[Teralogos News] U.S. Senate Debates Memory License Fee

[dlpulver@sjgames.com]

U.S. Senate Debates Memory License Fee

WASHINGTON DC, United States/Teralogos	June 3, 2101      
      
Over protests from minority Republicans, the United States Senate today held hearings on the possibility of new fees to be imposed on manufacturers and wearers of digital cognitive implants, including virtual interface implants and sensory link ("slink") hardware.      
Producers of content have long complained that the digital implants allow the user to have a perfect memory of content that they experience and to transmit that memory to others. In the case of upslink and downslink hardware, that transmission is explicit in the design of the systems.      
      
"In the past, human memory was imperfect, and a person would have to return to the original content to enjoy it in its full form. Even copies were insufficient. The digital revolution of a century ago changed that. But we now are confronted by a new revolution, where copyright-infringing digital copying is directly built in to the memories of increasing numbers of people," said United Content Owners vice-president Michael Post, the first person to testify at today's hearings.      
      
The draft legislation would impose a per-unit tax on the manufacturers of digital cognitive implants and, in one version of the bill, a monthly license fee to all implant users. The funds generated would be directed to the United Content Owners group, to be distributed to its members. The fees would be applied to all residents of U.S. territories with digital cognitive implants. Visitors with implants would be required to pay a flat rate upon entering the United States.      
      
Meredith Walker, second term Republican Senator from Massachusetts, opposed both the legislation and the hearings. "By considering these laws, we are only giving aid and comfort to those who wish to empower corporations at the expense of citizens and hold human development back to the pre-digital age." Senator Walker left the hearings early, after Senator Albert Clark (D-NV) referred to her as "the esteemed Senator from the TSA," referring to the radical Transpacific Socialist Alliance.      
    
The World Trade Organization, a strong advocate of thousands of content producers and disseminators, released a statement supportive of the hearings. A recent WTO report, Global Action 2100, recommended that a digital-cognitive licensing scheme be adopted on a system-wide scale.    
      
- filed by Jamais Cascio