How Will Linux Users Deal With the RIAA and Sony and..... 13560

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Richard P. Johnson wrote on Tue, 01 Nov 2005 17:20:33 -0500

Erm...you are *extremely* confused. The MPA and RIAA have rights too. Their copyright rights need to be protected. Can't be too careful with al Qaeda about, after all.

Linux simply will be disallowed from playing RIAA and MPA material. There are various methods by which one might accomplish this; the simplest is to refresh the hardware base with a trusted OS key system. (Guess who hands out the trusted keys?)

Could be interesting if the UN decides to get involved, though; many computers are manufactured in China, Japan, Korea, and such. Hollywood is already looked at with disfavor in such places as Bollywood (which is somewhere in India; I don't know where) and France, as the US film industry is displacing native talent.

I don't know regarding the recording-media and music videos.

buttuming "affect"

No effect. *

buttuming "affect"

Effects will vary, depending on user expectations; anticipation of moderate to very strong revenue downdrafts as people realize freeware will not allow the playing of their favorite movies, songs, and video clips; unknown secondary effects depending on ascendancy of freeware formats such as OGG.

Blame Xing for that silliness. It's kind of a pity, as the encryption should have been uncrackable.

Slimy? They're merely trying to protect themselves. I can't blame them for that. (At least, not that much.)

Of course, one problem is that a DVD player has troubles distinguishing from

"I want to play this song"

and

"I want to rip this song to disk so that I can burn 1,000 copies for my closest friends".

Admittedly, the DVD *burner* might ask a few questions or have limited lifetime, but that's not exactly the best of defenses (buy 'em cheap in bulk).

What's fair use? One hopes for a compromise at the end of the day.

* "affect" = to change, "effect" (v) = to bring about or implement

-- It's still legal to go .sigless.