The Digital Millenium Rape Act.
July 25, 2001 7:54 PM   Subscribe

The Digital Millenium Rape Act.
posted by Kikkoman (16 comments total)
 
*looks down front of trowsers*

*yells downstairs: BAR THE DOOR! THE FEDS ARE A 'COMIN FOR ME!*
posted by SpecialK at 8:02 PM on July 25, 2001


(And yes, that was cynical, I did read all the way to the end of the article. But I still need help)
posted by SpecialK at 8:03 PM on July 25, 2001


Is there anyone in the entire universe who actually agrees with the DMCA? What? Didn't think so.
posted by Ptrin at 8:05 PM on July 25, 2001


Washington does.
posted by Kikkoman at 8:20 PM on July 25, 2001


Is there anyone in the entire universe who actually agrees with the DMCA?

Uh. Well, I would imagine the people who work for software publishers, record labels, and movie studios like it a lot.
posted by kindall at 8:22 PM on July 25, 2001


Brilliant article.
The first section is a bit of a bummer if you're on the paranoid down swing of your second doubleshot espresso hit of the evening and you gouge quarter inch deep furrows in your armchair rests as you wonder how and to whom you're going to have explain the duct tape and sqash ball in your glovebox to, but otherwise quite clever.
posted by dong_resin at 8:22 PM on July 25, 2001


My boss does. I work in the Sound Recordings Policy area of Canadian Heritage. As she said, there is a need to put some sort of controls out there on intellectual property.

That said, Canada doesn't have an equivalent to the DMCA yet, and I'm hoping it's not nearly as evil and ignorant as the American one is.
posted by Marquis at 8:22 PM on July 25, 2001


I can think of one more person who agrees with the DMCA.
posted by waxpancake at 8:23 PM on July 25, 2001


See...people just don't get it.

Napster was the big thing...even AOL floozies could use it...and did. Then they went kaput, started filtering damn near everything...and you know what? I can still find the latest Kid Rock, or some rare bootleg of Bob Dylan...just as easy as before.

A week ago, I actually went on a little scavenger hunt to see if I could get Flash 5, and Adobe Photoshop 6...full versions, for free. It took me an hour, although it might have taken me 3 if I was on dialup.

Now...I read about new dvd burners...if you've got the hard drive space, and some clever apps...you can make all the illegal copies of any dvd you want to.

Like I said, people just don't get it... for every "slippery-slope", there is an equal and opposite "slippery-slope". Just choose which side of the mountain you're on.
posted by canoeguide at 8:51 PM on July 25, 2001


What the article's author doesn't seem to realize or appreciate is that the "slippery slope" analogy he uses is also the term for a particular class of fallacious argument, the very fallacy he's falling headfirst into with this essay.

It's true we should be vigilant when important rights are endangered, but if we declare every small infringement to be the END OF ALL FREEDOM, the apathetic general public will dismiss the constant warnings as crying wolf.

And many of the article's statements are specious. What kind of premise is this: "If you have decided to kill someone, you will kill that person and there's no stopping you." No, actually, sometimes murder is the happenstance collision of angry person + handy weapon + convenient target = death. That's why we have different penalties for murder committed in the heat of the moment, as opposed to premeditated. Not to mention that not all gun deaths are the results of someone "deciding" to kill another-- what about accidents? These kinds of lazy offhand remarks are deadly to any kind of serious discourse. I can't really concentrate on his point when the statements he uses to make his point are so unfounded and poorly put together.
posted by Zettai at 9:14 PM on July 25, 2001


I worry that the gun metaphor causes more problems than it solves.
posted by D at 9:42 PM on July 25, 2001


That article was a piece of garbage. While the Adobe-fueled prosecution is a miscarraige of justice, attempting to equate that with male paranoia fantasies about being called rapists is stupid beyond belief. Plus his gun nut delusions derail any argument he might put forth.

The Russian guy needs better defenders than this.
posted by solistrato at 9:49 PM on July 25, 2001


I never saw the connection between guns and computers until I started surfing the Innernet.
posted by lagado at 11:45 PM on July 25, 2001


"Worst. Rape act. Ever."
posted by frenetic at 5:28 AM on July 26, 2001


What, exactly, classifies as a "gun nut delusion" in your book, Solistrato? Just curious, mind you.
posted by jammer at 11:29 AM on July 26, 2001


What, exactly, classifies as a "gun nut delusion" in your book, Solistrato? Just curious, mind you.

Referring to non-fictional federal firearms laws as "making possession of firearms illegal" more than qualifies the author as a deluded gun nut. It's also pretty typical that he'd be picking exclusively on Boxer, who has a track record on gun issues (you can't be a California senator these days without one), but who hasn't been a factor in DMCA issues, at least to my knowledge.
posted by bumppo at 6:21 PM on July 26, 2001


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