Copyright Protection

[jbredmound]

Again, a fruit of browsing Slashdot. This article talks about the practical side of enforcing law in our society.We had quite a discussion about this recently, but I could not find the thread. I think this gentleman does a better job of making some of our points.

[Cluttermagnet]

Again, a fruit of browsing Slashdot. This article talks about the practical side of enforcing law in our society.We had quite a discussion about this recently, but I could not find the thread. I think this gentleman does a better job of making some of our points.

A well-written, well-reasoned piece, jb. Thanks! I remember that thread, too. This little drama is going to play out over a number of years. No telling where we will end up. It's not a pretty picture. I would agree with the writer that we are in essence trying to legislate against human nature. I can only speak for myself, but I am absolutely, totally unwilling to pay for transient 'rights'. So are plenty of other folks. I insist upon fair use. I'm not out to profit from it, but I'm not going to pay for each and every instance of a work, over and over. I insist upon being able to buy it for once and for all for my personal use, and then be left alone. I will not 'license' it unless that so-called license is for life, requires a reasonable one time payment, and includes reasonable personal fair use, to include all my household. I am not willing to admit the cynical scalpers into my house digitally and allow them to charge me some outrageous 'per head' or 'per machine' levy. Every member of my household should be able to benefit from that one purchase, including the occasional visitor who might see the images or hear the audio stream. I would cross the line only if I shared copies outside my household and/or for personal profit. My use is not in the context of a business, and I make nothing on this material, so I should not be assessed in the same way a for-profit business would.Trouble is, what really matters is what our young become acustomed to and willing/unwilling to accept. It is their vote, not ours, that will really count in the long run. One of my favorite sayings: "They voted with their feet" A metaphor severely bent from its original meaning, but quite appropriate to a lot of current struggles. I never pay those exorbitant, ripoff prices for tickets to sporting events, musical performances, etc. Unfortunately, there is a broad segment of society that is willing to do just that. It's simply a numbers game. They may be able ultimately to overwhelm my vote, to invalidate it. In a very real sense, my vote already does not count- at least, projecting into the future, it quickly and certainly does not. Our world is increasingly full of extortionist distribution schemes through once illegal monopolies and artificially-created 'shortages' of resources. Just as Eisenhower warned, our "military-industrial complex" is hacking away at our personal resources and even our way of life- especially the 'industrial' component.Because of the incestuous relationship between government and industry, most people can safely assume that most legislation or new business practices are overwhelmingly directed against their interests, with a very few exceptions. I'm more interested in the 'back catalog' of a lot of my favorite musical artists, and even there we see a lot of 'hoarding' taking place by the rights owners against the wishes and financial interests of the buying public. As usual, artificially-created shortages designed to drive up prices. If I cannot obtain recordings over which I have some reasonable fair use rights, including copying, I totally withdraw from those markets. Indeed, I already do precisely that, as I grew tired of the massive overpricing on music CDs, videos, etc. and I no longer support those industries anyway (with a very few exceptions, as there is one group of artists I like so much that I am willing to make an exception for them only).To me, DRM is just another nail in the coffin. I can only speak for myself, but I suspect a large number of folks would, if backed far enough into a corner, settle for and widely produce (technically bootlegged) material obtained from preamp-level analog audio streams from DRM-protected sources. Depends on how stringent folks are about maintaining hi-fi. Or have they already figured out how to digitally cause an analog audio stream to become uncopyable? Personally, I am willing to sacrifice bit for bit faithfulness to a master recording, if absolutely necessary. I'm not there yet, but could be eventually pushed there. Not for profit from piracy, mind you- I'm not about that- but just for the sheer satisfaction of 'gettting over' on the producer industries, who I see as the real pirates here. Face it, if you have undue influence within government, you can legalize your own illegal activities and criminalize human nature. That's where we are heading, and I disrespect RIAA and MPAA in the extreme! Fair use personal copying is not a right I am willing to give up. They are the ripoff artists, victimizing the public and their performing artists alike. Videos and their associated media are a different but related issue, due to obvious technical differences. As I see it, most of Hollywoods and network TV's productions are c**p anyway. Yes, they do fairly often produce works of merit, which I sometimes see. Opinions might differ widely here, as I have become re-sensitized to the overwhelming presence of very sick, gratuitous violence and overall bias towards presenting the seamier side of life, twisted far out of context. There is such a thing as 'too much realism'. We crossed that line long ago, so far as I'm concerned. I'm no prude- or innocent- but that's how I feel. The same applies for me to cable TV. My household is atypical in that we do not pay through the nose for overpriced cable TV service, which also serves predominately c**p (see "hollywood", above). Those guys lost me a long time ago, but again, I am probably atypical. I reject productions that are thoroughly worm-eaten with ugliness and gore. But I will likely get drowned out in the mad rush of the majority to embrace garbage and toss away their hard-won rights. If that is their choice, so be it.

[Cluttermagnet]

To me, DRM is just another nail in the coffin. I can only speak for myself, but I suspect a large number of folks would, if backed far enough into a corner, settle for and widely produce (technically bootlegged) material obtained from preamp-level analog audio streams from DRM-protected sources. Depends on how stringent folks are about maintaining hi-fi. Or have they already figured out how to digitally cause an analog audio stream to become uncopyable?

I can answer my own question on that score. It is already within the current state of the art to keep audio source material in entirely digital form, right on up to and including the high power output stages that directly drive loudspeakers. Material can also be kept in encrypted form with the decryption mechanism held invisible to the end user in every way. The latter can be done mostly with new forms of software, but the former would require new hardware designs. With enough influence and monopoly in place, industry can probably steer the evolution of new hardware in that general direction, pulling the wool over the eyes of most users by simultaneously rolling out 'wonderful new features' with every incrememtal change in the hardware platform. At some point, the end user has been totally disenfranchised, his rights trampled and completely trashed. The sellers in this slave (unfree) market would eventually be positioned to dictate essentially everything. You say buyers could simply elect to not buy? Not according to real human nature. Humans are very social creatures and exist in the context of an extended family (community). Very few are loners who cut theselves off from the mainstream. If the situation evolves in this general direction, it definitely leads to a complete 'gotcha!'

[Grasshopper]

Nice bit of discourse Clutter.I don't think you're atypical in your thinking. I am almost there myself and I see myself as fairly typical in the "geek" community. I don't have a lot to add, except a story.My best friend is an aspiring musical artist. We had a small discussion about all this. He told me he would not sign with a record producer. In his words, he wouldn't "because they have you by the short and curlies." He's a bit more musically talented than a lot of musicians out there but is just getting started. His attitude is that he wants to be true to his art but still put out something popular (sure, it can be done). And remember, the real losers in all this stuff is the aspiring artist, even more than the consumers who pay $20 for a CD. My friend has two kids and his wife is trying to get thru medical school. He has nothing 'cept "love" so to speak, and he is my hero for chasing his dream. This copyright situation of more than two-sided also. His opinion is that music should not be freely distributed (he wouldn't even send me...his best friend... an mp3 of one of his songs) in any shape or form, even if it's a crusty recording of "In the Mood", no matter how old it is. I argued a bit with him on that point, but our main point of conversation was to try to come up with some way to capitalize on it (ya see? many-sided argument). I'm not very imaginative but I'm technical and he's not very (computer) technical but is very imaginative.Tough stuff.

[Cluttermagnet]

(snip)My best friend is an aspiring musical artist. We had a small discussion about all this. He told me he would not sign with a record producer. In his words, he wouldn't "because they have you by the short and curlies." He's a bit more musically talented than a lot of musicians out there but is just getting started. His attitude is that he wants to be true to his art but still put out something popular (sure, it can be done). And remember, the real losers in all this stuff is the aspiring artist, even more than the consumers who pay $20 for a CD. My friend has two kids and his wife is trying to get thru medical school. He has nothing 'cept "love" so to speak, and he is my hero for chasing his dream. This copyright situation of more than two-sided also. His opinion is that music should not be freely distributed (he wouldn't even send me...his best friend... an mp3 of one of his songs) in any shape or form, even if it's a crusty recording of "In the Mood", no matter how old it is.

Thanks, tbird- I'm still trying to digest all you said about your friend. I really do feel for the performing artists. I wish there were a way to fairly compensate them, but I really can't see it right now. Seems like everyone has to let the production guys walk all over them and settle pretty much for table scraps. If it eventually leads to fame, perhaps it is all worth it for those lucky few. The rest are just endlessly exploited and remain powerless. Although the producers technically operate within the law, their behavior in many ways resembles that of organized crime.I'm trying to understand your friend's views, as they sound a bit rigid, almost as if he thinks that even those older works that are in the public domain (nobody owns the rights) should not be. There is a tremendous volume of prior work 'out there' on various media including LP records, tape in various formats, and CDs. Certainly nobody is going to be able to retroactively label them a violation of IP rights and contraband to be confiscated. This massive, distributed collection is traded around liberally, and those who hold these original copies have every right to do so. It crosses the line to try to profit from making _copies_ of some of this material, if copyrighted, but not from the sale of the original media items themselves. Many such items are currently inflated in value because of back catalog hoarding by the rights holders. Look on Ebay- high quality CDs are in high demand, such as the audiophile MFSL (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab) releases of various older, out of print works. I know of one artist group who finally did have a big chunk of their older works re-released after years of begging and pleading by their fans (the group does not own the rights to their own material). MFSL CD prices immediately dropped by about one half, and they don't sell as briskly now. Same for the once scarce, regular grade, out of print CDs, which also used to command a handsome price. You can now buy all the re-released items on CD for about ten dollars across the board. Meanwhile, another group's out of print top release goes for 40-50 dollars as MFSL CDs. A few folks rounded them up cheap and are making a killing due to scarcity (hoarding by the IP owners).Would your friend _sell_ mp3 copies of his work to you or others? Sounds like he might not. We have evolved such an adversarial relationship between the producers and everybody else that even the abused and exploited end users are misbehaving badly at times. Your friend probably fears that every copy of his material 'out there' could be used later to clone a bunch of other copies, depriving him of rightful income. Perhaps if CDs sold for around 5 bucks and people knew that the artists were getting a decent share, they would be willing to consistently support both the industry and the artists as a matter of pride, honor and self-interest. Yeah, right- like that's really going to happen. The media execs are very important people, and it's expensive to support them in the manner they have become accustomed to. And their lawyers. Anybody even remotely successful in setting up a fairer distribution system would no doubt come under a withering attack by the ruling monopolies and likely be destroyed. It's tough to set matters right, once a situation gets this entrenched. It is not at all unreasonable to assume that the government would defend these rascals to the bitter end, and I doubt anyone wants to take on that battle. So the remaining options are to meekly comply with outrageous, monopolistic terms of surrender, or just stop playing the game, or else inspire some bright person to come up with a totally new idea for a system of distribution as clever as GPL was in nurturing Linux, that can somehow generate enough revenue to support itself, especially our deserving artists, and withstand attack from the old guard. The old system is highly parasitical and has overstayed its welcome, yet only a truly revolutionary new system can bury it.