UNITED STATES: Skipping the ads to be illegal

Issue 

UNITED STATES: Skipping the ads to be illegal

The new Intellectual Property Protection Act currently before US Congress, has some strange provisions. Among them, is a provision to differentiate between the legal activity of fast-forwarding through offensive bits of a movie you recorded from television, and the illegal act of fast-forwarding through the commercials shown in the middle of the movie. The act, introduced to Congress on November 19, will also make bootlegging movies a felony offence, and criminalise the use of Apple's iTunes sharing facility.

From Green Left Weekly, December 1, 2004.
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