Re: [dvd-discuss] The premature declaration of death of copyright (was:Re: [dvd-discuss] Slashdot interview with Lessig)

[microlenz(at)earthlink.net]

No it's "not dead yet" <are you Mary Queen of Scots?> nor is it 
likely to die soon. Rather it's going to be die similar to how a 
beached whale does- gasping for breath and slowly crushing under 
its own weight. And as with a beached whale, you don't want to 
tickle it's tail until it's good and dead.

Napster and the "digital age" are not what is killing copyright. As 
you point out, the "rational man on the street" probably doesn't 
care much about the intricacies of copyright, but the rational man 
doesn't view copyright the same way he did in Macauley's day. He 
views the corporations rather than the authors as the benefactors of 
copyright. He views the long terms as stupid. Because of the high 
cost of copyright material and the artificial prices set by the 
monopolies, he views the copying for his private use as acceptable.

While I can't think of anybody who believes that COMMERCIAL 
piracy should be encouraged, now the industry has decided that 
ALL copying for any use is piracy. NOw they make war upon 
consumers with the DRM, SDMI, CDs that won't play in 
computers, DVDs that only play on licensed players. Groups have 
publically stated that they consider used recording, book, or video 
stores and even the public library as institutions that should be 
eliminated because they reduce their profits. And they look to 
technology to give them the power to do this and the courts and 
legislature to give them what they want to enforce it. The 
intellectual property industry advocates indoctrinating children 
about copyright as part of their school work (never mind the reading 
the writing, the rithmetic and passing the mandated exams. Let's 
take time out to learn about copyright)The "rational man" doesn't 
see all this YET. 

The conditions that Macauley described are here today. The 
attitudes that he spoke of as a consequence of those conditions 
are beginning to be widespread. 


> At 21.03 -0800 02-01-04, microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:
> >Actually there is another group out there...public indifference to
> >copyright. Macauley wrote of it in 1861. When the public becomes
> >totally indifferent to copyright-copyright will be over. A wonderful
> >system killed by the greed of copyright holders. As with Hamlet the
> >question is "to be or not to be..."
> 
> That is true, but the "digital copyright is dead" thesis raised by
> John Perry Barlow in Wired 1994 has yet to prove itself. If you
> compare the situation in 1861 to today, we have international
> copyright now. This is what the DVD discussion is all about. The
> courts seems to enforce the DVD regional division on basis of
> copyright statues deriving from the Berne Convention. Hence, we have
> much stronger protection for the copyright proprietor today than we
> had in 1861. The DMCA is not a unique idea. In Europe, a new copyright
> directive will implement the possibility of protection of "technical
> security measures", not very different in principle from the
> anti-circumvision provisions in the DMCA.
> 
> Even though the public may be less concerned about copyright (are they
> really? - I don't think they care at all), I think the Napster case
> show us that copyright was prematuerly declared dead. I agree with
> John Perry Barlow in priniciple in his Economy of Ideas, but I think
> we will have to wait for a very long time - I won't live to see it -
> for copyright to be declared dead. Life plus seventy rights will be
> there for as long as we live. And even though the public might start
> to disregard them and it's more or less impossible to protect them in
> the digital age, the courts will most probably still uphold them.
> 
> The Economy of ideas by John Perry Barlow:
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.03/economy.ideas.html
> 
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Mikael Pawlo
> 
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