Well thankfully, the Broadcast Flag provision has not been added to an appropriations bill in an effort to bring it in under the radar. If anyone here is familiar with Slashdot, this is an area where they've extended their reach into online activism. Not only that, but Slashdot and EFF are very closely aligned politically with the Left. Rick Boucher (D-VA) is a patron saint of the geek crowd because he's tried to learn a little bit about technology and his ranting and raving actually makes sense. The problem, as I see it, is that progressives have not latched onto this tech-savvy, motivated group enough. I think the Democrats need to make a huge push to repeal the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
I'm a big fan of Bill Clinton, but I'm not a big fan of this bill he signed. The DMCA was billed as a way to protect copyrights in the Internet era. It was supposed to deal with the problem that once something is available digitally, it becomes very difficult to keep it one place- it doesn't cost anything to post something on the Internet, and music-lovers were turning the Internet into a big piracy tool (at least in the eyes of the recording and motion picture industries). I think everybody remembers Napster. Well the DMCA was passed with bipartisan support and little thought.
And that's the problem. The main provision of the DMCA that's bothersome is the provision that states that designing a system to get around copy-protection is illegal. This sounds straightforward and okay, but it's been misused quite a bit. One of the most interesting cases is the case of DeCSS. DeCSS was a short program that broke the CSS encryption used on DVD discs to maintain region control and make it so DVDs would only play on industry-approved players. DeCSS allowed you to make a bit-by-bit copy of a DVD, which was impossible in any other way. That, of course, would open the way for all kinds of infringing uses; however, it also is the only way to make a copy of a DVD for personal use, which is protected by fair use rights. Not only that, but DeCSS was absolutely necessary for people running Linux to decode DVDs. The Linux community isn't particularly big on closed-source software so even if the MPAA had given a company the rights to the CSS encryption scheme and they had designed a Linux DVD player, it wouldn't be used (somebody tried, and found they weren't really welcome in the Free Sofware commmunity). Well this tool, with many non-infringing uses, was declared illegal and now it's even illegal to LINK to the code for DeCSS. People wear T-Shirts with the DeCSS code on the back and "This Shirt is Illegal" on the front.
The problem is, the DMCA doesn't really state what the industry's responsbilities are to maintain fair use rights, and it offers very little protection for consumers. The way I see it, the trend of taking more and more control away from consumers (I.E. copy protected CDs, DRM in digital music downloads) will continue if the industry is allowed to run roughshod over fair use rights. Within 10 years, fair use will pretty much be a thing of the past.
The worst part is that these acts do nothing to stop circumvention of copyrights. They simply reward the IP industries by allowing them to send out their products with poor encryption, then go after people who beat it. The DMCA is a classic example of applying real-world solutions to Internet problems: it just doesn't work. Just as Kos says with regard to FEC control over political blogs, you can easily see that control of the sort the music, television, and movie industries seem to want is absolutely impossible. A good example of this is "thepiratebay.org". The Pirate Bay is an offshore website that runs a BitTorrent tracker that contains almost every new movie, video game, music album, music videos, software, and other copyrighted content online. Its host country has not gone after the site even though they have been asked to by many copyright holders. The owner of the site keeps a log of all the legal threats he receives along with his pithy responses (usually along the lines of "the laws here say what I'm doing isn't illegal. You can't enforce the United States' laws here, so leave me alone or I'll sue you for harassment"). He has never removed a .torrent file yet-because he can't be effectively regulated by US authorities. And nobody really can.
Right now, if I wanted to trade copyrighted files anonymously, it's easy. If I'm worried about them tracking my IP, I'll just go to a public park where there is wireless internet and throw out my wireless card afterwards to avoid even allowing them to search by MAC address (which isn't unique and isn't searchable over the internet- I only include this if they were to assign individual addresses to all network cards they manufacture). I'd be able to get whatever I want for free without being traceable. The problem with encouraging people to find anonymous ways to browse is that that in itself is a security threat to this country- it's hard to track the communications of terrorists if they're able to do it completely untraceably.
Finally, the industry doesn't need the DMCA. CD sales have fallen, but online sales are doing fine. The tipping point where music sales online outstrip illegal downloading is coming-and the music industry is getting even more money sending out digital copies of music without the physical costs of CDs. I realized all of this was wrong when I heard about the Napster-to-go service. Napster-to-go is a 14.95 a month service that allows you to download unlimited music from Napster (now owned by BMG) and store them on a digital music player or your computer. The funny thing is that Shawn Fanning, the guy who wrote the original Napster program, had offered a similar deal directly to the music industry and they would not grant him a licensing deal. He tried to make a non-infringing use for his software and they put him out of business. Those aren't the actions of legitimate businessmen-they are the actions of monopolists who want to maintain their monopoly position.
We need to wean our party from big money so we don't get involved in boondoggles like this. Our party should be above helping corporate barracudas from eating up their competition with help from the government. We should stand for the little people, the ones who want TiVOs that let them skip commercials, or DRM-less mp3 players. We may have them now, but if the music, television and movie industries have their way, their days are numbered.
Just a few more than 2 cents...