DRM, p2p and dead horses
p2pnet.net news views:- Digital Copyright Canada’s Russell McOrmond posted an article saying DRM is both a form of theft (of what you’d otherwise own) and a scam (pricing doesn’t take the “rental” situation into consideration) that should be illegal.
His remarks were keyed to another post in Techdirt and he went on to quote a few thoughts he’d added to that discussion saying, in part:
What I am opposed to is calling a relationship a purchase that is really a “rental” (IE: the person receiving the content doesn’t own the hardware – they are “renting” it from someone else).
Once we are honest about what the relationship is, we can then expand current consumer protection laws to protect those renting from abuses of their privacy and other rights. But I am fundamentally opposed to being dishonest about the relationship we are discussing, and companies should not be allowed to claim they are “selling” something that is locked down where the owner is not given all keys.
I believe that “DRM”, as I have defined it, should not only not be legally protected – it should be outlawed. If people want to create new rental-based business models, then that and other situations where the owner of a device wants to lock down their own devices should be legally protected.
But, said a p2pnet Reader’s Write, “You’re beating a dead horse,” going on:
What I mean by this is that you – and far too many other people in the p2p advocacy “scene” – appear to take the issue of “legality” as intrinsically meaningful. It’s not. The “legality” of any given activity has absolutely nothing to do either with the ethical reasoning of the individuals involved in it, or with the actual merits of the activity itself. A primary example of this was the fact that chattel-slavery was “legal” during most of human history. People who were repulsed by the idea of humans being owned as property routinely violated that law. The “consequences” of doing such were of no meaningful import whatsoever. (Admittedly, the issues in p2p are far less visceral than the slavery thing was, but it’s a very vivid and obvious example.)
Another example, less obvious perhaps, but still important is the fact that the vast majority of people routinely engage in a plethora of activities which are technically ‘illegal’ —— in violation of one or more statutes, regulations, or laws. This is more an issue of whether laws can be meaningfully enforced, than a case of individuals being “unethical” – one can make an extremely strong case that the ever more intrusive amount of ‘laws’ in our culture is not a good thing, and that most of them are not valid, legitimate activities for government to be meddling with anyway.
Add to this the long and illustrious tradition of “civil disobedience” — where individuals feel duty-bound to disobey certain laws ON PRINCIPLE, and you have pretty conclusive proof that the p2p ’scene’ cannot be stopped, whether it’s ‘legal’ or not.
2. The second issue is technological: namely, all forms of DRM are ‘breakable’, no matter what the claims to the contrary. Additionally, given enough people working on a given technical approach, DRM WILL be broken rather quickly — especially if said hackers working on the project are motivated to do so ON PRINCIPLE vis a vis statement 1.
(Notice, for example, the vast upsurge in DCSS encryption info since such things are tecnically ‘prohibited’ by law — yet another instance of “civll dissobedience” in action.
3. Then, you have the “Grey Album” effect – any attempt to curtail the distribution of something WILL instead lead to it’s being distributed FARTHER, and FASTER. (War on drugs, for example.) “Grey Tuesday” would never have happened if Sony hadn’t attempted to suppress the “Grey Album” – like most remixes/mashups, Dangermouse’s product would probably have vanished into the sea of similar products. Instead, it sparked a huge phenomenon, was hosted on vast numbers of websites, and has politicized the debate even more. “Law” – in the last analysis – is superfluous, and little more than a nuisance. Not that it cannot be used to damage individuals – but the fact is that any such damage always remains relatively small-scale, and never stands a chance of stamping out whatever a given ‘law’ ostensibly targets.
(Another visible instance of ‘civil disobedience’ in action is the rise in teen smoking. Ever since the governments of various nations began force-feeding teens propaganda – oops, I mean “public service announcements” – smoking has become just another subtle form of rebellion — a way to spit in “The System’s” face.
So, given the fact that quite a few people now see p2p and related technologies as a civil-disobedience issue, any and all ‘laws’ related to same are, in the end, nothing but more of the same inane beurocratic hoops that people have become used to jumping through for decades, and like all other such “nuissance laws”, will continue to be flouted more of less openly. It’s understandable that the “Cartels” (as you call them) would attempt to use the – inherently ineffectual – mechanism of “legal coercion’ – but in the long run, it cannot work.
So, the p2p advocates are, in the end, beating a dead horse.
But, “I don’t think it is beatnig a dead horse at all,” said a response. “If people do not demand change, then change will NEVER happen.
I agree with you that p2p cannot and will not be stopped, but to say that people should not try to have laws changed in the consumers favor for curbing things such as DRM, when they have been in the CORPORATIONS favor for so long is kind of short sighted.
Before things can change, someone HAS to stand up and say “enough”! That is why sites like this exsist all over the net. People are tired of corporations trying to take control away from people and put it in the hands of corporations ONLY.
Fair use is exactly what it says…it puts corporations on the same footing with consumers when it comes to making a backup copy of something they own. Now the corporations are wanting to take away control from consumers even having a single backup copy of something they ALREADY OWN!
I think THAT is WORTH legally fighting them for!
And, said a third comment post:
Sorry, but this horse is not dead. If it were, the RIAA would quit using words like “illegal” and “theft”.
Innocent minds read this rhetoric and believe it to be true, especially since it comes from an international organization who owns a lot of the content they have grown to enjoy. Then these young people, many of them students, go on this p2plawsuits website and write the RIAA a cheque for close to 4 grand. – People who have been targeted in their lawsuits are also pressured to pay.
Also there are many who are unsure of how to proceed with developing products and business models that will benefit us all. they don’t want tp go up against that scary RIAA until the law makes itclear to all of us exactly what is legal and what isn’t – there are too many mixed messages now.
Once the law has been made clear and it is properly communicated, this horse will be dead.
It appears to be in the interest of the RIAA [read EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US)] to continue with this veil of uncertainty.
Also See:
a form of theft – DRM and new business models, March 4, 2007
close to 4 grand – Cheesy RIAA ‘Thank you’, March 5, 2007
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