Inside the ivory tower, a copyright robo-cop?
With all the problems in our nation and the world today, you would think that Congress would have better things to do than threaten to withhold federal financial aid from college campuses unless they subject their students to spyware supplied by movie studios and record companies in a fruitless attempt to stop students from copying music and movies. This is much like the invasive software that Sony was surreptitiously installing on people's computers when they played a music CD on the computers; now it's supposed to come as part of your college curriculum.
| Posted at 8:53 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
Maybe the MPAA will make them install the "University Toolkit;" in related news, the MPAA violated copyright laws when they released it in violation of GPL license agreements.
The MPAA and their lobbyists will bully anyone and everyone to get their way; they don't care about "copyright protections," they care about money.
Posted by Chris Coyle | January 21, 2008 9:05 PM
"fruitless attempt to stop students from copying of music and movies."
That's an understatement.
The cat is so out of the bag I don't know what the industry or government can do.
It's common place now for young people to have many 1000s of songs on their Ipod etc. all of which they got for free.
My own, away at college, now has around 5500. Every one of her many friends at several colleges and back at their hometowns all have that sort or quantity.
Posted by Herm | January 21, 2008 9:26 PM
If the original posting here had referred instead to a "fruitless attempt to stop desperate people from crossing borders" and a commenter remarked that "The cat is so out of the bag I don't know what the...government can do," I think there would be a flurry of outraged remarks about how it's the government's responsibility to enforce those borders, dammit. So why exactly is this not true with copyright infringement? (Not an endorsement of spyware.)
Posted by lin qiao | January 21, 2008 9:46 PM
It's common place now for young people to have many 1000s of songs on their Ipod etc. all of which they got for free.
Thats a pretty broad brush isnt it? Not everyone downloads stuff for free. And 1000 songs is only about 100 cds. Now Im not saying they arent downloading, but you don't think its possible that a kid has 100 cds? I have almost 400 in my personal collection. Any of which could be ripped to my computer at any time.
As for that sony crap, I just got caught up with that with a Santana cd I have. I forgot all about that software, and when I tried to rip it to my computer, it wouldnt do it. I finally figured it out, but it pissed me off. I bought it, I should be able to listen to it however I want.
Posted by Jon | January 21, 2008 10:38 PM
Interesting. The bill is by George Miller of CA, one of the biggest lefties in the House, and its thrust is to increase financial aid by $20 billion. I don't think Miller gives a hoot about the recording industry and what, where or how kids download music. My guess is he allowed that clause into the bill in exchange for votes from colleagues of his who are more closely alligned with the recording industry. How laws are made and all that....
Posted by Pete | January 21, 2008 11:13 PM
Interestingly, the MPAA has come out to say their numbers were wrong about college kids and downloading.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080122/18164639.shtml
Posted by Jon | January 23, 2008 12:39 PM