[mythtv-users] Congress to Make Commercial Skipping Illegal

Harry Orenstein holists at v92net.com
Tue Nov 23 05:24:54 UTC 2004


On Friday 19 November 2004 02:54 pm, Gregory Nicholls wrote:
> George Galt 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


In case anyone is still interested... MSN reports that the provision of the 
bill making it illegal to remove commercials was removed (along with other 
changes) before the bill was passed.  Assuming this provision is not 
reinstated when the Senate and House versions of the bill are reconciled I 
would guess that we "dodged the bullet" (for now).



-- Harry O.


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