[DMCA-Activists] Re: [C-FIT_Community] Biden: Ban Spoofing of Digital Restrictions Management

[Daniel L Speyer]

While I don't 100% understand what this law does (that the DMCA doesn't),
it looks pretty bad and I'll trust others' judgment that it needs
fighting.  It occurs to me that Mr. Biden's biggest campaign contributer
(according to opensecrets.org) is the MBNA, which is primarily a credit
card company.  Can we pursuade *them* that DRM is a bad thing?  It seems
to me that:

* Many credit cards are used primarily for internet purchasing -- DRM will
  hurt the internet

* Credit card companies utterly depend on control of their computer
  systems -- they can't hand off ultimate authority to MS or the RIAA
  (even a quickly-patched bug would cost millions)

* They have nothing whatsoever to gain from this bill

Now, does anyone have a way of taking these arguments (or better ones) to
decision-makers at MBNA who could get Bedin to retract the bill?

In hope,

--Daniel Speyer
If you *don't* consider sharing information to be morally equivalent to 
kidnapping and murder on the high seas, you probably shouldn't use the
phrase "software piracy."

On Mon, 29 Jul 2002, Seth Johnson wrote:

> 
> (Forwarded from POLITECH list, address@hidden)
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 10:07:06 -0400
> From: Declan McCullagh <address@hidden>
> 
> 
> http://news.com.com/2010-1071-946732.html?tag=politech
> 
> Pirate this, go to jail
> 
> By Declan McCullagh 
> July 29, 2002
> 
> WASHINGTON--Sen. Joseph Biden has become one of the newest
> field marshals in Congress' intellectual property wars.
> 
> After the 59-year old Delaware Democrat took over the
> Foreign Relations committee last year, the software and
> entertainment industries enlisted him in their anti-piracy
> struggles. That prompted Biden to convene a hearing where he
> denounced copyright thievery in stentorian tones. "Windows
> XP was available for illegal use on the streets of Moscow
> two months before it was released in the U.S. by Microsoft,"
> Biden said. "Every episode of "Seinfeld" is now available to
> download free to anyone with access to the Internet."
> 
> At the hearing in February, Biden released a 52-page report
> written by his aides and titled: "Theft of American
> Intellectual Property: Fighting Crime Abroad and At Home."
> One section devoted to counterfeit products expressed the
> worry that "counterfeiters flood markets with their
> underpriced products and steal a great deal of revenue."
> 
> A few weeks later, Biden introduced a bill titled the
> "Anticounterfeiting Amendments of 2002." It originally
> targeted the kind of large-scale pirates who manufacture
> fake Windows holograms, but in a little-noticed move this
> month before being sent to the Senate floor, the proposed
> legislation was rewritten to encompass technology used in
> digital rights management.
> 
> Biden's new bill would make it a federal felony to try and
> trick certain types of devices into playing your music or
> running your computer program. Breaking this law--even if
> it's to share music by your own garage band--could land you
> in prison for up to five years. And that's not counting the
> civil penalties of up to $25,000 per offense.
> 
> [...]
> 
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