s which are legitimately on your iPod and ones which you’ve downloaded? And what about cell phone ring tones?
It’s a rather big mess… and I’m honestly not sure how it’s all going to turn out. I’m rather hoping that the general dis-belief in imaginary property wins out in the long run.
Er, so are they going to come over to my house and check to make sure I have all of the CDs, or what? What about stuff that I bought on iTunes before my hard drive crashed and I, luckily, had them backed up on burned CD, which essentially erases the copyright of iTunes? And the albums that I had a friend of mine digitalise from the original records? Last time I checked, all of these things were within my copyright er, rights, but there are really no ways to prove that they are owned, just by looking at my iPod.
Besides, isn’t that stuff all encoded into the actual file on an iPod, making it pretty much invisible to someone that looks at an iPod?
How the heck can they possibly enforce this? The logistics are just idiotic.
Can they even retroactively deny rights on CDs that were sold under previously copyright law? How can that work?
Crikey.
A sure fire way to avoid this, at least by American law, is to lock your ipod when you travel. They can’t force you to unlock it or force you to give up the password. Only a judge has the right to force you to answer questions and we still have the 5th amendment. Of course in the US you might be imprisoned without Habeas Corpus and waterboarded to coerce the passkey out of you.
My whole problem with Copyright right now is that I had about 200 CDs stolen from me. Most of them were backed up on my computer, but I didn’t keep receipts to prove that I was the owner of the CDs. Does that make me a criminal?