Paging Max Headroom to the White Courtesy Phone
by Jason at 12:00 am on November 24th, 2004 in Media
Two stories that provide interesting contrasts in our increasingly media-overloaded society:
One one hand, stores are beginning to phase out VCR sales as DVD and DVR boxes gain more market share. It’s almost quaint to remember that in 1982 MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti famously said that the VCR was to Hollywood what the Boston Strangler was to a woman alone.
Despite having an actor in the White House, the movie industry failed to stem the tide of VHS recorders. And, remarkably, it’s still healthy enough to provide us with Hilary Duff pseudo-movies and about four dozen Jerry Bruckheimer action films starring Nicholas Cage.
But as 2004 fades into an Elephantine 2005, big media and associated advertising groups are at it again, trying their best to place restrictive controls on the way Americans experience their entertainment. And with access to a Congress that loves to give perks to big business and media conglomerates, these groups will have the ability to enact some truly ridiculous restrictions—like making it a crime to fast-forward through commercials on a recorded television program.
Do you like fast-forwarding through commercials on a television program you’ve recorded? How much do you like it? Enough to go to jail if you’re caught doing it? If a new copyright and intellectual property omnibus bill sitting on Congress’s desk passes, that may be the choice you’ll face.
How can this be possible? Because language that makes fast-forwarding through commercials illegal—no doubt inserted at the behest of lobbyists for the advertising industry—was inserted into a bill that would allow people to fast forward past objectionable sections of a recorded movie (and I bet you already thought that was OK). And that’s but one, albeit scary, scenario that may come to pass if the Intellectual Property Protection Act is enacted into law. Deliberations on this legislation will be one of the tasks for the lame-duck Congress that commenced this week.
Other fun new provisions of the Intellectual Property Protection Act: It would criminalize the sharing features in Apple’s iTunes program, which allows computers to share a playlist over a local network. And it would make it a felony to record a movie in a theater, Jerry Seinfeld style. But hold your complaints, because this isn’t about consumers having their rights trampled. Passage of the IPPA is actually crucial for the security of our country, says Jonathan Lamy of the RIAA:
“It includes a number of things to strengthen the hand of law enforcement to combat piracy. Intellectual property theft is a national security crime. It’s appropriate that the fed dedicate resources to deter and prosecute IP theft.”
So what does Max Headroom have to do with all of this? If you’re old enough to remember that short-lived 1987 show, which depicted a post-apocalyptic world enslaved to tv ratings, you might be interested to know that it was set in…2004.