p2pnet - rss feed: INDUCE sparks corporate fears
p2pnet.net News:- Internecine warfare is threatening to de-rail the Hollywood-Hatch INDUCE act.
A high-tech enforcement group has realized the new legislation is dangerous to corporate interests as well as to the commercial p2p community.
It also calls for measures to ensure that “weak, harassing or frivolous suits are not heard by the courts”.
In a carefully worded statement headed Trade Group Applauds Senators For Their Commitment To Fight Piracy, the BSA (Business Software Alliance) warns:
“U.S. Senate legislation introduced to stem the growth of online piracy [INDUCE] should be clarified to ensure that it is properly balanced to curtail harmful practices while avoiding adverse unintended consequences for legitimate technology companies”.
The BSA’s ‘World Wide’ members are: Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Avid, Bentley Systems, Borland, Internet Security Systems, Macromedia, NC Software/Mastercam, Microsoft, Network Associates, SolidWorks, Sybase, Symantec, UGS PLM Solutions, VERITAS Software. ‘Policy’ members are Cisco Systems, Entrust, HP, IBM, Intel, Intuit, RSA Security.
“We urge you to ensure that beneficial technologies are not put at risk by the need to stop badactors and to avoid overbroad or ambiguous standards that could chill innovation, deprive consumers of access to beneficial new technologies and encourage costly litigation,” says Robert Holleyman, the organization’s president and ceo, in a statement which might have been taken almost word-for-word from INDUCE opponents.
Forty-two major companies are actively opposing INDUCE, saying it would “chill innovation and drive investment in technology (and accompanying jobs) overseas”.
US Register Marybeth Peters recently (and unexpectedly) declared herself an INDUCE backer and among other things, is calling for the Betamax case - under which the movie studios tried to keep the first consumer VCRs off public markets - to be re-opened, something Hatch and Hollywood would also dearly like to see happen.
However, Microsoft et al ’suggest’ the bill clearly states that “the Supreme Court’s decision in the Betamax case is unaffected”.
The BSA says INDUCE should:
Clarify that multipurpose technology products that can be used for commercially significant legitimate purposes are not subject to liability. BSA suggested that the bill clearly state that the Supreme Court’s decision in the Betamax case is unaffected.
Clarify that to meet the intent standard of the bill, an actor must be shown to have engaged in conscious, recurring, persistent and deliberate acts demonstrating that the acts caused another person to commit infringement.
State specifically that mere knowledge by a developer of technology or a provider of a service of the infringing acts of another person using that technology or service is not sufficient to demonstrate the requisite specific intent.
Clarify that the bill does not create liability based on advertising or providing support to users, including instructions for using the technology provided through manuals or handbooks, nor by providing assistance for using a product through a company’s on-line help system or telephone help services.
Develop a mechanism to ensure that weak, harassing or frivolous suits are not heard by the courts, by establishing a way to ensure such cases are not brought without some prior review for its merits.
However, Holleyman INDUCE must be, “properly focused and balanced, should be viewed as only one of several elements to finding solutions to the problem of P2P piracy. BSA believes that the most effective way to address the harm done by operators of illicit file sharing networks is through the marketplace.”
July 29th, 2004 at 7:58 pm
Pass it as is. It’s time corporate America (and the rest of the world that sells gadgets there) to feel some PAIN.
Let’s see. Can Sony Music then force Sony Electronics to stop selling DVD-R drives?
July 29th, 2004 at 8:06 pm
Do you realize the implications the INDUCE act would bring to society and how it will hurt the American economy? Your statement is so blindsided that you are obviously affiliated in some way with he RIAA.
July 29th, 2004 at 8:56 pm
This is exceedingly rich. The pots are calling kettles black.
July 30th, 2004 at 4:32 am
My only question to this is:
where is the consumer in all of this?
The only thing the entertainment industry understands is their bottom line.
LOST PROFITS.
It is not anybody’s problem that the movie or music industry does not want to embrace p2p as a viable business model.
The induce act is just as misquided as the dmca.
I thought the dmca already had addressed these issues.
It don’t matter anyway.
It don’t stop me from going to an overseas website and get a decss utilty so i can cook my own dvds at home.
I am basically giving the mpaa the finger and there is NOTHING they can do about it.
The induce act would not any effect on overseas websites.
The lesson here is the induce act would be just a worthless and toothless and totally unenforcable piece of shit.
I always thought if it is illegal to copy a movie rental then who is going to catch me doing this?
You better look out for the dvd police from peeping in your window and catching you in the act.
Ha! Ha! What a crock of shit!
It is also not anybody’s problem that the movie industry created their own piracy problems by being a bunch of pathetic assholes about their intellectual property.
While we are talking about it,there are too many consumers out there who are are quite stupid about buying overpriced cds and dvds.
I am sitting here listening to john kerry give his acceptance speech at the democratic convention and it is not a fargone conclusion that corporate business interests are a bunch of arrogant swine that hides behind outdated and archaic copyright and patent laws that are out of date today.
I have politicians tell me that strong copyright laws are the foundation of our country.
What it really means that coporate america expects the rest of world to bend their short sighted business interests because coporate america tends to live in the past and none of them wants to change their business models.
Rather than resorting to innovation and competition,corporate america insists upon going to the congress of the united states and asking “relief” from other business competition and the comsumer that does not buy into the concept that when he buys a computer program that he does not own it but rather according to us copyright and patent law he is issued a license for it’s use.
What a crock of shit.
It does not take a genius that the corruption in the us congress is at a all time high.
Every congressman takes kickbacks and bribes from corporate america.
The whole lot of them need to tossed out.
Congress needs some new faces.
Break the incumbent rut.
Maybe the good people of utah need to throw mr. hatch out on his sorry ass.
The two party political system in america.
BAD AND WORSE.
August 1st, 2004 at 6:00 pm
If and thats a Big if this becomes Law I wonder how that will affect sales of cd and dvd burners. When will the mpaa and the Riaa stop and see that most people that won’t buy it and if people can’t get a copy of it off P2P then they will just go without just like the studies on this subject have shown. Then if sales drop on big ticket items like cd and dvd burners this will hurt that side of the Ind.ALSO maybe people will LOSE interest in the product that hollywood produces and start doing other things in their lifes like getting out and experiencing life !!! I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if P2P removed all the copyrighted Riaa music off of their sites and invited all unsigned Indie bands and artists to upload all the songs that they wanted too what would happen?????? Remenber MP3 .com before universal got a hold of it and screwed it up??? Traffic rank for mp3.com was around 750= millions of people were checking it out but the cost of bandwidth to run such a site was a problem however with P2P bandwidth is not a cost factor for the owners of the site so maybe unsigned acts would get a boost and people would DL more Indie music and not buy so much Riaa musak !!!!! Set up donation box’s for the Indie artists and see what happens???????
August 1st, 2004 at 11:43 pm
Nope. I hate the RIAA with a passion. The MPAA is almost, but not quite yet on my S**t list.
I understand all the effects it would have. But, as we all know, sometimes it has to hurt before you figure out how stupid you’re being.
August 1st, 2004 at 11:46 pm
This could actually prohibit the sales of DVD-R and CD-R drives, as well as put serious dampers on every other type of removable or semi-removable storage, such as flash and hdd.
After all, how is the CD drive going to know if it’s a commercial CD I bought in 1987 or a mix of my own work?
August 3rd, 2004 at 4:28 am
It’s ironic isn’t it that the same companies that want to stop the copying of music and movies are the very same companies that make the devices to do just that. I’m speaking of Sony in particular since they are one of the largest manufacturers of DVD burners and the first to make a dual format copier and while they are making millions from the sale of these devices, they are suing 321 studios for making a legal product, and telling the same people who bought those devices that they can’t use them. How hypocriticle can you get. We ,the consumer, are getting screwed over by these big companies and seem to be loving every minute of it. When are we going to say enough is enough and stop supporting these people? Anyone who is connected with the RIAA or MPAA and produces music or movies and then manfactures a device to copy the same music and movies would be in violation of the INDUCE ACT. I, personaly, will not purchase another Sony product or any product made by someone who takes my money and then says, oh by the way, you can’t use this product or you will go to jail.