The gradual erosion of your rights by the Entertainment Conglomerates

Pa ElGrande

A flood of legislation released by the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act threatens to drown whole classes of consumer electronics.
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Now, in an even more vexing situation, U.S. entertainment companies are successfully spreading the copyright code changes established by the DMCA around the world. Laws similar to the DMCA now exist in Japan, Australia, and much of Europe. At least nine additional countries, including Chile, Guatemala, and Singapore have also been pressured to enact DMCA-like laws as part of a devil's bargain with U.S. trade negotiators, who say the copyright change is necessary to secure free trade pacts with the United States that would govern all sorts of commerce. And in Europe, the body charged with defining the European digital television standards is mixing in content-protection obligations, responding yet again to pressure from major U.S. movie studios.

Emboldened by their successes, U.S. entertainment companies are pushing for another wave of even more restrictive legislation. “Broadcast flag” legislation could require that all consumer electronics devices recognize protected television broadcasts and potentially refuse to copy them; a so-called “radio flag” bill would prevent or restrict the manufacture of hard disk recorders for digital radio; and an “analog hole” closure would restrict the connections new digital devices can make with analog devices.

As the entertainment industry expands copyright law, the rising tide threatens to completely wash away many types of innovative gadgets.
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Copyright is being turned from a limited-term incentive designed to encourage creative artists to a broadly scoped transfer of wealth from the public to the private realm. As the industries that generate copyrighted materials seek control over not only their works but also the devices on which we watch, listen to, and remix them, copyright law is turning into technology regulation.

Death by DMCA
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jun06/3673

The full article is well worth reading and it serves to highlight the damage done to industry and constant reduction of your rights and privileges over time. We must be more active lobbying goverment and EU, before its too late.