The biggest tech companies in the world are far from happy with a Hollywood backed campaign to further restrict the ability of people to use CDs and DVDs on IT devices. The scheme, backed by US politicos including Ernest Hollings and Howard Berman. Last year Senator Ernest Hollings introduced a bill to make the high tech firms agree on a standard to prevent digital piracy.
And Friday the Mercury News reports that the Business Software Alliance and another hi-tech trade group, the Comptuer Systems Policy Project, will join together to lobby Washington over the proposed bill.
They hope to convince Congress that strict copy-protection legislation that sets technological mandates would stifle innovation, harm consumers and threaten an already suffering tech industry. |
``These things have a very big impact on our industry and on Intel,'' said Intel lobbyist Doug Comer. ``It's not just about, `Are we driving up the price of the chip?' It's about what kind of future is being created for digital consumers.''
The entertainment industry had the upper hand in the battle last year, with a carefully orchestrated lobbying campaign and bills introduced by powerful lawmakers. Hollywood-backed legislation filed by Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., and Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Los Angeles, would embed copy protection into PCs and an array of consumer devices.
But the legislation had consequences that Walt Disney and other backers hadn't bargained for. It served as a rallying cry for consumer groups and tech companies to fight for consumers' rights to make copies of CDs, DVDs and other digital works for personal use, as they do with TV shows and audio tapes.
The article appears to suggest that the high tech alliance has far more chance of overturning the proposals, despite opposition from the Motion Picture Association of America and friends in the different houses. It looks as though the hi-tech firms have realised that the people who buy their kit are not very happy with any Hollings-like proposals. Read the entire article here.
Source: Mercurynews.com
