SIRA bill in US Congress could redefine digital copyright and fair use

[mandy]

The SIRA bill: http://media-cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs...nDraft.pdf

Simply put, SIRA fundamentally redefines copyright and fair use in the digital world. It would require all incidental copies of music to be licensed separately from the originating copy. Even copies of songs that are cached in your computer's memory or buffered over a network would need yet another license. Once again, Big Copyright is looking for a way to double-dip into your wallet, extracting payment for the same content at multiple levels.

Today, so-called "incidental" copies don't need to be licensed; they're made in the process of doing *other* things, like listening to your MP3 library or plugging into a Net radio station. If you paid for the MP3 and the radio station is up-to-date with its bookkeeping, nobody should have to pay again, right? Not if SIRA becomes law. Out of the blue, copyright holders would have created an entire new market to charge for -- and sue over. Good for them. Bad for us...

full article: http://ipaction.org/blog/2006/06/worst-b...rd-of.html

EFF commentary:

According to our DC sources, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property is planning on marking up and expediting a not-yet-introduced bill entitled the Section 115 Reform Act (aka SIRA) this coming Wednesday, June 7. Why the rush? Because otherwise someone might notice that the bill represents an unholy alliance between the major music service providers (AOL, Yahoo, Apple, Real Networks, etc.) and music publishing industry. If the bill passes, they win, but fair use loses.

SIRA's main aim is clearing the way for online music services by revising the current mechanical compulsory license set out in Section 115 of the Copyright Act to accommodate "full downloads, limited downloads, and interactive streams." So far so good, but the devil is in the details. This license specifically includes and treats as license-able "incidental reproductions...including cached, network, and RAM buffer reproductions."

By smuggling this language into the Copyright Act, the copyright industries are stacking the deck for future fights against other digital technologies that depend on making incidental copies. Just think of all the incidental copies that litter your computer today -- do you have a license for every copy in your browser's cache? ...

full article: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004721.php

[bargainbloodhound]

. This license specifically includes and treats as license-able "incidental reproductions...including cached, network, and RAM buffer reproductions."

: : :

Sooo, basically you turn off your browser's cache or you pay for another license.  : 

I wonder how much the music industry's lobbyists bribed the members of the "Judiciary Subcommittee on the Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property " in order to get this crap expedited.

[mandy]

Update: US House Panel OKs SIRA bill.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday approved a digital copyright bill that critics say could imperil home-use copying of music and video recording devices like TiVo.

The Section 115 Reform Act, or SIRA, introduced by Texas Republican Lamar Smith, attempts to overhaul a piece of copyright law that established a complex system of "mechanical royalties" for record companies, recording artists, songwriters and publishers in exchange for the right to reproduce and distribute their music...

full article: http://news.com.com/House+panel+OKs+digi...g=nefd.top