Phone Companies Join Digital Rights Lobby

  • CNet: Tech heavies support challenge to copyright law. But members of the nascent coalition, including Intel, Sun Microsystems, Verizon Communications, SBC, Qwest, Gateway and BellSouth, are lending their support to a proposal by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., to rewrite that part of the DMCA. Boucher’s bill says that descrambling utilities can be distributed, and copy protection can be circumvented as long as no copyright infringement is taking place.

  • The headline is a little misleading, because Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Apple are among the notably missing companies from this list. Then again, they’ve mostly signed on with Hollywood and the music industry to help control what customers of electronic gear are allowed to do with what they’ve purchased.

    But the presence of the big regional phone companies is a welcome one. They still have a lot of clout, and they could be a huge boost for legislation that might begin to restore some balance in the copyright debate.

    Boucher’s bill (H.R. 107) deserves your support, too. Please call your member of Congress.

    Comments


    Posted by: on June 22, 2004 08:07 AM

    If Disney, et. al., can kill all media downloads, and A**croft can kill all er0t1c downloads, how will the phone and cable companies continue to interest their customers in broadband internet connectivity? If all that are left are low-bandwidth applications, the carriers will be forced to drop prices, and dividends. I expect they’re catching on.

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