Fast Forward = Illegal? Your tax dollars at work.

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 1:03 am

Thats right, if the MPAA and RIAA have their way (again), Fast Forward and anything used to skip over Advertizements will soon be illegal.

Among other things that this bill that the Content Nazis are trying to get rammed through this lame duck congress, the bill increases penalities for copyright infringement to $300K per instance, adds criminal penalties for bringing a camcorder into a theater, discuss indoctrinating our young with mpaa/riaa piracy deterrence education that make no mention regarding fair use rights, eviscerates fair use as we know it, and authorizes the attourney general to sick his lackeys on the peer to peer networks, essentially turning the Department of Justice into Hollywood's private sue happy, share imprisioning lackeys.

Now I can sort of understand criminalizing the recording of movies with a camcorder. Not only is it actual stealing, but the resulting file quality is downright HORRIBLE. But jail time? In federal pound-me-in-the-@$$ prision? Doesnt the policy of a punishment to fit the crime hold any weight in this country anymore?

And doesnt the Justice Department have better things to do like uh Fight Terrorism than surf the p2p nets in search of copyright infringers?

To me, this is just another example of how content companies are getting wayyyyy too influential and powerful.

Most people wouldnt even use p2p if they could buy the content at a reasonable price. $18 for a CD with one song that you like on it is unreasonable. DVD's are close to reasonable, but now theyre starting to get packed with ads at the beginning just like VHS tapes were. And now if this bill passes it will be illegal for us to find ways to skip these ads. New players will be hard encoded by dictate of the content industry to play the ads no matter what buttons are pushed, so every time you watch your DVD of your next disney movie, you'll have to sit through 5 minutes of ads for crap before the movie actually comes up. I paid for a MOVIE, not a damned advertizement for whatever the hell youre pushing down our throats!

Hooray for Hollywood. F*** you, bit*ches.

$#it like this just pisses me off.

Phoenix Red · Post by **Phoenix Red** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:35 am

I don't think you understand. They estimate (in spite of statisics) that they are LOSING MONEY THE CEOs COULD HAVE AS BONUSES!!!!1

Isn't it clear to you the magnitude of infraction that's happening here? The will have to buy the third most expensive BMW next year because YOU downloaded a song.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 10:01 am

Wait a second. They're trying to tell me that I can't skip through the s***ty previews on a DVD that I PAID FOR, previews that shouldn't have even made it onto the DVD medium? That is the biggest load of bull**** I have ever heard. These two are making Hitler look democratic.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:24 am

My thoughts:

a) They have a point in that when we get free recordings of media we bypass the mechanism from which the content creator gets paid his/her due funds. We are in effect stealing from the artists. Even if the net effect is that someone has to buy a used BMW instead of a new one, it is still stealing and it is wrong (I am not innocent here).

b) These people have gone so far overboard ... If I have to sit through 15 minutes of adverts on a DVD that I paid good money for then I will quit buying DVDs.

c) I have never taken a camcorder into a theater and I would not do so. Even still, making this a CRIMINAL violation is nothing short of ridiculous. At best it should be a misdemeanor offense. I agree Vader, the punishment outweighs the crime here ...

d) It is the Justice Department's mandate to monitor and police such infringements of copyright. We may prefer that they spend all of their resources on terrorism (Except for Michael Moore who believes that 'there is no terrorist threat') but the fact remains that this is their responsibility. If we don't like it we should change it.

e) I agree that content companies are getting "wayyyyy too influential and powerful". Because of their power and influence our Constitutional Rights are at risk. This is dead wrong.

f) I agree about the pricing also ... If I could buy media at a reasonable price I would gladly do so instead of obtaining copies. For example, I know of a database of music MP3s that has around 300 CDs ripped at 320 KB/sec in it. If I went out and paid for them all I would spend around $5K. I cannot afford that but I would be more than willing to pay $500 for all of them sampled at 192 KB/sec. The content nazis should realize that there is a market here and take advantage of it.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 1:13 pm

Being forced to watch 15 minutes of ads on a DVD I paid for is totally asinine. Whoever thought that was a good idea should die.

I donâ??t care who polices people taking video cameras into a movie theatre, I wonâ??t do it and I would tell anyone else with the idea â??I wouldnâ??t do that if I were you.â?

Tyranny · Post by **Tyranny** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:45 pm

It won't fly in the long run.

Stryker · Post by **Stryker** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:11 pm

If they ban the fast-forward feature on VCRs and DVD players so you can't skip past the ads, I will not be watching television for a very, very long time. Heck, even TiVo units will become illegal. They wouldn't want you to record the program and the skip the commercials, that would be a criminal offense!

GIVE ME A BREAK.

I can understand not wanting people to take camcorders into a movie theater, that's common sense. but banning the fast forward feature... Let's put it this way, if that happens we might be moving to Canada.

Darkside Heartless · Post by **Darkside Heartless** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:18 pm

About the music, you cen get individual songs at *LEGAL* websites and burn them to CD. the artist gets paid, you get the good songs and everyone's happy.

Not fast-forwarding is pure BS. Having it a crime to skip commercials is rediculous, what next, they come into your house and tie you to the chair so you have to watch the commercials?
Commecials came after TV and movies, they are extras and should stay that way. I will continue to fast forward, and if they complain, I'll "accidentally" damage the parts with the commercals on the tape

Topher · Post by **Topher** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:19 pm

"...that would otherwise be performed or displayed before, during or after the performance of the motion picture..."

NO! You cannot stop watching! You MUST see the previews at the end of the DVD or suffer death by boogie-woogie!

Lighten up, this is nothing new. Notice how you can't fast forward the FBI warning on DVD's? Companies can already force you to watch previews on DVDs by disabling fast forwarding at that time. However, it's their choice to disable it, most that I've seen don't make you sit through the previews. What they're talking about is modding a DVD player or software to ignore the fast forward restriction.

As far as I can tell, this is just relating to DVDs, there's nothing you can do about VHS. TiVo is a different story because it's broadcast media, not physical media. TiVo may or may not win out on the end, but this law doesn't look like it would affect TiVo.

roid · Post by **roid** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:26 am

Tivo doesn't have a monopoly in their area, so that's not a serious problem.

it's becomming more and more SANE to just have a dedicated PC for all music/video/etc entertainment.

it's prettymuch the only way we can actually hold a grasp at the personal-controls we deserve.

it's not gonna get any better, you all know that it will only get worse. so why kid yourself, just resign yourself NOW to never again buy MPAA/RIAA influenced consumer electronics(*). as i said, you KNOW it will never get better before it gets worse.

so just use a simple PC to replace everything. now.

i for one am sick of resigning control.

edit: * i don't mean a boycott. i'm just talking about simple cause and effect. If it's getting harder and harder for us to buy consumer electronics with the features that we WANT, why are we buying them anyway? there are alternatives, the most popular one is to replace it all with a PC. can't get much more software upgradable than that: when a new form of MEDIA ITSELF comes out, you can easily and ★■◆●ing CHEAPLY (way cheaper than standalone consumer electronics) upgrade your pc to handle it.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:21 am

Just so you know, TiVo is now starting to display "billboard" ads while you fast forward through commercials.

roid · Post by **roid** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:54 am

to add to my last post (now edited a bit), you may see going out and grabbing that latest Microsoft Multimedia OS (whatever it's called, i bet stress knows) as just as bad.

so horray coz there are tons of free and open source applications that do the same thing on soundforge, guarenteed to not have any of these stupid "unwanted" features

.