We try not to get
too political or alarmist here on Engadget -- especially when it comes to draft legislation that's yet to make it far
in congress -- but Gary Shapiro and the group he represents, the
CEA (you may have heard of them?), are taking a stand against big
content in America. Sounds like someone's hearing all the whining we (all) do about the overly restrictive
DRM and fundamentally adversarial posturing the content industry has
consistently taken against consumers and their devices. A release issued by the CEA at Shapiro's behest calls for the
immediate passage of bill H.R. 1201 (the
Digital Media
Consumers' Rights Act of 2005) by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, on behalf of the HRRC (Home Recording Rights
Coalition). Shapiro's on a crusade now, people, to tackle what he perceives as some very serious issues plaguing the
industry today, like big content's apparent enforcement of copyright as property law, and the "gross extension of
copyright protection" keeping work from entering the public domain. Whether H.R. 1201 is actually going turn up
roses we don't yet know, but it's not like there's anything to thing to stop the content companies -- and the CEA's
many members -- from lobbying against this bill, especially megacorps like Sony that play on both sides as content and
device maker.
[Thanks, Alex C]
