Comments on: Tech, Hollywood heavyweights create content coalition

IBM, Intel, Disney and others will work on rules for ensuring the security of content in home networks.

[kennyjboyd]

Broadcast flag?

I have been in the broadcast industry for a while, and the rumors that I hear about the broadcast flag disturbs me. For decades, consumers have been able to record their favorite TV shows or radio programs. If the cost isn't enough to stall the acceptance of digital recievers, the broadcast flag will surely win the consumers disapproval. I still believe that the consumer has the power of the purse: it's only a matter of time to see whether the recording industry believes that. Regardless of the recording industry's position of copyright protection, I'm sure they will quickly recant if the broadcast flag and copyright schemes cause sales to plummit.

Consumers vs. users

Actually, content companies are taking steps to lock down their material for reasons far beyond concerns about digital piracy. They simply don't want consumers to act as users -- ripping, mixing, burning, reformulating or recirculating any copyrighted material, even for legitimate purposes that fall well within fair use.

[John Kuzak]

content companies

http://www.analogstereo.com/dual_action_cleanser.htm

[landlines]

Industry needs to concentrate on new content, not lawsuits

If other industries stretched the Copyright laws to the extent that RIAA and Hollywood have done, bricklayers would be receiving royalties from people walking into buildings they helped build over half a century ago.

The concept of additional payment for a little work done decades ago is is so obviously ridiculous for tradesmen in the construction industry, so why does Hollywood think that it is their God-given (but Federally-enforced legal) right to such treatment?

Tradesmen, engineers, architects, software designers, doctors, lawyers, and even authors of printed works get paid when (and if) they produce. When they fail to make NEW contributions, the income stops. There is no reason that record companies and film producers should be treated any differently by society, and it is a gross perversion of Copyright law to bestow special rights on certain types of entertainers.