30 Mar New Copyright Law
There is a new law being formed by the beloved US Congress and lobby groups that represent the big companies (Hollywood, Silicon Valley, etc).
It basically comes down to a total ban of even attempting to download artistic and intellectual copyrighted material, and give the authorities the right to track down keygens, p2p software and anything of this sort.
“The 24-page bill is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together. One would, for instance, create a new federal crime of just trying to commit copyright infringement. Such willful attempts at piracy, even if they fail, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison. ” [Cnet News 2006] Obama supports this law, adding even more freedom for ACTA.
All of this is pretty alarming. Our changing music industry can go back to decide what’s hot and what’s not, control every aspect of the business again.
We were so close…
But just like the printed press, the radio, this form of intellectual information sharing will be controlled by advertisement. I remember a story about Dutch book printers in the 17th century were printing books on ships to avoid the authorities, because they were not official printing houses (i.e, not being a church, royal, political or land owning aristocrat).
History warned us, but we never had a plan B, and now it seems the lobby groups are tightening their grip, getting ready to hit us with the final blow.