Paying Again and Again and Again
This is a little rough, but its the way I feel. If you would like to take the responsibility of editing my work, please email me at jdm3@miscon.com
There have been several posts on blogs all over the net about this. There are numerous articles, collumns and journals too. I think what is going on is how Congress, acting on behalf of big business and bigger money. The buzz word now is DRM, which means Digital Rights Management. DRM is really restrictions on how the customer can use digital media. This has been an issue ever since equipment exsisted for an end user to make their own copies of stuff, like Reel to reel tapes.
For years, no one cared. Our Copyright laws were fine, until the music industry objected to cassette recorders. Oh my god, someone could copy a song played on the radio and escape paying the music companies for the song. This got worse with the popularity of VCRs. People could record programs without paying for them. I thought that dealing with the advertising was paying for the use of the program? No? How about that ever expanding Cable TV subscription bill? You pay and then you pay again.
With the computer, people needed software. Sure enough, the software had to be protected from copying. Especially from the paying customers. See, I don't believe it is really about keeping people from making illegal copies, its about making people who were willing to pay for something once, to pay again and again, needing the same software for each computer that they own, like Microsoft Windows. Paying and paying again.
Weren't there fights back in the 70's and 80's about privacy dealing with cable tv and telephone service. Remember when you had to pay for each TV hooked up to cable? That stopped, and now the cable company is getting that fee per TV back again by selling digital signal that needs special equipment to watch. They, being the cable company, or Satelite broadcaster, rent the box or just a card to go in the magic box that decodes the signal so you can watch that digital signal.
Now the TV broadcast services use a digital menu to let you know whats on and when. They also use the same digital menu to feed digital recorders like TiVO units and cable DVRs. In order for the recorder to work right, you have to pay a subscription to make the box you bought or rented to work. Paying again and again.
Music. You buy a CD. You can play it on a CD player. But you only like one or two songs so you want to copy them to your own Mix CD. NOPE can't do it, the CD is copy protected. So to make your mix CD, you have to buy the music AGAIN from something like iTunes. Now you get a nice new MP3 player. You want to use that same music on your MP3 player. NOPE, its copy protected! You have to buy it AGAIN in a format that your MP3 player can read.
Now, the pirates, they just 'rip' the CD and use the music as they want, and trade with their friends, but the honest customer, pays and pays and pays. If you don't pay, you download it, the music company takes you to court to force you to pay. So these copy protection schemes really just punish the customer for being honest.
Along with the copyright law, were some, now long forgotten laws that protected the interests of the people. As forgotten as the language the ancient Egyptians spoke and wrote in heiroglyphics, called the 'Fair Use Statues'. The idea was even though the copyrights were owned, copies could be made, without paying for them again, for certain uses. See according to the letter of the law, you buy that CD, you can use the music any way you want provided its you own personal use. Not to sell copies, but you could put the music on your mp3 player, etc. The music companies don't like it, so they make it hard to do with copy protection. You violate the copy protection they sue, but why isn't there a protection for violating the Fair Use laws? The rights of the people? Bought and Paid for by your representatives in congress.
There have been several posts on blogs all over the net about this. There are numerous articles, collumns and journals too. I think what is going on is how Congress, acting on behalf of big business and bigger money. The buzz word now is DRM, which means Digital Rights Management. DRM is really restrictions on how the customer can use digital media. This has been an issue ever since equipment exsisted for an end user to make their own copies of stuff, like Reel to reel tapes.
For years, no one cared. Our Copyright laws were fine, until the music industry objected to cassette recorders. Oh my god, someone could copy a song played on the radio and escape paying the music companies for the song. This got worse with the popularity of VCRs. People could record programs without paying for them. I thought that dealing with the advertising was paying for the use of the program? No? How about that ever expanding Cable TV subscription bill? You pay and then you pay again.
With the computer, people needed software. Sure enough, the software had to be protected from copying. Especially from the paying customers. See, I don't believe it is really about keeping people from making illegal copies, its about making people who were willing to pay for something once, to pay again and again, needing the same software for each computer that they own, like Microsoft Windows. Paying and paying again.
Weren't there fights back in the 70's and 80's about privacy dealing with cable tv and telephone service. Remember when you had to pay for each TV hooked up to cable? That stopped, and now the cable company is getting that fee per TV back again by selling digital signal that needs special equipment to watch. They, being the cable company, or Satelite broadcaster, rent the box or just a card to go in the magic box that decodes the signal so you can watch that digital signal.
Now the TV broadcast services use a digital menu to let you know whats on and when. They also use the same digital menu to feed digital recorders like TiVO units and cable DVRs. In order for the recorder to work right, you have to pay a subscription to make the box you bought or rented to work. Paying again and again.
Music. You buy a CD. You can play it on a CD player. But you only like one or two songs so you want to copy them to your own Mix CD. NOPE can't do it, the CD is copy protected. So to make your mix CD, you have to buy the music AGAIN from something like iTunes. Now you get a nice new MP3 player. You want to use that same music on your MP3 player. NOPE, its copy protected! You have to buy it AGAIN in a format that your MP3 player can read.
Now, the pirates, they just 'rip' the CD and use the music as they want, and trade with their friends, but the honest customer, pays and pays and pays. If you don't pay, you download it, the music company takes you to court to force you to pay. So these copy protection schemes really just punish the customer for being honest.
Along with the copyright law, were some, now long forgotten laws that protected the interests of the people. As forgotten as the language the ancient Egyptians spoke and wrote in heiroglyphics, called the 'Fair Use Statues'. The idea was even though the copyrights were owned, copies could be made, without paying for them again, for certain uses. See according to the letter of the law, you buy that CD, you can use the music any way you want provided its you own personal use. Not to sell copies, but you could put the music on your mp3 player, etc. The music companies don't like it, so they make it hard to do with copy protection. You violate the copy protection they sue, but why isn't there a protection for violating the Fair Use laws? The rights of the people? Bought and Paid for by your representatives in congress.