A lawyer who is also idealist - how refreshing (Guardian) [LWN.net]

Glyn Moody talks with Eben Moglen about the GPLv3 effort in this Guardian article. "In the year 2006, the home is some real estate with appliances in it. In 2016, the home will be a digital entertainment and data processing network with real estate wrapped around it. The basic question then is: Who has the keys to your home? You or the people who deliver movies and pizza? The world they are thinking about is a world in which they have the keys to your home because the computers that constitute [your home's] entertainment and data processing network work for them, rather than for you."

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No, they won't...

Posted Apr 3, 2006 0:13 UTC (Mon) by ronaldcole (guest, #1462) [Link] (6 responses)

because I won't be reaching in my pocket and forking over cash for such "technology". I stuck with my laserdisc collection until DVD Jon cracked CSS. I bought a PSP because I can rip video from my DVDs, recode the video, and download them to my PSP to watch when I'm on the road and tired of playing Lumines or Daxter or listening to MP3s I made by ripping and encoding my CD collection. And I strongly suspect that I'm not alone in my buying habits. And I'll conclude by stating the obvious: GPLv3 played no part in that, unfortunately.

No, they won't...

Posted Apr 3, 2006 1:44 UTC (Mon) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] (5 responses)

CDs have no DRM. The DRM in DVDs was poorly designed and easily cracked. The other side is getting better, so do not blithely assume that you will be able to continue to rip digital media. I'm sure that the DRM on next-generation DVDs will be cracked eventually, but it might take a considerable period of time, and those who do the work might face jail time (since many countries are now adopting DMCA-like laws).

It is true that GPLv3 is unlikely to be a very effective impediment; the most it will do, if widely adopted, is to reduce the amount of free work that FOSS developers do for the marketers of DRM systems.

No, they won't...

Posted Apr 3, 2006 2:30 UTC (Mon) by bignose (subscriber, #40) [Link]

> CDs have no DRM.

Yep. And discs that do implement copy restriction are not CDs.

http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/quick/

No, they won't...

Posted Apr 3, 2006 5:25 UTC (Mon) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (1 responses)

The other side is getting better, so do not blithely assume that you will be able to continue to rip digital media.

Someone somewhere will do it for me. And is some show will only be available on DRM-protected media... well - too bad for that show. PSP are selling like hot dogs - ask distributors how UMD disks are selling... Yes, some amount is sold but unproportionatelly small amount. Good DRM == dead format.

And that is worthy goal by itself.

No, they won't...

Posted Apr 3, 2006 7:18 UTC (Mon) by jamesh (guest, #1159) [Link]

There is one other issue to take into account with respect to UMD movie sales: Sony's monopoly on UMD manufacture.

If you want to bring a UMD title to market (game, movie or music), you send a master of the content to Sony and they send you back the UMDs. There is no second supplier or competition here, so you pay what Sony asks.

That places a lower limit on the production costs, which might be one factor that contributes to making UMDs unprofitable.

I blithely assume nothing

Posted Apr 4, 2006 8:59 UTC (Tue) by ronaldcole (guest, #1462) [Link] (1 responses)

If I can't exercise my fair use right to format shift then, I'll just continue to spend my money on formats where I can. Ergo, I won't encourage companies that believe their customers are ripping them off by filling their tills with my cold cash. That should starve their lawyers, and all without GPLv3.

I blithely assume nothing

Posted Apr 8, 2006 18:45 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link]

If I can't exercise my fair use right to format shift then, I'll just continue to spend my money on formats where I can.

That's a perfectly reasonable position, and one I like better than the GPL strategy, but you should realize that in all likelihood this means you will have no formats at all.

That's because you're part of too small a group. The vast majority of consumers don't value the ability to copy and manipulate the data that way, and it isn't economically viable to serve your small numbers.

For example, I doubt this would have ever got you video stores full of movies you could play on your Linux system. There simply aren't enough people who want to do that to make movie studios take a second look. The cost per disc for you would be more than you're willing to pay. And you couldn't even have stuck it out with laser discs, because as your competitors (other consumers) flock to the technology you refuse to use, the old way goes up in price too.

Eben Moglen should stick to what he knows

Posted Apr 3, 2006 8:19 UTC (Mon) by janpla (guest, #11093) [Link] (1 responses)

In 2016, the home will be a digital entertainment and data processing network with real estate wrapped around it.

What a load of cobbler's - as if all people would want to do in their home is tapping in to low quality, assebly line produced 'entertainment'. To my mind it is much more likely that in 10 year's time people will have lost substantial interest in what today is believed to be the hot trends of the future. Why would anyone want to spend large amounts on entertainment HW when the only films and music are the usual stuff?

My guess is that people will become increasingly interested in their health; ie. they will want to get of their home and do things rather than sit passively in front of the propaganda machine.

Eben Moglen should stick to what he knows

Posted Apr 3, 2006 14:40 UTC (Mon) by mikec (guest, #30884) [Link]

Now that is idealism!

The fall of civilization generally continues on its downward trend until reaching a trough well south of the period prior to the rise... only then do people really reprioritize and start rebuilding civilization.

There is no such thing as a soft landing, only delayed and magnified crashes. Humans are just no good at incremental corrections to their behavior. They need revolution, famine, war, ice-ages etc... to actually change their behavior.

So, best to brace yourself for another decade of mediocre pandering to the LCD when it comes to TV...

A lawyer who is also idealist - how refreshing (Guardian)

Posted Apr 3, 2006 10:20 UTC (Mon) by tomsi (subscriber, #2306) [Link]

Eben Moblen ?

Eben Moglen perhaps ;)