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Come on guys. This isn't rocket science. There are some very simple guidelines that should be followed with any legislation, that past attempts at copyright reform have ignored.
- No law should be passed this is or will be violated by more than % of population, otherwise enforcement of the law will result in a police state. For example, if the law simply bans normal use of ipods, mp3 players, photo albums, blogs, websites, computers, libraries, etc forget it!
- Any reform should have reasonable means for those who are not in compliance with the new law to become within compliance. For example, if the law requires consumers to pay royalties to rip mp3's from a CD, then there needs to be some agency where a consumer can register and pay for their existing collections.
- The burden of proof and financial responsibility for all parties needs to be reasonable. We do not need situations like in the US were simply being accused of piracy without even a prima facie case is enough to force people to either spend thousands of dollars on an attorney, or pay a settlement for thousands of dollars without even a chance to prove their innocence. Nor should consumers be burden with huge media taxes because some people pirate.
- Probably the most important thing is try to keep copyright the law civil, not criminal. We do not need to have the police force sending time tracking down people copying DVD's or such, when we have a system that can not even handle prosecuting and defending people accused of violent crimes.
Bill
