Talk:Audio Home Recording Act

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"The DMCA effectively bans the use and sale of digital recorders if there is an access control or encryption (DRM) built into the copyrighted audio file." The author of the article doesn't really make clear what their argument is for this. If I were to guess about it, perhaps they mean something like this: Once any (DRM-type) access control is used, any unauthorized recording is circumvention, since the DRM should protect against it. In that case, anything that can make such a recording is a circumvention device, and so is prohibited. But that's not quite how it is; the protection must be effective for it to be covered by the DMCA. In cases where the DRM is supposed to allow access/decoding, the DMCA doesn't do anything, no matter what happens next. Of course there's a lot of leeway to interpret what that means. (See this discussion for a good start on it; especially on page 4.)

A discussion of why the computing exception makes the AHRA effectively useless nowdays would be handy.

A tangled web surrounds the origins of the AHRA, with RIAA involvement, shenanigans of the Home Recording Rights Coalition, large companies sometimes wearing several hats, and lots of spin from involved legislators.

Statements like "S. 1623 will ensure that American consumers have access to equipment embodying the new digital audio recording technology." Statement on Signing the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 seemed paradoxical to many, as they saw the supposed "compromise" of the AHRA as selling out the spirit of the decision in the Betamax case.

• I just removed and toned down quite a bit of POV.

While it's understandable that people should try to interpret the meaning and ultimate effect of the laws, in fact it's better to accurately describe them and delineate what is a guess from what is a prediction from what is a likely outcome from what is a stated intention from what is desired and by who, etc etc ... all of these delineations require that the statements are attributed to the parties who make them.

This then enables the readers to understand, rather than them simply taking for granted that wikinews authors are omniscient. -- Pinbucket 00:26, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm working on a memo on this topic for a public interest organization, and was disappointed by this article. I'll be adding to this page over the next couple of days. Will do my best to avoid a slant, but wouldn't mind the oversight.