EFF: A broadcast flag update [LWN.net]

EFF: A broadcast flag update

Posted Sep 27, 2005 21:31 UTC (Tue) by rknop (guest, #66)
In reply to: EFF: A broadcast flag update by dannyobrien
Parent article: EFF: A broadcast flag update

And I think it's worth noting that the tone of the "other side" in this debate is often just as apprehensive, and as fatalistic, as you feel. You, with your general purpose computers and your strange ideas of business models that is utterly alien yet apparently is the only sane choice, look like a terrifying force of nature to some one, too. For all your feeling of hopelessness at an apparently unstoppable lobbying machine, there's somebody looking at your last paragraph with a nagging doubt, and wondering whether it's worth their while to fight against an inevitability. So who knows?

The difference is, they are afraid of my having more freedom and thus potentially eroding their ability to control. I'm afraid of their consolidating their control, and thus eroding my freedom. This has two implications. First, I really do think that unless there are convincing reasons to the contrary, things which ehance more freedom for more people are better-- thus, I think I'm on the higher road here. Second, I fear that human history shows that freedom is fragile, and in almost any political situation once some people get control, they will fight tooth and nail to keep and expand that control even at the expense of others.

All they have to do is win once. Get a law in outlawing the general purpose computer, and we're screwed, at least for a time. We, however, have to win every single time they try to get one of those laws in there. The inevitability of the obselescence of modern media companies likely won't affect any present media execs during their lifetime.

-Rob

(Log in to post comments)

EFF: A broadcast flag update

Posted Sep 28, 2005 2:02 UTC (Wed) by zotz (guest, #26117) [Link]

"All they have to do is win once. Get a law in outlawing the general purpose computer, and we're screwed, at least for a time. We, however, have to win every single time they try to get one of those laws in there."

Perhaps then, we need to go on the offensive. Keep trying to get laws passed that will throw a monkey wrench into their plans. Set up a situation where we only have to win once. Or a series of such situations.

One simple idea I have for something like that is to push for a change in the default for automatic copyright.

If something is published without a clear and specific copyright notice, have the default be some form of copyleft license. That way, instead of all works not carrying a notice being too dangerous for the small person to take a chance on using, it will be clear that all of these works are for re-use so long as you are willing to copyleft your resulting work.

How could the big boys honestly object to this. Their works never have to be released in this way, they just have to affix a proper copyright notice when publishing. Are they going to admit publically to being a dog in the manger?

all the best,

drew

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/57503

EFF: A broadcast flag update

Posted Sep 28, 2005 12:01 UTC (Wed) by rknop (guest, #66) [Link]

Once upon a time, copyright worked something like the way you describe. It was by default public domain. It was also shorter. At the moment, though, if we're going to be realistic, any kind of copyright term reduction is tilting at MAJOR windmills. We're doing the best we can to avoid expansion of DMCA-like restrictions on things that are currently legal, never mind rolling things back to something more sane.

They would object. Heck, just look at the Authors' Guild complaining about Google Print. Google's policy is, hey, you don't want your work in our searchable database, let us know. To the Authors' Guild, though, that isn't good enough. They want the default to be not in the database.

-Rob

EFF: A broadcast flag update

Posted Sep 28, 2005 16:45 UTC (Wed) by jstAusr (guest, #27224) [Link]

I'm not so sure that introducing legislation from the sane side of the fence wouldn't be effective. For instance, from the original post:

> Worrying about keeping this stuff back almost seems like worrying about
> the mounting threat of hurricanes to coastal states. It's a force of
> nature that's getting worse with no sign of abating in coming years, and
> at some point it's better to just give up and resign ourselves to failure.

What makes you so sure that the reverse wouldn't be true? At least it might let the lawmakers know that we are not happy with the current status let alone making things worse.

At least a law making it illegal to willfully restrict the backup of bytes stored on a computer to any desired backup media or device. That will give the giants something to spend their money on besides harassing the public.

EFF: A broadcast flag update

Posted Sep 28, 2005 22:44 UTC (Wed) by zotz (guest, #26117) [Link]

"Once upon a time, copyright worked something like the way you describe. It was by default public domain. It was also shorter."

I know, but what I am calling for is something that, given the current situation is in fact better for freedom lovers and worse for the non-freedom loving big boys.

It gives freedom lovers the possibility of a large pool of re-useable works while preventing the use by those who do not wish to share.

I know their first impulse will be to object, but will they? Will objecting paint them in such a bad light that they will feel compelled to let such a law pass? I think it could be worth the push.

"At the moment, though, if we're going to be realistic, any kind of copyright term reduction is tilting at MAJOR windmills."

I am not calling in this instance for copyright TERM reductions. In fact, getting this passed may get them calling for term reductions themselves. (I have some other thoughts along these lines as well. Any other ideas on changes to the laws that will have the big boys calling for shorter copyright terms?)

So, what do we want the defaults to be?

all the best,

drew
--
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/53984
da bubble man video