Do Not Privatize Society. It Will Suffocate.

[nfotxn]

So the CRIA is trying really hard to get their fingers up the asses of highspeed ISPs in Canada by disputing consumers rights to anonymity on their services. But from a technical standpoint this is absurd. What if I have a wireless access point? Anyone nearby can log on and smear my IP and MAC address all over Kazaa. It's just impractical to prove anything. Any so called "network forensic evidence" from slimey Intellectual Property racketeers like MediaSentry is really utterly disputable. It's like trying to prove who was watching the TV in a shop window. Nearly impossible without monitoring every shop window with a television in it.

Ultimately we have to ask ourselves one questiion: What kind of society do we want to live in?

The corporatization of information doesn't look like a useful thing for society to me. At what point does sweeping copyright law and automation start to automate and charge for aspects of culture that throughout history have been provided for free or on an honour system? I don't want to have to provide personal credentials or liability to have access to information because some people are losing revenue. The logical quantum leap that pirated material directly or even indirectly equates lost revenue still baffles me. If somebody can point out an explaination of that to me I'd be absolutely fascinated to see how that works. And what about the positive effects of piracy? I don't know a single geek who hasn't acquired much of his or her skills using unlicensed software of various discriptions. These are a few loopholes of an Intellectual Property system that must be addressed before issues of so-called "piracy". Otherwise it's just racketeering.

Comments

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that in this case, it's not always desired that the information is correct, rather, it's best that the greatest amount of real or perceived wrongdoing is seen as justification for their services.

The same goes for the belief that every 'pirated' work translates into a lost sale. Utter bullshit, but this is held as indisputable fact. Another tool used by 'copyright holders' to explain away their failing businesses.

Channeling Lawrence Lessig

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

The prosecution of consumers just outines the extent these businesses are prepared to go to keep their piece of the pie. Unfotunately the new technologies fueling digital distribution and p2p networks don't belong to the RIAA or MPAA. It's very all very anti-freemarket and consumer. Since when do you sue your customers?

Generally speaking of modern business as a whole: Can we have companies work for consumers again? I mean they're not even just not working for us they're actively working AGAINST consumers. If I'm not mistaken the whole concept of the corporation is granted such that a business can better serve the people of a country. That's the spirit of the law at least. Which of couse has been subsequently kicked to the curb decades ago.

[ranger1.livejournal.com]

A data point on the porous nature of person-to-network-device mappings: "MIT Names Student as Alleged Infringer" (http://www-tech.mit.edu/V123/N38/38riaa.38n.html) (The Tech, 9/2003). The guy wasn't even in the country at the time of the supposed offense. The CRIA and RIAA can subpoena ISP's until they're blue in the face. I don't see how they have any power to solve this last-mile problem. At least not yet.

I hope these events don't push ISP's into adopting more fascist monitoring schemes for enduser connections. Fortunately captialism may come to the rescue; such monitoring would create a huge bottleneck in the ISP's infrastructure, allowing their faster competitors to grind them to a pulp. Always a good motivation to fight for customer privacy.

Unrelated quibble: AFAIK, Kazaa's FastTrack protocol doesn't tell anyone about your MAC address. Your ISP is the only one who'd know that. If you know otherwise, I'd be curious to read the details.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Well moreso I was assuming that it'd smear my MAC address and IP with Fast-Track related traffic to my ISP in the dystopian future where my every transaction on the internet is tied to my credit card and charged appropriately or something. Or possibly these slick Park Avenue racketeering IP Enforcement has some devil technology. Who knows?

I've been waiting for capitalism to come to rescue for a while.

[flintlodger.livejournal.com]

i think the point of anti-piracy legislation is to help get across the idea that most musicians want more than just to be heard--they want retribution for the music they record; writers/actors/producers/etc want the same for their films. etc. etc. taking music or films or software or whatever where they're not being given with the consent of the author, does provide the maker with a significantly larger audience... but that's about all the benefit those makers will get. pirating hurts music culture because it doesn't compensate the musician and doesn't provide them with the financial environment they need to make more music.

of course from a technical standpoint, you don't have to consider the negative effects pirating has on artists and music makers. you can say "nobody can stop me from downloading... I DO WHAT I WANT... etc.", but you might as well be robbing a blind begger.

i have a pirate copy of photoshop because i can't afford to buy it, and i think adobe can afford to lose a few bucks. i don't download music, but i steal it by ripping cd's loaned from the library and friends. does recording music off the radio count as stealing? if not, what's the difference between recording it off the radio, and downloading it to your computer?

i'm a walking contradiction. excuse me.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I think the most important point is that the system has to be reciprocal. A lot of record dollars probably go to Sean Combs cocaine parties and Beyoncé's newest dress and not new A&R.

Being contradictory as you say is just wanting fair use, in my opinion. And in the opinion of a lot of other people. Representing artists as "the blind begger" is hardly true. The decision made in my head and in the heads of most people is usually to expose themselves to new things. Not to replace a possible purchase. And why isn't file sharing just represented as the natural market force that it is? This is going to turn into another pre-dominantly useless pre-occupation like America's War On Drugs. And the contractors have already been long lined up out the door to collect...

[flintlodger.livejournal.com]

so you're saying musician's should ask themselves how much they should charge, not how much they can get away with charging... that sort of fairness and respect might be too much to ask of any major industry.

and ftp's are exclusively for establishing awareness between musician and audience? i always thought live music, word-of-mouth, and radio were effective enough platforms for informing people who actively seek out new music. but why not add new media for the same function, eh? as long as it doesn't cripple musicianship, i'm all for it.

Retribution?

[bigmacbear]

i think the point of anti-piracy legislation is to help get across the idea that most musicians want more than just to be heard--they want retribution for the music they record; [...]

I think you were looking for a different word there: perhaps "remuneration" or "compensation". Although there are some so-called artists who are perhaps receiving the actual retribution they deserve... ;-)

(Someone, exactly who I cannot recall, said that "good musicians execute their music; bad musicians murder it".)

i'll take it too seriously, then

[flintlodger.livejournal.com]

no, i stand by my use of retribution to represent payment for work done in the past. i don't think you really a have reason to critique me unless there you have a problem with the moral standpoint behind what i'm saying. see what it sounds like when i tell you you're using your own words incorrectly, (in your own format):

"Although there are some so-called artists who are perhaps receiving the actual RETRIBUTION they deserve..."

i think you were looking for a different word there. perhaps approbation or punishment. although some musicians never get the retribution they deserve.... :(

(Insert random quote here.)

: ^ )

Re: i'll take it too seriously, then

[bigmacbear]

I suppose I've always seen "retribution" as used in the press (as opposed to in literature), where in context -- "in retribution for [some usually violent act]" -- it almost always has a connotation of "revenge" rather than merely standing for "payback" -- payment for service. Although it may be noted that "payback" has itself begun to take on this same unsavory connotation, as in "payback's a bitch".

bicker

[flintlodger.livejournal.com]

we have our own contexts, where what we say makes perfect sense. i've never come across someone more bent on alienating me from my own words.

a state's retribution for a criminal act is not revenge at all. it is the serving of what is deserved, with nothing malicious in mind. retribution for a crime is not some form of vindicative revenge, it is exacting what has been merited on the part of the criminal. i know that retribution made sense to you as you read it in my original post (you offered two synonyms, so you must have known what i meant); so i don't see much reason for the complaint..

to each her own.

Re: i'll take it too seriously, then

[flintlodger.livejournal.com]

i was reading a friend's page, and i saw this, and i thought.. i have to put this year, for you, because you are the grammar fuhrer (teehee), or at least the vocab fuhrer.


You are the grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your
authority. You will crush all the inferior
people under the soles of your jackboots, and
any who question your motives will be
eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane
of every other person's existence, because
you're constantly contradicting stupidity.
Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams
of a master race of spellers and grammarians
frighten the masses. You must always watch your
back. If only your power could be used for good
instead of evil.


What is your grammar aptitude?
brought to you by Quizilla

[goofybearz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm, dealing with Spyware today. Found 230 of these things in my computer and I have dial-Up. It almost makes me want get off the internet for good. But, I need the internet, or do I really. Lived quite fine without it in the 80's. Went to whole decade of the 90's without it, but I got the feeling I was being left out of something. so, I got it in 2001, it was good. But, everything good has a dark side I guess.

[fenwalker.livejournal.com]

It's only going to get worse. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36259.html)