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The coming robot apocalypse

The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 13, 2012 3:51 UTC (Thu) by tnoo (subscriber, #20427)
Parent article: The coming robot apocalypse

The Sony rootkit episode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit) exemplifies how ruthless these companies are protecting their income streams. I wonder what the future of copyright enforcement actually looks like, as it is a reaction to technology evolution.

First there was a fee for each performance or public display of a work, then for lending it out. After the invention of xerox copies, fees on each copy made were introduced. Now digital copying and streaming over a network are the new challenges which the contnenmt industry tries to be prevent with legal (court cases) and technical measures (as the editor describes).

What next? A flat fee for each bit transmitted over the network? A tax on each device able to play content? A flat rate per person and year because we are in principle able to consume content? The content industry claims big damages which have to be compensated, and politicians are listening.


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The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 13, 2012 5:03 UTC (Thu) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link]

What next? A flat fee for each bit transmitted over the network? A tax on each device able to play content? A flat rate per person and year because we are in principle able to consume content?

That would actually not be too bad, but only if it were combined with a complete ban on introducing any DRM measures or "copyright enforcement robots", and also included a fair way to split the take between the real authors.

RMS made a proposal along these line in the context of DAT tape recorders, which caused similar controversies in early 1990's, because they allowed users to make perfect copies (this was before Internet or CD-R drives became common). See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/dat.html

The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 13, 2012 8:02 UTC (Thu) by Seegras (subscriber, #20463) [Link]

The word is "claims". The numbers are all fabricated. It's an industry completely out of control lobbying for rents.

I'd recommend to read http://www.techdirt.com/ for the newest and grizzliest reports on copyright shenanigans.

The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 20, 2012 23:43 UTC (Thu) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]

Agreed.

The figures I heard bandied about in the UK - just for "lost" DVD sales alone - added up to the average family spending more on DVDs than it earned! (Plus I'm not sure how the families were supposed to find the time to watch the DVDs they'd bought!)

Cheers,
Wol

The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 13, 2012 9:24 UTC (Thu) by viiru (subscriber, #53129) [Link]

> A tax on each device able to play content?

This system is in use in several countries in Europe (Finland and Sweden, for example). The results are truly horrible, and the list of devices for which the "cassette charge" applies to is ever expanding. The sharing of the proceeds is massively unfair, and the contract to join the system is draconian (the creator of the work loses the right to distribute the work on their own website, etc).

There has been discussion about replacing this system with a flat tax instead, which does not fix all of the problems but would at least be slightly less unfair.

The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 13, 2012 9:47 UTC (Thu) by tnoo (subscriber, #20427) [Link]

> There has been discussion about replacing this system with a flat tax
> instead, which does not fix all of the problems but would at least be
> slightly less unfair.

Similar to what Switzerland intends to introduce for radio and TV. Since almost every electronic device could receive radio in principle, everybody owning such a device has to pay a fixed amount per year (as if one buys a computer to listen to Swiss National Radio!). This system is problematic, and will presumably changed, such that everybody will be required to pay a fixed "tax" for radio and TV, irrespective of usage.

Both solutions are bad IMHO, and this is only for "national" broadcasting companies. A flat rate for content amounts to a tax, to be paid to privately owned companies, irrespective of the quality or success of their products in the market.

The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 13, 2012 21:21 UTC (Thu) by gidoca (subscriber, #62438) [Link]

It is not only for national broadcasting companies, private local radio stations also get their (very small) share, see http://www.bakom.admin.ch/empfangsgebuehren/03772/index.h...

The coming robot apocalypse

Posted Sep 23, 2012 11:09 UTC (Sun) by JanC_ (guest, #34940) [Link]

I wouldn't care so much about a contribution on media or network usage if it were redistributed fairly to artists & other content creators/compilers.

Unfortunately, currently those "taxes" end up mostly in the pockets of private copyright management companies that pretend to work for artists, and only certain artists benefit from the leftover money (most of those companies use cut-offs on popularity that result in niche artists being disadvantaged).

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