Absurd new digital copyright legislation proposal

There is a proposed law, known as the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006, that broadly increases restrictions and penalties for circumventing copy protection.

• The punishment for even attempting to "infringe upon copyright" would be 10 years in prison and 20 years for subsequent offenses.

• It makes it a crime to “make, import, export, obtain control of, or possess” programs that can "circumvent copy protection" (This includes video transcoders like FFMPEG and Alcohol 120%, CD and DVD ripping programs like iTunes, Handbrake and DVD Decrypter, as well as open-source programs capable of playing back DVDs, such VLC and mplayer.)

• Wiretaps and IP surveillance would be carried out by the FBI for "investigations of copyright crimes, trade secret theft and economic espionage." The FBI would also get $20 million of funding to create "advanced tools of forensic science to investigate" internet-based 'crimes.'

• Equipment involved in such activity will be seized by the Federal Government, and either destroyed, or wiped and sold at government auctions.

So you could forget about putting DVDs on your iPod, making a backup copy of DVDs that you own, making a hard drive cache of DVD data for better battery life while watching movies on your laptop. You can also forget about using VLC or Mplayer to watch DVDs. All circumvent CSS copy protection.

You can also forget about using your Tivo to record HD broadcasts. Within a year or two, they will be adding a broadcast flag to HD streams, making it so it can't be recorded. By bypassing it, or attemping to bypass it, would be in violation of this act. 

Oh, and it'd also be illegal to convert your CDs to MP3s for listening on your iPod. That would be considered "copyright infringement."

These are all actions that would be made illegal with this new law. It simply criminalizes everyday people for doing something that is within their fair-use rights.

It even would technically be illegal to remove Sony's DRM rootkit from your computer. Hey, even though it acts like a virus, and installs itself behind your back, and violates the GPL, it's DRM technology and couldn't legally removed. (Unless Sony decided to recall it, which they did.)

The bill was drafted by the Bush Administration (which has really made a bad move here, and keep in mind, I'm a Republican), and is backed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 'who said that "encouraging large-scale criminal enterprises to get involved in intellectual-property theft," Gonzales said, adding that proceeds from the illicit businesses are used, "quite frankly, to fund terrorism activities."' Oh sure, Alberto, I'm sure that Osama Bin Laden is funding Al-qaeda with his underground DVD piracy operations. Give me a break. This has nothing to do with national security, and everything to do with pleasing organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group known for it's shady tactics and greedy executives who like to sue dead grandmas for sharing rap on the internet.

I sincerely hope this bill doesn't get passed. It gives too much power to trade groups like the RIAA and companies that employ any type of DRM in their products, expands the use wiretapping and IP surveillance to investigate so-called "copyright crimes", and strips citizens of their fair-use rights.

Source: Congress readies broad new digital copyright bill (CNET News)