Twenty-First Century Copyright
Jan. 28th, 2003 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aWe now stand a couple of years into the twenty-first century. And, it's becoming increasingly obvious that copyright, and the whole idea of intelluctual property, stands at a crossroads.
The problem that copyright faces is the increased ease with which the average person can copy a work. Sure, we've had photocopiers around for ages, but it was an enormous pain to copy a whole book, and usually not worth it.
Now, with the continued evolution of digital media, the time to cost ratio is starting to head fairly quickly in the other direction. Today, for many people, it's dramatically less costly to steal IP than to buy it. And, that's creating a pair of reactions.
On the one side we have the pirates who declaim IP. They have some good points, in that there are multimedia conglomerates who dramatically jack up prices when selling copies of artists' works, but they're also very disrespectful of the real costs going into producing creative works.
On the other hand you have the corporations who declaim IP-copying capabilities being made available to the public. They have some good points, in that there is real cost to produce, market, and distribute IP, but they're also very disrespectful of the consumers who purchase their works, and are willing to inconvenience them for the corporation's bottom line.
Last week I mentioned a few relevant cases: Intuit dramatically increasing their anti-pirate methods to the point where Windows TurboTax users are severely inconvenienced; and Hollywood trying to censor censors.
Here's another couple:
Kazaa Countersues
This one seems pretty ridiculous. Kazaa, the producer of an Internet peer-to-peer program who's main purpose is to rip-off movies, songs, and television songs, is being sued. Now that Kazaa's attempts to block the case have been cast aside, they're countersuing saying, well something like this: "In seeking to simultaneously stop illegal copying and to maintain their dominant position in the distribution of musical and movie content, the industry plaintiffs have obscenely overreached."
I'd love to see smaller groups having real power in the recording industries, but, you know, trying to stop illegal copying to maintain a dominant position ... that's pretty much a law book definition of what copyright is for.
If the US courts can actually get some jurisdiction of Kazaa, it'll go down just like Napster did. Desiring to illegally copy IP isn't enough to make it legal.
Is the Record Industry About to Bust Your Teenager
Meanwhile this article talks about how the record industry is starting to go after individuals sharing files. Because the peer-to-peer sharing networks don't have an actual central hub, it's becoming harder to find a central group to shut down (though they're trying with Kazaa).
Generally, that's OK with me. I've written enough, and know the amount of work that went into that writing, that I want my copyright protected for some period of time (though not the 95 years that's currently legislated thanks to Disney).
However, what's scary is that, as part of this process of going after individuals, a lawsuit was recently won against Verizon giving copyright holders the right to demand private contact info of an ISP's subscriber if they think their copyright was violated.
No court trial. No promise to go to court trial. No reasonable doubt. None. Instead, your private contact info is randomly given out to some, possibly shady, third party.
If that doesn't set off alarm bells, it should.
These are going to be really dangerous waters in the years to come.
The problem that copyright faces is the increased ease with which the average person can copy a work. Sure, we've had photocopiers around for ages, but it was an enormous pain to copy a whole book, and usually not worth it.
Now, with the continued evolution of digital media, the time to cost ratio is starting to head fairly quickly in the other direction. Today, for many people, it's dramatically less costly to steal IP than to buy it. And, that's creating a pair of reactions.
On the one side we have the pirates who declaim IP. They have some good points, in that there are multimedia conglomerates who dramatically jack up prices when selling copies of artists' works, but they're also very disrespectful of the real costs going into producing creative works.
On the other hand you have the corporations who declaim IP-copying capabilities being made available to the public. They have some good points, in that there is real cost to produce, market, and distribute IP, but they're also very disrespectful of the consumers who purchase their works, and are willing to inconvenience them for the corporation's bottom line.
Last week I mentioned a few relevant cases: Intuit dramatically increasing their anti-pirate methods to the point where Windows TurboTax users are severely inconvenienced; and Hollywood trying to censor censors.
Here's another couple:
Kazaa Countersues
This one seems pretty ridiculous. Kazaa, the producer of an Internet peer-to-peer program who's main purpose is to rip-off movies, songs, and television songs, is being sued. Now that Kazaa's attempts to block the case have been cast aside, they're countersuing saying, well something like this: "In seeking to simultaneously stop illegal copying and to maintain their dominant position in the distribution of musical and movie content, the industry plaintiffs have obscenely overreached."
I'd love to see smaller groups having real power in the recording industries, but, you know, trying to stop illegal copying to maintain a dominant position ... that's pretty much a law book definition of what copyright is for.
If the US courts can actually get some jurisdiction of Kazaa, it'll go down just like Napster did. Desiring to illegally copy IP isn't enough to make it legal.
Is the Record Industry About to Bust Your Teenager
Meanwhile this article talks about how the record industry is starting to go after individuals sharing files. Because the peer-to-peer sharing networks don't have an actual central hub, it's becoming harder to find a central group to shut down (though they're trying with Kazaa).
Generally, that's OK with me. I've written enough, and know the amount of work that went into that writing, that I want my copyright protected for some period of time (though not the 95 years that's currently legislated thanks to Disney).
However, what's scary is that, as part of this process of going after individuals, a lawsuit was recently won against Verizon giving copyright holders the right to demand private contact info of an ISP's subscriber if they think their copyright was violated.
No court trial. No promise to go to court trial. No reasonable doubt. None. Instead, your private contact info is randomly given out to some, possibly shady, third party.
If that doesn't set off alarm bells, it should.
These are going to be really dangerous waters in the years to come.
