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Say That Again

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Jun 5th 2006 11:13am





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.

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  1.  
    identicon
    Jacka$$, Jun 5th, 2006 @ 11:53am

    Yay, first comment!

    First Comment! All your comments are belong to us.



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

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Jezsik, Jun 5th, 2006 @ 11:53am

    Food content requires labels, why not media?

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Ben, Jun 5th, 2006 @ 12:06pm

    Re: Food content requires labels, why not media?

    good analogy

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

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

    protecting obsolete business models? like a monarchy?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    John Bailey, Jun 5th, 2006 @ 12:27pm

    Re:

    "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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Jezsik, Jun 5th, 2006 @ 1:13pm

    Re:

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

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Starky, Jun 5th, 2006 @ 3:34pm

    Note to self:

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

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    |333173|3|_||3, Jun 5th, 2006 @ 5:29pm

    Re:

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

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    identicon
    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 | link to this | view in thread ]


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