Say That Again

Say That Again

by Mike Masnick





British Politicians Present Reasonable Views On Copy Protection?

from the amazing dept

While the US government is going around the world trying to protect obsolete business models, it looks like over in the UK, a group of politicians are taking a much more reasonable approach to the copy protection issue. While most of the attention is being place on the proposal that anyone offering copy protected content needs to clearly label what the limitations are, a more interesting element of the report is that mandating copy protection could be harmful. While the article mentions that there aren't official attempts to mandate DRM in Europe yet, it's likely only a matter of time. There are definitely efforts underway in the US, and things like the broadcast flag are constantly popping up again. Then, once something gets turned into law in the US, suddenly we'll be hearing all sorts of talk about how Europe needs to pass similar laws to comply with international treaties, leaving out most of the debate over whether or not such laws actually make sense. Therefore, it's good to see these politicians raising the issue of how much harm DRM can cause now, before things have gone too far.

9 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

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  1. Yay, first comment!

    by Jacka$$ - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 11:53am

    First Comment! All your comments are belong to us.



    p.s.
    Finally! Decent politicians... way to go U.K.!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Food content requires labels, why not media?

    by Jezsik - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 11:53am

    Given the Sony rootkit fiasco, it looks like it's high time we had a system in place that works much like the system for labelling food. We "consume" media, so we need a label that tells us what the media is and how we can use it - including restrictions.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Re: Food content requires labels, why not media?

    by Ben - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 12:06pm

    good analogy

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. by anonymous coward - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 12:14pm

    protecting obsolete business models? like a monarchy?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Re:

    by John Bailey - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 12:27pm

    "protecting obsolete business models? like a monarchy?"

    Or free public health care.. Just imagine all those sick people being denied the right to go bankrupt paying medical bills.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Re:

    by Jezsik - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 1:13pm

    Mmm, no, a monarchy is an obsolete government model. Mind you, it's only slightly more obsolete than representative democracy.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Note to self:

    by Starky - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 3:34pm

    Move to the UK. It's not full of idiots and assholes (Like Jack Thompson!)
    Then again, neither is Canada. Hmmm....

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Re:

    by |333173|3|_||3 - Jun 5th, 2006 @ 5:29pm

    The monarchy is not obsolete, it is generally preferred to any ther option, and is *very* stable

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. by Rick - Jun 9th, 2006 @ 1:48am

    I certainly do not prefer the 'Bush monarchy' at all!

    As for stable, well he sure messed up Iraq.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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