Not a SMART decision - New bill to tighten DMCA to affect online service providers

[williamcll]

Under the new regulations, service providers would also be punished if they were caught 

Quotes

Quote

A bipartisan legislative proposal is now emerging in the US to further shore up the country’s efforts to protect copyright and go after those designated as infringers. The Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies (SMART) Copyright Act of 2022 is the “brainchild” of US Senators Thom Tillis, a Republican, who has long-championed corporate interests when it comes to copyright, and Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, and the main goal is to make sure the burden of developing what are described as effective and widely available measures would going forward, be on tech companies. The proposal is supposed to be an update to the DMCA, which is now a quarter-century old. The way Tillis and Leahy phrased it while announcing the draft bill is that it will be better suited to combat what they repeatedly call “copyright theft” and “piracy” – in conditions on the internet that have since changed dramatically.

 

The bill references “a provider described in sub18 paragraph (A) that offers the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications, between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user’s choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or received,” which largely sounds like ISPs themselves, despite the one-pager accompanying the bill saying that it, “is limited just to providers that host content, and does not result in the loss of safe harbors.” As expected, the chief sponsors of the proposal present it as a way to better protect “creative communities” – rather than what these laws usually do, advance to the extremes the interests of giant corporations doing business online. In explaining the need for introducing the SMART Copyright Act of 2022, the two senators stress that the DMCA had envisaged online platforms would be exempt from legal liability for content shared by users that is marked as copyright infringing – if they worked to create technology that would enforce DMCA by creating standardized technical measures (STMs), working with copyright owners. While the bill doesn’t say it explicitly, in other countries, this type of “technology” has been upload filters, systems that scan all content uploaded to the internet and have been seen as a major threat to free speech.

 

My thoughts

Current DMCAs are already bad enough and there's people who want even more while completely unaware that it's hurting marketing strategies. It seems like the goal is to turn their products into necessities so it doesn't matter if you don't like it you are still forced to buy them. Though with the current Russia situation there might still be a light in the darkness.

 

Sources

https://reclaimthenet.org/smart-copyright-act-of-2022/

https://docs.reclaimthenet.org/LIP22167.pdf

https://www.tillis.senate.gov/2022/3/tillis-and-leahy-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-combat-copyright-piracy-enhance-content-sharing-and-hold-tech-accountable

[Rauten]

Let's just hope it doesn't actually pass...

[AndreiArgeanu]

This just reminds of ACTA all over again. The corporate greed and need to control the internet and squeez every penny they can disguised as good intentions that would be considered 'beneficial'.

[Arika]

21 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Strengthening Measures to Advance Rights Technologies (SMART)

Mr fantastic would be proud of that stretch.

 

"lets chose an acronym, then figure out the words that can go into it"

[Salv8 (sam)]

i actively hope this does not get passed.

this will be youtube's copyright strike system on the entire internet.

[TetraSky]

I see the MAFIAA has been paying off a lot more politicians.

So glad to live in Canada... Until they start lobbying up here to push their garbage as well.

[darknessblade]

56 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

i actively hope this does not get passed.

this will be youtube's copyright strike system on the entire internet.

But only for the USA.

As they cannot enforce USA law in other countries.

[HarryNyquist]

52 minutes ago, darknessblade said:

But only for the USA.

As they cannot enforce USA law in other countries.

If this passes in the US I guarantee you, it will begin to exist in other countries too.

[Elisis]

1 minute ago, HarryNyquist said:

If this passes in the US I guarantee you, it will begin to exist in other countries too.

I mean, other countries care a little more about protection of the people, broadly speaking. Don't always assume just because the US does some shit others will also do so.

[Taf the Ghost]

2 hours ago, darknessblade said:

But only for the USA.

As they cannot enforce USA law in other countries.

When 1 State does something stupid, it can have effects on all of the rest. It's not always CA, but a lot of times it is. Same thing applies to the Internet. The USA's broad Fair Use laws have had actually a very strong, positive effect on the rest of the Internet. One of the few cases where it's turned out to be a "good thing", but it's normally negative things that carry around. Bans on different gambling forms, online, in a few counties have had knock-on effects in other places. But a different DMCA system would likely be a mess.

 

However, there's the actual DMCA law & legal approaches, then there's "Social Media policies they claim is DMCA application". Those are actually rather radically different things.

[Donut417]

Hmmmmmm. I guess its about time to buy stock in VPN's because they are about to sky rocket. If these ass clowns think some dumb update to an a law most people in this country give no cares about breaking then they need to pull their head out of their rear. People will just find a NON US based VPN and pirate like they have been doing for years. The DMCA is kinda like speed limits on roads. There are a few who follow them, but then there are those who do 70 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. There are only so many prisons in the US and they dont have the capacity to store half the population. 

 

If Hollywood wants people to stop stealing, then stop making it harder to get content and stop trying to make someone buy shit multiple times. Their greed will be their downfall. 90% of the content I watch is on Youtube. If push comes to shove I always have books and my vast Steam library. 

 

Another thing. They actually going to throw people in prison for piracy? I mean I haven't heard of like anyone going to jail for piracy over internet released sharing. Most of the cases I have read about, judges have thrown them out saying IP addresses are not a person or for lack of evidence. The RIAA and the MPAA dont have the time or money to sue every person who pirates. If they expect ISP's to police the internet people will just turn to VPN's like I said. 

[darknessblade]

9 hours ago, HarryNyquist said:

If this passes in the US I guarantee you, it will begin to exist in other countries too.

Then I suggest you to look for posts/news stories about Companies  being forced to change things in the EU, because of Anti-trust regulations against said companies.

 

I already know a couple regarding 1 company, but I will refrain from posting it, as it upsets a certain group of people that cannot accept any change, even though they do not live in the EU.