Disney, Eldred, Fair Use, and Mr. Valenti
The bigger problem that Eldred exposes, is that the entertainment industry is hard at work making sure that you do not have fair use. Fair use will be whatever the copyright holder chooses it to be. As an example the copyright holder, could decide that they are willing to give you full use, or they could encode it that after one copy is made you no longer have the ability to copy the material, or perhaps no copy priviledge at all. In other words, you will no longer have control. Macrovision is kiddy stuff compared to where we are going.
Under Intel and Microsoft's vision of the future your computer will run all of your home entertainment needs. It will also have serious encryption and digital rights management. Disabling any of these (Palladium/TCPA) will be illegal. The key to this is control. With the defeat of the Eldred case yesterday, the industry has gained another foothold on perpetual copyright.
David Bowie; always a visionary (albeit a weird one at times), has stated that he is taking the money while he can. He feels that the industry is blind to the realities of what is going on, and instead of looking for new avenues for revenue, it clings on to an outmoded structure that can not survive. He sees a future where copyright will only be what you make of it.
Let no one think that this is about money to the artist. That is one of the biggest lies in this whole string of lies. When audited, the Record Industry has never been found to overpay an artist on royalties. In fact, in over 95% of cases they underpay. The Industry signs new artist to contracts that insure that most will make almost no money off their talent. Only older established artist see the fruits of their recording labor. That is why; for most recording artist, only tours pay them any real income.
The MPAA is led by Jack Valenti. This is the man who in 1983 testified to congress that the VCR should either be outlawed, or not allowed to record. He described the VCR by saying that, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." Valenti's been in power too long (since the 1960s); he needs to be replaced by someone who can think about the future.
The amazing thing about this is that they are so fixated on these goals that they are willing to destroy their own industries. The Record Industry is on a downhill spiral because in 1984 they lied to us, and said that CD prices were only high because it was new technology, and that prices would come down as the market accepted the product. The reality was something entirely different. The industry failed to deal with the marketplace, instead they've operated from a position that is greed based rather then survival based. Instead of working on a new distribution model, they cling to the dieing embers of the old one.
They really don't have a clue...mj
11:23:54 AM 
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