November 16, 2004

Intellectual Property Protection Act

A new bill has been introduced called the Intellectual Property Protection Act (H.R. 2391). According to Wired, the bill groups several pending copyright bills together. While some of the parts in this bill are good, the bundling of bills in order to get things passed is once again causing horrible things to happen.

The following is mostly from the IPPA page at Public Knowledge. My comments added in italics.

Pros:

  • H.R. 2391: Researchers and inventors can share information between organizations without losing patentability. A step in the right direction because patents aren't going away anytime soon.
  • H.R. 5136: Libraries are allowed to create copies of copyrighted works that have not been commercially exploited in the past twenty years. Copyright should die a lot sooner. Libraries are already supposed to be able to do this under fair use. What constitutes a library? I can make a library myself.

Cons:

  • H.R. 4077: Making copyrighted material available (regardless of whether or not it was consumed) through reckless behavior is illegal. Go to jail for accidents, ignorance, or insecure electronic devices. I would be guilty of this right now.
  • S. 2237: The justice department gains the right to file civil actions against copyright infringers. Civil should stay civil. If the RIAA wants to prosecute someone, they have to pay for it. Not the taxpayers.
  • S. 1932: Unauthorized use of a video camera in a movie theater now means go to jail. Fair use does not apply. Jail time is an extremely harsh penalty for this behavior. Plus, I should have the right to capture on tape anything I see or hear for my own reasons unless I agree otherwise. What about capturing illegal activity that happens to take place in a movie theater? I know many minors with camera phones are guilty of this right now.
  • H.R. 4586: Affirms the right to skip objectionable material in audio and video works (already a right, a la the fast-forward button) but commercials cannot be skipped. Since when did I agree in a contract that I can't skip through portions of audio or video works that I legally purchased? Another good reason I don't watch broadcast, cable, or satellite television. I will not purchase any material that behaves in this manner.
  • H.R. 3632: Penalties and jail time for trafficking of counterfeit records, software, movies, etc. Isn't this already covered under copyright penalties for goods in general?
  • S. 1933: Certificates of copyright registration applications do not need to contain correct information for the registration to remain valid. How stupid is this?

Posted by josuah at November 16, 2004 10:20 PM UTC+00:00

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