Congress legalizes ClearPlay
posted April 20th 2005 6:00AM
Not that there was ever any doubt that Congress would pass this, but yesterday the House of Representatives approved the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. Besides making it explicitly legal for companies like ClearPlay to sell software which automatically edits out anything that anyone might possibly find objectionable from DVDs, the bill also makes it a federal crime to use a video camera to record films in movie theaters (punishable by up to three years in prison for the first offense) and sets a penalty of up to ten years in prison for sharing a movie or a song prior to its commercial release. We've got no beef with the ClearPlay-enabling part of the legislation (for the most part), since people should be able to do what they want with a DVD they've bought and paid for, but that was really just a smokescreen to railroad the rest of the bill, which may as well have been written by the MPAA and RIAA's lobbyists. The bill now heads to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.
Oh, my god! =)
Sound like the stupidest law I've ever heard. Going to prison TEN years for sharing a song? Muhahahah! You yanks... Sure, if you rape someone, but sharing a single song?
Isn't it a much greater crime that the music industy's stealing from the artist?
Artist: "Hey, I've got a record to sell"
Music industry: "Sure, np. But only if you give me all rights to your songs, and then I'll cut you in on 1.5%. Deal?"
"...and sets a penalty of up to ten years in prison for sharing a movie or a song prior to its commercial release."
That's _up to_ 10 years. Take a look at a lot of laws on the books, especially ones that specify fines and/or prison time: The maximum penalties are a lot harsher than what convicts usually get sentenced to.
After all, that's why trials have a sentencing phase to determine exactly how badly someone broke the law and what the penalties should be.
This law just makes illegal something that was already illegal. Even the old FBI warning on videos says something like "Up to 5 years" but people convicted under anti-piracy laws such as this one are usually just fined. Repeat or major offenders get jail.
I don't think we'll see the pre-release law really enforced, because there are laws just like it on the books already and they aren't that effective. As for the theatre-cam law... the penalties are kinda harsh, but if it discourages people from making crappy theatre-cam videos I'll be happy.
...As for the theatre-cam law... the penalties are kinda harsh, but if it discourages people from making crappy theatre-cam videos I'll be happy....
Oh yeah, agreed. My only beef is that they don't go far enough. I mean, there should at least be a fine for telling your friends the ending of the movie. They sure aren't going to shell out to see it after that. It's bad enough that you're allowed to remeber what happened in the movie yourself. Well, congress can't solve everything at once, I suppose.
Actually, now the CAM movies will get worse because they have to conceal the cameras better.
Bootlegging and drugs: the need for money doesn't go away just because a law was written. They'll continue to grow.
This sucks.
So when can I get my DirtyPlay that edits out all the non-filthy bits? I'd pay for a device the filters out all the crap out of 'The Gift' and only shows the good part.
This would also seem to make trading bootlegs illegal too, and now with a 10 year prison sentence. wow. I wonder at what point objectionable content starts being removed from videos, and anyone who shares the original is thrown into jail.
10 years max sentence is absurd: #1 I agree completely. And i might add, john (#5) is on to something here.
#1 is on to nothing. The artist can say "Hell no, I don't agree" When the artist agrees, they give over all the rights to the record companies and at that point the artist has NO say anymore. That's the way it works. Why people don't see that is beyond me. The record company didn't force anyone into accepting the contracts.
But wouldn't you rather have bootleggers in jail instead of murderers and drug dealers? Come on bootlegging has become the new victimless crime and as such should be stopped. Do you realize how many millions of dollars you're taking out of Oliver Stone & Rob Riner's pocket, not to mention WhiteSnake and Tesla? IT MUST BE STOPPED!
just finished a research paper about this... more absurd then the v-chip. At least, it's a bit more innovative and legal then the other company that was set up to completely dub, splice and re-edit films and then turn around and resell the clean, 'frankenseinian' version as their own... now, if they had done this sort of thing with the music industry they would've never made it as far as they did. unlike the film industry, the music industry plays nice with politics.
it'd be pretty funny to build a hack version of this that inserts phrases or images instead - ala fight club, film splicing.
Ahh, and the extreme right gov't strikes again. Is anyone really surprised? Remember, this is the same gov't that brought us the patriot act and are trying to pass the pirate act. Does it bother anyone else that techincally you can kill a person (manslaughter, second degree, anything but premeditated first degree), beat the living crap out of someone, rob a store with a weapon, potentially shoot or stab someone, threaten someone's life, steal a car, etc, and get the same or LESS time in prison as sharing a friggen mp3??? It sure as hell bothers me. The people need to wake up to this bs.
EDIT: Forgot to mention one thing about bootlegs. Most bootleg movies come from overseas, usually from france. Cams are only lightly respected in the scene, and most ppl wait for a telesync or better (a projectionist takes a high quality camera and takes a line in from the projector for audio and leaves it on the ledge). Only small time groups or individuals do cams in american theaters, most big groups just skip cam releases because the quality is so horrible.
About the clearplay portion. The mute and FF'd and skip button on remotes basically do the same thing, it's just manual vs. automatic. I guess that's why on some DVD's the skip and menu button are disabled during the trailers - so one has to watch/ff past the trailers... (even if it is at FF speed - since the FF button seems to usually be enabled)
Passed by a congress controlled by the so-called party of small government: a law that has no business at the federal level. Protections for copyright holders are already in place. The specific methods of violating copyrights (i.e. using a vidcam in a theater) can be prohibited by states, should they care to do so. If not, film distributors already have recourse in civil courts to recoup financial losses. This is just big government providing the muscle for big business, and it's sick.
What I find so interesting about this is that wouldn't this mean giving ClearPlay the OK to circumvent the DMCA. Their software would have to be able to do so in order to make it's edits. So giving them the authority to do this based on morality grounds is acceptable?
To #8: You're right, the artist can disagree. Then again, there are 5 record labels in the world, and they've all set "industry standards" for deals. You disagree, you disappear. That's how it actually works. Nice try, though.
This bill is insane. #9 hit the nail on the head--sharing an mp3 is equivalent to rape! Now, which one will provide greater satisfaction for the time in jail...
What amazes me the most about this new law is that there are already so many other laws in existance that do the same thing; the copyright law, the anti-piracy law, etc. Now, they have a NEW law that not only outlaws what was already illegal, but punishes those that share a MP-3 MORE than someone that is a repeat sexual offender. Remember the 12-year-old girl that got fined $12,000? Not her parents, but HER. How does that make any sense? How does that make people want to go out and actually pay $16+ only to listen to 1 or 2 songs on a CD? With what they are doing, I don't want to buy crap from them! I'm afraid they'll bust into my house using the Patriot Act, bust me for having back-up copies of my OWN DVD's and CD's with the Copyright Act, try me with the DMCA, and sentence me with the new FECA! Can anyone say oppression? The USSR did...
You missed the point on clearplay: people are already allowed to view the DVD anyway they want.
What this law does is allow ClearPlay to make money by effectively selling re-editted versions of a film without the permission of the copyright holder.