Sam, Sam, Sam...............
I enjoyed your rant about the DMCA, but I must tell you that you are wrong about a couple of things.
1. (I am not defending Republicans here) The DMCA was passed on October 12, 1998 by a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton (D) on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended Title 17 of the United States Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of the providers of on-line services for copyright infringement by their users. It was written by Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Bruce Lehman who was good buddies with Al (I invented the internet) Gore during the Clinton Years. He is also the guy that helped write the deregulation bill that has put Radio in it’s current dismal state. He is a Democrat so to blame Republicans for this is wrong, there are plenty of things other things to blame them for.
2. I have an on-line radio station and have to pay rights to a number of people for the use of the music, yet don't make a dime from it.
I have no sympathy for record companies, but do understand that musicians and writers should be paid for the work they do and the talent they have.
Just because you or I make no money from our hobbies does not mean that the talent that makes the music you use should not be compensated for it.
You see file sharing sites started this and instead of finding a way to take advantage of it, the record companies decided to try and stop it. A bad move that would never work because the consumer is always a head of the supplier.
As far as the NHRA goes, as it stands right now they CAN prevent you from publishing Photos, Videos and even sounds from a national event. It was never a problem before the internet came along and made it possible for us to share things with anybody anywhere in the world. For the most part they leave everybody alone and we should all be glad for that. They could just say, no cameras of any type allowed and that would be the end of that. It’s really no different that not being able to take cameras or recording devices into a concert.
People that post video taken from TV do not have the right to do so because they don’t own it. The same thing goes for the music you use in your videos you don’t own the right to broadcast it which is what you are doing when you post it to U-Tube. U-Tube is protecting it’s self and you pulling down your video.
I know it won’t stop you from making videos, I do it myself. I would suggest however that you not use Metallica music. They are one of the bands leading the charge in the DMCA law suits, they also played a large part in the demise of the original NAPSTER. They want to be paid for the music they make.
Sorry about the long post, and again I am not trying to start anything here I just wanted to put in my .02 on this.
Hope you have a great New Year and get to go to a lot of races this year.
Dan
