In the event that Congress, in its wisdom, decides to buy into the content lobby's entire vision of the future, I may just stop watching television, buying and renting movies, and buying and renting music. I already don't have time to watch TV, I haven't bought much music recently, and I can select movies on the basis of whether they're in the content lobby or not.
In the event that I'm the only one doing that, the content lobby hardly notices. If I'm not, and in fact a whole lot of other people do likewise, there may no longer be a content lobby.
I don't think hacking feature-challenged delivery systems produces a sufficient workaround. The agents of the content lobby will just track you down and run you through the legal system ten at a time. I think causing their incomes to tank 40% by just not buying their stuff would do it.
The content lobby may believe that it is capable of dictating my watching and listening habits.
Have I got news for them.
I think it is annoying that our representatives in government have bought into the idea that copyright violations are criminal acts, and that copyright violations will extend into how you skip over commercials, but I also understand that they're subject to pressure by a lobby which has been made powerful by our patronage over the years. Realizing this, I think that I don't have to pay money to someone who is trying very hard to turn me into a criminal because I fast forward over the commercials.
If content providers step up to say that they're not part of the content lobby and in fact work to oppose these initiatives, I'll buy from them.
One of the reasons that independent bookstores have been going out of business recently has been the strong upsurge in buying DVDs, CDs, and computer games, and spending time on the web, reading blogs, and reading and writing email. People have only so much money to spend on fun stuff, and a lot of folks paid for Halo 2 last week. Something like this could cause books to make a bit of a comeback! I can't remember the last time a book publisher tried to put me in jail.
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