Odd New Law Coming Down the Pike
From a new article at Wired.
Congress wants to pass a copyright law that among other things, basically gives Hollywood a lot more clout over what is and is not fair use. But the law seemingly has a lot of odd sorts of qualifiers:
The bill would also permit people to use technology to skip objectionable content -- like a gory or sexually explicit scene -- in films, a right that consumers already have. However, under the proposed law, skipping any commercials or promotional announcements would be prohibited.
So let me get this straight, we can use technology to skip curse words, love scenes, and fire-fights, but we cannot use it to skip advertisements. What if I'm offended by the Coors twins commercial, or a 527 ad or consumerism in general. Which rule trumps?
Absurdities aside, I don't know how I feel about this. On one hand, as a producer of a small amount of content I would like to make money off of it, some day. However, I know as well as anyone else that the "You're stealing from the artist" argument is patently false. Everyone knows that distributors have already robbed the artist, they are the ones making money off of any content, and they are who this law really protects. I also know that by using say... pirated software I grew to prefer that software, and when the opportunity arose I purchased it. So I think with the cost of content creation poised to go lower and lower, and the free distribution of content becoming easier and easier, these sorts of laws favoring the distribution industry is protectionism, which for the most part I'm in favor of. However, the industry makes absurd profits at the expense of the artists and the consumers, so maybe it is time for the distribution industry to receive a mortal wound.
So I guess I'm against this law. But I might need further thought on this one.
