Victory for Censorship Tech

RED HERRING | Victory for Censorship Tech

Hmmm...Censorship, eh? That's the boogeyman here. I kinda agree it's creepy in the artistic sense that ClearPlay (and others) will make a living "sanitizing" content for people who want to keep taking the blue pill.

The industry's response seems to be that of Copyright infringement. Arguing that ClearPlay has no right to alter the content from what the creator/copyright holder intended. Seems reasonable...if I produce something I expect it to get seen intact, not redacted the way someone else deems appropriate.

The Bill presumably comes from the spirit that the consumer has a right to protect him/herself from indecent content. That smacks of the moral majority and feels like Censorship.

But maybe thats not a bad thing. I wonder..are the rights it's extending to media consumers limited to indecency? How do we agree on exactly what parts of the content are indecent? The content producers dont label each scene with an MPAA rating...so the choice of exactly what to edit ultimately would have to be up to the consumer's preference and ClearPlay gives them the best decision points it can. But this Bill ought to mean the consumer can use whatever technology available to chop up Copyrighted content and view/play it how ever it wants to.

I might give Baywatch another chance, sans Hasselhoff.

Could this bill possibly only apply to Film? To DVD? I doubt it.

What does this mean to Copyright in other mediums?

Can I get this on my Tivo so I never have to watch another Republican campaign ad?

What else could we do with this? What about software copyright? Can I use some parts of the executable, bypassing others according to my preference?

Hmmm...