Eric Woudenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Unfortunately I can only point you to the HRRC's summary of the OTA
>(Office of Technology Assesment) study being referred to. This study
>was commisioned by Congress during the AHRA legislation process. In
>introducing their summary the HRRC writes:
>
> The OTA determined that "evidence" that home audio taping
> displaced sales of prerecorded material was, at best,
> inconclusive, and that home taping practices actually
> stimulated sales.
>
>The summary is here: http://www.hrrc.org/otasum.html . It makes good
>reading actually.
Rick:
The problem I have with that, and the reason I would like to see the
original text, is that this summary is prepared by the "Home Recording
Rights Coalition" -- not exactly a neutral party. Having a career in
public policy, I frequently see such "summaries" by advocacy groups, and
often their summary conclusions are completely the opposite of the
original conclusions. So it's nothing against you or the HRRC; I'd just
like to see the original study. Call me a skeptic ;-)
In fact, after reading the entire summmary at the above URL, nowhere does
it explicity summarize a section of the OTA study that comes to the
conclusion that home taping practices actually stimulate sales. And as a
statistician I found no conclusive evidence that supports that assertion.
In fact, several times the summary states that the most frequently
recorded material is the user's own CDs or LPs.
I did find the following in that summary, though:
>Congress explicitly stated that it did not intend to restrain
>home recording of broadcasts or prerecorded records or tapes for
>private use.
It seems to me that the pro-copying people here are trying to claim that
copying a CD and giving that copy to a friend (or vice versa) is
therefore not "restrained" because it is "private." But let's be honest
about what "private" really means. Private is in your own home. Private
means not accessible to other people. Private isn't "with your friends."
You have sex in private, and that doesn't involve your friends (OK, it
does for some people, but I don't think we'd call it "private" ;-) ).
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