In light of Senate passage of the “Pirate Act“, authorizing civil copyright enforcement by the Justice Dept.—the content industry gets Justice to do it’s work for them—and the House’s passing of H.R. 4077: The Piracy Deterrence and Education Act (PDEA), it’s time to oppose the onslaught of current legislation aimed at keeping the future of music under the lock and key of the corporate content industries.
Let’s start with the Induce Act—”The IICA (“Induce Act”) is one of the most dangerously misguided and malicious pieces of technology legislation to rear its ugly head in the last decade.”
According to Ernest Miller, today’s scheduled markup of S.2560 (The Induce Act) in the Senate Judiciary committee isn’t happening. Instead,
the (Sen.) Hatch staff has invited a bunch of people, most of them content people, to a massive negotiation session at 1 p.m. in Dirksen 226. This is not a public meeting, but could be staked out. MPAA, RIAA, BSA, AOL-Time Warner were invited.
CopyFight has the worst case scenario
We have a House copyright bill (PDEA) and a Senate copyright bill (Induce). November rolls around, and ’tis the season for appropriations. Someone takes out the scissors and tape, and PDEA and Induce become PDEA+Induce. There’s an appropriations bill that looks a little lonely. Suppose we staple PDEA+Induce to the bottom? That way, it’ll be sure to sneak by—because you can’t hold back government.
This is what could happen if the Induce Act becomes law.
Check out The Induce Act Blog and Miller’s Hatch’s Hit List for more information and analysis of the ramifications of this legislation. Be sure to check out IPac, the new geek/technology political action committee, as well. IPac’s mission:
IPac is a nonpartisan group dedicated to preserving individual freedom through balanced intellectual property policy.
We believe that technological innovation and individual creativity are vital to the future of this country. We believe that a prosperous and democratic society depends on freedom for all individuals to pursue scientific invention and artistic expression. Unfortunately, new intellectual property laws threaten to stifle these freedoms and restrict public participation in science, art, and political discourse.