DRM technology and policy

Peter Clay pete at flatline.org.uk
Tue Apr 22 09:06:35 EDT 2003


On Mon, 21 Apr 2003, John S. Denker wrote:

> There appear to be two extremes:
>   -- the pro-copyright extremists and
>   -- the anti-copyright extremists.

There are also some non-extremists around, like us (http://www.ukcdr.org),
who are trying to wrest a little control away from the pro-copyright
extremists.

> Five-year-olds "think" lollipops should be given
> away free to everyone.
> 
> Anybody who really thinks that is a good idea is
> encouraged to start his own publishing house and/or
> candy store.

Baen books (http://www.baen.com/library/) seem to think it's a workable
idea. And they've already got a publishing house. I'm sure that if candy
could be produced with zero _marginal_ cost, there would be free candy
stores.

> We need a system whereby inventors, authors, performers,
> and even publishers get paid for their work.  SOMEBODY
> needs to bear the cost of this.  We need a system
> whereby the costs are distributed reasonably.

Yes. There are two main sources of conflict here: nobody wants to bear any
costs if they can pass them on to someone else, and people have very
different ideas of what costs are reasonable. Neither of these is a
technical issue, and they can't be solved by any process other than
political wrangling.

Oh, and please don't say theft when you mean copyright infringement. This
abuse of language makes it hard to tell who the real pro-copyright
extremists are.

Pete
-- 
Peter Clay                                         | Campaign for   _  _| .__
                                                   | Digital       /  / | |
                                                   | Rights!       \_ \_| |
                                                   | http://www.ukcdr.org



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