If this is an issue you care about, contact your Congressperson or Senator and tell them that this is important to you and why. Explain that you are not a pirate or someone who steals content, but that you value your right to fair use. Ask them to support an exception to the DMCA that gives the consumer the right to bypass copy protection or other DRM mechanisms as long as that bypass is used ONLY to excercise what are traditionally considered to be your rights to fair use. I believe a bill like this has been floated by Rep. Rich Boucher (sp?). This is a huge issue with fundamental implications for the way we as consumers use electronic media. For instance, there have already been several attempts to get congress to force equipment makers to make every device they sell that can receive and record digital TV signals to recognize and honor a "broadcast flag" that can specify whether the transmission can be recorded or not, and if so how many times etc. If they say "no recording allowed", then forget about recording your favorite teams championship game. Cut a check to the NBA or NFL instead. IMHO, under the cover of combating piracy, the media industry is trying to force a move away from a broad fair-use environment to a pay-per-play model. That's not something I am looking forward to.
-- FLMike _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
