Why the Intellectual Property Protection Act is lame and what you can do about it

We received a TON of email from readers regarding yesterday's post about the Intellectual Property Protection Act (which would outlaw fast-forwarding through commercials on DVDs, for example) that is being railroaded through Congress and what they could do about it, and since we didn't have a very good answer, we asked Wendy Seltzer of the Electronic Frontier Foundation if she could provide a little more detail about the issues involved and some information about what you can do to help stop this bill from passing into law:

The first problem with the omnibus intellectual property bill barreling through Congress' lame duck session this week is figuring out what's in it. That's because the bill is a ragtag collection of bills whose special interest backers couldn't get them through during Congress' ordinary session. So now, they're trying again, hoping that their bills will face less public scrutiny in the rush to close the session.

But the bills � bad ideas the first time they were introduced � don�t taste any better together. Among the bills the package may include:

• The Piracy Deterrence and Education creates a new crime of �offering for distribution,� with jail terms up to five years. Since the crime doesn�t require proof of willfulness, the standard for other copyright crime, people could be prosecuted merely for having 1000 songs in their �share� folders, without intending that they be redistributed.

• The Family Movie Act exempts from copyright or trademark litigation the skipping of portions of movies � but leaves makers and users of commercial-skipping technology open to lawsuits like the one that bankrupted ReplayTV.

• The Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act presumes that anyone who has tried to protect his or her privacy by faking the WHOIS info in a domain name registration is willfully infringing copyright or trademark. (see letter from ACLU, ALA, CDT, EFF, and PK)

• The PIRATE Act authorizes the Justice Department to step in for entertainment companies to prosecute civil copyright infringement cases.

• An anti-counterfeiting provision would add new dangers to fair use of digital media (See Lessig blog)

Both the substance of these bills and the rushed way they�re being re-introduced now are dangerous to the public interest. Public Knowledge has an action alert set up where you can let your congressional representatives know your concerns.

[christopher wanko @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

I don't understand how hiding my identity infringes a copyright or trademark, unless I don't own it.

[Mike M @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

I'm usually not a political person, but the link at the end of the post makes it really easy to submit your opposition. Took me about 15 minutes to customize the letter and send it.
Here's my customization exerpts..

>>
My name is Mike Montalvo, President and head engineer for Digital Tuning, Inc. We develop hardware and software for automotive applications, and have put in many man hours developing systems to protect our copyrighted material as well as dealing with violators.
...
The Family Movie Act (formerly H.R. 4586):
...
If I purchase a DVD, there is no reason anyone should have control over how I view that DVD in my home. Once again Hollywood is trying to micromanage what I can and cannot do with content that I legally own.

If this bill get's passed, then I would like to see a bill that would require Hollywood to put warnings on the box stating that there are unskipable advertisements on the DVD. I simply won't buy those DVDs. It's only fair to let the public know what they are buying beforehand.
<<

[Doug Chase @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

Yesterday I contacted Sens. Clinton and Schumer - Clinton's email-bot wrote back with an ambiguous "well I'll take your views into consideration" but didn't commit one way or the other. No reply from Schumer.

I just wrote to Sen. McCain, however, because he's been doing great work on this (cf. Lessig Blog). Fire up your email clients people!

[macstibs @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

I'm so sick of the government doing nothing but scr3wing us. The whole system is morally bankrupt. Of the people, by the people, for the people? I think not.