The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved H.R. 2391, the Intellectual Property Protection Act, a bundle of pending bills that would eliminate fair use—the bane of the copyright cartel—once and for all. Offering criminal punishments for anyone who “infringes a copyright by… offering for distribution to the public by electronic means, with reckless disregard of the risk of further infringement,” the proposed legislation would make users of peer-to-peer networks criminals and, according to some critics, make Apple’s iTunes illegal.
As usual, Wired has a pretty good overview of the situation including this chilling passage:
“The bill would also permit people to use technology to skip objectionable content - like a gory or sexually explicit scene - in films, a right that consumers already have. However, under the proposed language, viewers would not be allowed to use software or devices to skip commericals or promotional announcements ‘that would otherwise be performed or displayed before, during or after the performance of the motion picture,’ like the previews on a DVD.”
Whoa. Mandatory viewing of commercials. That’s beyond the cartel’s wildest wet dreams.
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