Congress Introduces "Fair Use" Bill (DRM News)

[Professor Riffs]

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-ente...-us-240326.php

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use. Without a change in the law, individuals will be less willing to purchase digital media if their use of the media within the home is severely circumscribed and the manufacturers of equipment and software that enables circumvention for legitimate purposes will be reluctant to introduce the products into the market."

Sounds about right, eh?

[dolivas]

I would say that's a good bill to promote. The better the ability we have to more widely use our media the better the flow of information becomes. Partitioning off music. movies. etc.. into certain sections just stagnates any kind of enjoyability a user could have for their item.

[PupatingOmnivore]

Sadly the RIAA is out to screw the people who would like to broadcast your music over the Web:

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070304/223155.shtml

[PupatingOmnivore]

Create digital music has a really interesting interview with the guy who runs Pandora. If you make music and would like to get it played on Internet radio you should definitely read this.

From what I've read, it's pretty clear the government is colluding with the RIAA (i.e., the lobby group that represents the big labels) to set prices high enough to kill off the Internet radio stations that play independent (non-top 40) music. Why? Because the RIAA is still too greedy, clueless, reactionary, and unimaginative to actually sit down and figure out the Internet. They made the decision long ago to fight it rather than adapt. Sad.