[mythtv-users] Congress to Make Commercial Skipping Illegal

[Wendy Seltzer]

IAAL :)

The scene-skipping amendment goes at the end of a section that starts 
"Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the following are not 
infringements of copyright:..."
So the literal function of the Family Movie Act is to say that skipping 
movie scenes or making the technology to do so doesn't violate copyright or 
trademark law.  Yes, Hollywood directors and studios actually claimed that 
skipping parts of movies infringed their rights (see 
<http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Huntsman_v_Soderbergh/>).

That doesn't mean you still shouldn't call your representatives -- there's 
a lot of other bad law being proposed in the so-called PIRATE Act: 
"cooperation" between ISPs and law enforcement that would bully ISPs into 
spying on their customers; authorization for the government to do the 
entertainment industry's work prosecuting civil copyright infringement 
suits; and expansion of criminal penalties for copyright infringement with 
lower thresholds that could trip up lots of average internet users.

--Wendy

At 10:20 AM 11/16/2004 -0500, Jonathan Link wrote:
>IANAL, either, but this is clearly outlined by the Wired article.
>The section you site pertains to Motion Pictures, not television, and
>is meant to allow people to skip graphic/obscene parts of a Motion
>Picture.
>
>-Jonathan
>
>
>On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 09:12:09 -0600, spectro <spectro at gmail.com> wrote:
> > IANAL, IHMO sec 212
> > (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c108:5:./temp/~c108pY1lnE:e35066:)
> > seems to grant an exception to devices that allow commercial skipping.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 09:53:06 -0500, George Galt <george.galt at gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> > > All:
> > >
> > > The House has passed HR 2391, which is being considered by the Senate
> > > today (11/16).  Successful passage by the Senate will put this bill on
> > > the President's desk late this year or early next.
> > >
> > > This bill makes it a violation of the Copyright Act to skip
> > > commercials using a technological means (hardware or software) -- and
> > > it makes it a violation to make the computer program that allows
> > > people to skip commercials.  You can get information on the bill here:
> > > http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.02391:
> > >
> > > and you can read the Wired story on the bill here:
> > >
> > > http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65704,00.html
> > >
> > > My suggestion is call your Senators and Representatives and let them
> > > know that it is ridiculous to make it illegal for you to skip
> > > commercials (assuming you agree that it is).
> > >
> > > You can reach your Senators and Representatives through the Capitol
> > > switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or (202) 225-3121.  Or you can email
> > > them by going to their web sites, which you can find through
> > > www.senate.gov or www.house.gov.
> > >
> > > George

--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.com
Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://www.eff.org/
Chilling Effects: http://www.chillingeffects.org/