Senate Bill May Ban Streaming MP3s

This arrived along with other stuff in the Slashdot feed this morning:

Senate Bill May Ban Streaming MP3s (Slashdot post)

Just wondering how this would affect Second Life?

Would all Audio Streaming be removed ?

Would only MP3 Streaming be removed ? (e.g. would Ogg vorbis be left alone ?)

Would Second Life have to support compliant audio formats that would most likely cause problems with the planned cross platform nature of Second Life ?

Does this also affect the streaming video ?

Other links straight from the post:
source of the Slashdot post (EFF)
PDF linked by Slashdot article (Senate Bill S.2644)

Is it that nobody knows or nobody cares ?

Ehh. Just the fact this sort of thing is so totally unenforcable as to be moot.

Our "representatives" have been looking for a way to make their corporate sponsors happy on these issues for about the... oh, last eight "New Bill in Congress" scares. Each one is usually struck down faster than it can be formulated, though there have been a few that have slipped through the cracks.

Fun times.


....

Also, loosely-related politics usually ends up in Off-Topi^H^H^H^H^H^H The Sandbox.

LOL
oooOOoooh the mp3 police

Diane Feinstein had better not take my Radio Paradise away from me.

As I said in the other post made about this in the General forum, totally un-enforcable, they've already tried to charge royalties for streaming audio (The RIAA that is), that hasn't put the slightest dent in it as nobody pays.

Just more scare tactics.

Oh and they're "Forcing" people to use WMA or Real broadcasts, both of which are piss poor quality, no-one will like it, also I think Nullsoft will have something to say, now they're backed up by AOL Time Warner, they might have some power if this ever does get past someone's stupid nose. He might be too busy putting food on his people. And this would only be streaming licensed music.

It's depressing to think that I'll probably die before we have some good technology laws on the books. We need politicians who actually UNDERSTAND the technology, not just have someone tell them what they should think. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until they all die off before there will be politicians who have grown up with technology and understand what their decisions will impact.

I used to think that my generation would help as they entered office, but really, I think there's more luddites than technophiles in my generation. So we have to wait for the next generation or the one to follow.

*sigh* Too many morons with too much power.

Please take into account the following:

the original Nullsoft team does not exist
the guy who did a lot of work on winamp now does foobar2000
Icecast + Oddsock software kick Shoutcasts' outdated butt.

Also note the spelling error on the wiki page for Ogg Vorbis support.

Put this altogether and basically you get a company that'll only be able to bring money to the table.

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Could we have an official Linden Comment on this please ?

Time for some senators to be voted out of office

READ THE BILL!!!

S.2644
Title: A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 with respect to the carriage of direct broadcast satellite television signals by satellite carriers to consumers in rural areas, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Ensign, John [NV] (introduced 7/13/2004) Cosponsors (1)
Latest Major Action: 12/7/2004 By Senator McCain from Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation filed written report. Report No. 108-427.
Senate Reports: 108-427


This bill provides new rule and exemptionf to SATELLITE TELEVISON PROVIDERS BROADCASTING TO RURAL AREAS SUCH AS ALASKA.

Thank you SignpostMarv.. for stirring up sh*t with totally misinformed statements!
I can't help but wonder if your related to Chicken Little

I guess that shut everyone up on this thread.....

I still say, any senator that even thinks about helping the RIAA or MPAA should be thrown out of office

1.) Congress makes a new bill that vaguely covers alot of crap.
2.) People reas this this and go OMGWTFBBQ without really thinking about it.
3.) Someone posts in SL forums about how this will cripple the interweb.

Because people have no right to protect their property, right?

Um. No. That's not for this Congress, hence the date being 2004. You do realise that there can be more than one bill called S.2644, don't you? Try using the search engine properly.

OoOoOo, a guest?

Do your research before attempting to debunk a post.
If you're not a qualified member of the legal profession, please refrain from making poorly informed comments regarding the specific sections of the PERFORM act.

Please note how the original post was a source of reference material so people would know where the questions came from, not an OMGWTF post.

relink to EFF

Um, when I stream, I use music I already illegally pirated off the internet anyway.

So....why would I care?

At the worst, this could mean that LL has to limit the permitted filetypes, and even that's sketchy, as most laws IRL reach the land of "WTF?" in SL.

Not worried about it.

But yes, RIAA and MPAA must die. Not because you shouldn't protect your own property, but because anyone who sues a 12 year old girl to "set an example" needs to be dragged into the street and shot.

You are not everyone. Many people stream perfectly legally.

Anyone with a computer can download software that will record any sound/music their computer produces reguardless of what format it's in. DRM doen't work.

At most, this just makes it slightly less convienant while at the same time supporting closed standards. I hope these senators get 50,000 emails telling them what dumbasses they are.

Yes, but I'd say the majority of the technologically savvy unabashedly pirate MP3s. I only buy a CD after I've heard the music and want to support the band with the benefit of better sound, or album art.

That has nothing to do with the format. MP3 was just the early favorite and caught on. It could just have easily been OGG or WMA or something else. The point here is that these ill-informed senators think by forcing people to use one format over another, they'll stop piracy.

I'm saying that even though MP3 can't DRM and WMA can, DRM doesn't work so the entire idea is bunk.

After having some time to do some research and think on things, I don't think Second Life as a service will be affected at all, since Second Life doesn't act as a broadcast server, only as a streaming client.

The most adverse affect I can see of this is that the client would support streaming if DRM able audio. Which I don't think will happen.

You give RIAA/MPAA way too much credit. They can throw so many buzzwords around, you'd think the family toaster was an internet file server.

I SO agree with you. Does anyone think these 50-80+ yr old politicians know every detail of technology? I cant even get my 60 yr old father to figure out how to use a mouse, much less explain MP3s to him.

I've also encountered others who're under 30 and still think the Internet is for checking Email, the internet has 2 providers: AOL & MSN, "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" means nothing to them.

The world needs better technology education I think.