[Ernie the Attorney] QUOTE
Copyright Law - what should it be? I agree with this statement.
UNQUOTE [Ernie the Attorney]
Here's what I believe / desire.
Capitalism belongs to many shareholders: Employees with decent jobs and investments in 401k or other retirement plans; Stockholders; Management Executives; Creditors; Customers who expect Integrity with respect to product service promises, whether they are on the side of the box of purchase, in the documentation, contract, any advertising. As new rules are imposed, we should have both notification of the rule changes, and able to opt out of whatever arrangement got us there. If a company not like new SEC rules, they should be allowed to offer their shareholders more than the stock is worth, so they can quit being a public company.
Industries should have special protection when they are new, such as Cable TV was protected against Broadcast TV, but this protection should not last forever. As technology advances, the Horse and Buggy Entertainment Industry does not have a Constitutional right to permanent existance.
Contracts need to be in plain English. Incomprehensible Contracts should be automatically null and void until they get re-written. People with disabilities ought to have the right to access to contracts and key documents in a form that they can read or hear. See Blind of NH for what reality is instead.
Artists and Writers and other creators of Intellectual Property need to get proper compensation for their labors so as to provide incentive to future quality. Look at it this way, over 300 firemen died in the WTC, but they are not paid enough money to live in NYC without their families having a second job. The people we value, be they teachers or parents, they need to have honest access to enough money for a quality life.
Public Libraries available to everyone regardless of economic status, in which the public can take turns reading what is in the library, and the publishers do get financially compensated because their books are distributed to thousands of libraries all over the planet. Ditto rent a movie at the video store. We are not supposed to make our own personal copies of what we borrowed. We can also have Private Exchanges, whether flea market or auction. We show up with books videos whatever that we are done with, trade them with other people, go home with new selections.
Schools have text books in which they may contract with the publishers for permission to make cheap copies, and pay a royalty for doing so, just like non-profit theatrical performances and churches are allowed to buy one copy of sheet music or a play, make photocopies for all performances, and pay a fee to the publisher based on size of audience and number of performances.
Home Computer technology is still in its infancy with great potential. I say infancy because it is so fragile. How often do you have to reboot your Operating System? When something goes wrong, how fast do you find out what it is and get it fixed with assurance that nothing else will go wrong for a while?
I do not approve of high tech vigilanteism, just as I do not approve of real world vigilanteism.
If it appears like someone is doing improper behavior, prove it in small claims computer court, or gather evidence for a computer crimes court where the suspect can face accuser with both sides access to competent technical witnesses. The state of art of software to catch improper actions is pretty dismal. How often do we have to update our anti-virus protection? How many false positives does spam blocking filters generate?
I do approve of the government attempting to protect the citizenry from future attacks by terrorists. In a war it is sometimes neccessary to do things that would never happen in peacetime. Individuals, who are dedicated to the other side and who will never surrender or stand down, they need to be locked up in perpetuity, but there also needs to be some proof that these people are in fact guilty of being the enemy. It is an extremely slippery slope to allow government to lock people up, with no legal protections such as a defense attorney, based on mere suspicion, or to spy on the people without probable cause as defined by the court system.
3:12:50 PM 
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