today announced an entertaining campaign to prevent passage
of a seriously abusive copyright law. By distributing an
Internet video parodying Disney’s attempts to control
the public’s use of CDs, DVDs, and other digital media,
EFF intends to spur widespread opposition to the Consumer
Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA)
proposed by Senator Hollings.
“We hope people will contact their legislators once they
understand how Hollywood is stifling innovation, fair use,
and the right to tinker,” said EFF Outreach Coordinator
Cory Doctorow. “CBDTPA is an anti-consumer, anti-technology
attempt to control how people can use the technology they
own.”
“The entertainment industry is manipulating copyright law
to impose government regulation on all new digital media
technologies,” added Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior
Intellectual Property Attorney. “If they got their way in
1979, all VCRs would have been impounded as tools of
piracy.”
The EFF video parodies Disney’s attempts to control digital
media with the song “Tinsel Town Club,” a remake of the
theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club.
The parodied lyrics for Tinsel Town Club are the following:
“Sing Along Kids!
Chanting:
Tinsel Town Club
Tinsel Town Club…..
Verse 1:
Who believes the average Jane’s
a criminal on the make?
Disney and its showbiz friends
who have a lot at stake.
Verse 2:
Who with their locks
turn back the clocks
on rights we have today?
The entertainment moguls and
CBDTPA!
Bridge:
They sell us stuff. (It’s overpriced!)
Then lock it up (and that’s not nice)!
So they can keep their profits
in the sky. (High! High! High!)
Verse 3:
So, join the fight!
Defend your rights
before they’re whisked away.
Speak up fast!
Don’t let them pass
CBDTPA!
Numbers count. (They make Congress pay attention!)
Tell all your friends about
that old
CBDTPA!”>br?
For the Tinsel Town Club video:
http://action.eff.org/tinseltown/
For the CBDTPA action alert:
http://action.eff.org/
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020528_eff_cbdtpa_pr.html
For a previous alert on the CBDTPA legislation:
http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html
For more information about CBDTPA (and its older
“parent”, SSSCA):
http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/
About EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
statement and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most-linked-to
websites in the world at
http://www.eff.org/.
