Friday, December 28, 2007
In other news
Variable pricing loses another round
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I can run, I just can't hide...
::Scene: A family gathers to breakfast, comprised of an older grandmother, a younger mother, and a pair of (arguably adorable) little kids, a boy and girl. The mother comes in from stage right and plops a black DVD case on the table.::
Mom: "Look, I just bought this pirated movie! It was really cheap!"
Grandmother: "Pirated movie? Isn't that stealing?"
Mom: "Nonsense. I bought the movie. Besides, it looks really good."
Boy: "Okay, I'm going to school now." ::Grabs his bookbag, prepares to do so.::
Mom: "Hold on. Don't you have a test today?"
Boy: "It's okay. I got a copy of the answer sheet yesterday."
Mom: "You stole a copy of the test?!"
Boy: "No, mom. I bought it." ::He then walks out, leaving the rest of the family agape. The mom and the grandmother share a look, and the little girl shakes her head.::
Girl: "He's just following your example."
::Exeunt, stage right.::
This disturbed me on a number of levels. (By the way, the preceeding was a translation to the best of my recollection. The original ad is in Spanish with really bad Mexican actors. [Which isn't to say all Mexicans are bad actors; simply to note the simple wisdom that if you're trying to reach the movie-pilfering population of Puerto Rico, your chances are slim doing so in a Mexican accent.]) Let's begin the analysis:
1) This ad about not buying pirated movies is being shown to a group of people who just dished out $10 a pop to go see a theatrical release. Is there not a little bit of biting the hand that feeds you here?
2) What is this teaching people? All wrongs are equatable? Is buying (or downloading... let's just say 'acquiring') a pirated movie really as morally culpable as cheating off a test? (Or, alternatively, is cheating off a test really as morally culpable as acquiring downloaded movies?)
3) How many mothers out there are acquiring downloaded movies anyhow?
4) Why, oh, why is class following me 3,000 miles away across the Caribbean Sea?*
*Edit: I just double checked my facts, and technically the Caribbean borders the south of the island. I am, in fact, technically across the Atlantic. I think.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Copyright Utopia: From Poverty To Wealth
For example, imagine flipping a switch and instantly creating billions of dollars in wealth:
Today, we scrounge for IP. Consumers spend years carefully building a music collection of a few hundred albums. They watch movies parcelled out disk by disk from Netflix. If they want to read one of the 75% of books that is under copyright but out of print, they have it trucked in from a distant location by inter-library loan. | / | The utopian alternative: if market-based copyright disappeared, then by tomorrow the same consumer could have every book ever written, every album ever recorded, every movie ever made, delivered instantly for the price of an internet connection. |
This dichotomy demonstrates the social cost of market-based copyright: as long as we incentivise creation by allowing producers to charge consumers for each use, we necessarily lose the wealth created by each foregone copy.
How much wealthier, in billions or trillions of dollars, would our society be if every consumer's media library expanded to infinity? More speculatively, what new scholarship would emerge from a universal, searchable library? What new ways to explore and experience the universe of film and music would be created?
The two alternatives are not far apart -- at the extreme, we could move from poverty to wealth simply by dropping an existing statute.
Of course it wouldn't be that simple. If we flipped the switch tomorrow, it would destroy every existing media business model, from 100 million dollar movies to 25 cent newspapers. New models would take a while to emerge, and it's hard to predict what we would have lost once the dust settled.
That said, we still might be better off with no copyright law than the one we have now. The point is that our current system leaves vast wealth on the table, accessible to no one -- so much wealth that you can't reject even the craziest scheme out of hand. We should be bending over backwards to try to reclaim it.
I want to stake out this radical stance as a sort of North Star. For example, in class we tried to answer questions like, "can DRM technology and law enable online lending libraries, without eliminating fair use?" Much as I mistrust DRM, I have to admit that online libraries sound like a pretty cool idea; the impact of technological copy prevention, backed up by the legal strength of the DMCA, might indeed work a sort of revolution in the market for copyrighted works.
The big picture, however, is that this kind of question assumes that copyright will remain a market system, with rights negotiated between distributors and consumers on a use by use basis. It leaves the social cost of market-based copyright intact.
Let's not settle for such a paltry revolution.
DRM-free iTunes
It looks like they offered you the option to upgrade your non-plus tracks to Plus for 30 cents each, back when iTunes Plus cost $1.29, and now that it all costs the same, you have the same option to upgrade... yes, still for 30 cents a track. A minor inconvenience in the larger scheme of things, true, but my American Gamelan Chorus tracks are not yet so precious to me that I'm planning to pay up. That whole "but I already paid you the current market price for this!" mentality at work. Still, after reading Bardia's post below, I guess I should be chipper about the whole thing.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Atlantic Records argues that "space-shifting" is illegal.
Electronista notes that this contradicts a stance previously taken by the RIAA on this issue in Grokster, before the Supreme Court, where a representative of the music industry said that, "It's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, [and] put it on to your IPOD."
The implications of this argument resonate with a point that was made in our DRM discussion on Monday night, albeit in a slightly different context, in that it shows how the approach being taken by content owners actually penalizes lawful consumers. While in this case, the Howells allegedly did more than just create "unathorized copies," if it is, indeed, illegal to buy a CD and put it on your computer and then onto your IPOD, then why not just download the music illegally in the first place and save yourself the money?
At the same time, from the perspective of the RIAA and other content owners, this would seem like a perfect application for DRM-type protection. Will record companies go back to trying to make CDs "unrippable" or use a system that allows the owner of a CD to rip it once to his computer and put it on his IPOD but NOT allow it to be shared? If they do, how long before the "darknet" responds?
Monday, December 17, 2007
Watch full episodes online...
As I was looking around the internet, I also came across this site: “Full TV Downloads”. In very small print at the bottom, the homepage says “The purchase of a membership, however, is not a license to upload or download copyrighted material. We urge you to respect copyright and share responsibly.” It then directs you to this page detailing how to use p2p safely: "Share Responsibly". Sufficient?
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Net Neutrality and other Upcoming regulatory fights
They have a blog post on that issue at the top of their blog now.
The industry response is hands0ff.org, which claims that we have enough regulation already, thank you very much, and that additional regulation will cause less investment as more and more data needs to be sent out.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Comic books and IP?
Monday, December 10, 2007
Media lawyers cripple Western Digital hard drives and Congress considering upping filesharing fines
Should Congress Require Universities to Deter Illegal Downloading?
PIRATE Act dons eye patch, swashbuckles back into Senate
The PIRATE Act is back, and this time it means business.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) yesterday introduced the Intellectual Property Enforcement Act (PDF), with Leahy saying, "The PIRATE Act has passed the Senate on three separate occasions; this should be the Congress in which it becomes law."
Like previous incarnations of the PIRATE Act, this one tries to force the Department of Justice to bring suits against individual file-swappers, something that could save the recording industry plenty of money and could also displace some of the "bad guy" stigma that the labels have acquired after suing people like Jammie Thomas.
The bill would give the Department of Justice authority to bring civil (not just criminal) cases against infringers, though it does limit penalties to those that could be imposed in criminal proceedings. The Attorney General can also bring such civil suits only when the act in question constitutes a crime (such civil suits can be easier to win).
Leahy and Cornyn want Justice to start prosecuting file-sharers, which sounded like a bad idea the first time we heard it and hasn't gotten any better since. Since the No Electronic Theft Act passed in the late 1990s, the DoJ has actually had the authority to bring criminal cases against file-swappers under certain situations; to date, it has not filed a single one.
The Department would no doubt rather be busting gangsters, child molesters, and even actual counterfeiting rings, but it seems like some members of Congress are intent on pressing Justice to get involved in the P2P lawsuit game—something that Big Content would dearly love to see happen.
The bill also provides more funding to counter intellectual-property crimes involving both computers and Internet, along with more FBI agents to investigate such crimes.
"Copyright infringement silently drains America's economy and undermines the talent, creativity and initiative that are a great source of strength to our nation," said Leahy. "When we protect intellectual property from copyright infringement, we protect our economy and our ideas."
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early incarnations of the PIRATE Act: http://www.news.com/'Pirate-Act'-raises-civil-rights-concerns/2100-1027_3-5220480.htmlhttp://www.news.com/Senate-OKs-antipiracy-plan/2100-1027_3-5248333.html
"Mashups Bad! Covers Good!" - Should Copyright Prefer Cover Songs to Remixes?
Mashups:
- Sweet Home Country Grammar: Nelly vs. Lynyrd Skynyrd. listen here - Time Magazine says "the unlikely pairing of Lynyrd Skynyrd's riff and Nelly's spliffs improves both."
- Evolution Control Committee - Rocked By Rape: a high-larious mix of the darkest things Dan Rather has said with Back in Black (unlike other pieces here, this one's at least partly covered as parody). listen here - threats and plaudits.
- George Bush Don't Like Black People: original lyrics over Kanye West's "Gold Digger," referencing his criticism of the President after Hurricane Katrina. music video here - wikipedia - hilarious copyright hijinx (OK, so Kanye West sampled some old blues song to complain about gold-digging women, but then these guys stole the prominent lyric from Kanye's song, and the sample, to criticize George Bush. So then naturally they were sued by ... JibJab, the internet comics who made a video called "This Land" in 2004 to criticize George Bush and John Kerry, and were sued by the estate of Arlo Guthrie, until it turned out Arlo had stolen the tune from the Carter Family ... aw, just click the link.)
- The Grey Album: remixes Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles' White Album. listen here - wikipedia - the Grey Video (played in class)
- The Kleptones - A Night At The Hip-Hopera: remixes Queen songs with a hundred other things. sample song - download album - wikipedia lists the sources.
- Deen Gray - American Edit: remixes Green Day's American Idiot with lots of stuff. sample song - download album - wikipedia - Green Day calls the mix "really cool".
- Mei Lwun - Marshall's Been Snookered: apparently Eminem raps in ragtime. (If you don't like him, skip this one). listen here - love from the Village Voice.
Here's a few interesting covers. Unlike the previous list, these songs are blessed by the Copyright Act.
- Nina Gordon - Straight Outta Compton: Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt covers NWA on acoustic guitar. listen here - song generously shared by Nina herself.
- Cake - I Will Survive. listen here.
- Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights. listen here.
- Johnny Cash - Hurt. music video here.
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So, I hope you've checked out and enjoyed at least some of the links. My main point is: mashups can be delightful -- and incidentally, they serve a similar role to cover songs in making unique and important contributions to our culture.
I should probably talk about the law as well, though. There's a reason that the covers I listed are all available on CD, while the mashups live in an underground, online ghetto. (By the way -- if you liked any of the covers, maybe you should buy the albums ...) That reason is the "Compulsory license for making and distributing phonorecords" provided by the Copyright Act.
Under this section, artists are free to release cover versions of songs as long as they pay 9.1 cents for every copy. Because this is a compulsory license, effective markets such as HFA Songfile have emerged to make compliance pretty easy.
Paper Idea One: Is there something different about mashups -- which use an artist's actual voice and music, after all -- from covers, which justifies leaving them out in the cold? Or do the files I linked to make enough of a cultural contribution that the copyright system should support them somehow? How would you write that statute?
Paper Idea Two: Most of the mashup artists in the first list violated the copyright act by distributing derivative works without a license for the original material. YOU violated the copyright act ($750 minimum per violation!) by clicking on the links, knowingly requesting copyrighted material. Question 1: how does that make you feel? Question 2: have I violated the act, by providing links to a third party site that hosts copyrighted material? Can it be that HTML links to third party sites subject this post in our class blog to many thousands of dollars in liability? Napster seems to suggest so. If Wendy fails to delete this post, is she liable as well?
Sunday, December 9, 2007
DRM and the DMCA - Analog Analogy
Basically, the popgun he bought had a certain, proprietary type of caps it used to make a "bang" sound, and when the toy store didn't have or stopped carrying that type of cap, he was stuck making "bang" sounds himself.
There are also a few interesting links at the post. Give it a look!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
How to format comments using HTML
- You can make things italic, by putting <i> before the italic text and </i> after it.
- You can make things bold, by putting <b> before the bold text and </b> after it.
- You can add links, by putting <a href="http://yourlinkhere.com/"> before the text of the link and </a> after it.
<i>Someone wrote ...which would come out as
Blah blah blah blah</i>
Excellent point! Did you consider <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blah">blah</a>?
Someone wrote ...
Blah blah blah blah
Excellent point! Did you consider blah?
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Windows Vista to Drop Antipiracy Killswitch
Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints.
The so-called "kill switch" is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.
I remember there being a lot of controversy over this, based off of the Windows Genuine Advantage program. Windows XP was similarly hit with a fairly buggy and problematic issue when it came to registering its product early on. (And, even now, if you have a legitimate copy of XP and upgrade your hardware enough or simply buy a new computer, with the intent of porting over your OS, it's going to flag you as an illegal user.)
Apparently the old registration method wasn't enough, so they decided to add a full on block to you using the software.
The tool can "lock" Vista from further use if it believes it is an unauthorised copy. But many users have complained that the system is not working because legally bought copies result in error messages.
...
Microsoft said it had pursued legal action against more than 1,000 dealers of counterfeit Microsoft products in the last year and taken down more than 50,000 "illegal and improper" online software auctions.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
1.8 Quadrillion Dollars: The Big Money of Copyright Damages
What's the penalty for those billion infringements? Each willful infringement may be punished by statutory damages of up to $150,000. Potential total damages worldwide add up to 1,000,000,000 songs * $150,000 = $150 trillion per month. Multiply by twelve months, that's $1.8 quadrillion dollars per year in potential statutory damages from online filesharing.
Since the worldwide Gross Domestic Product is $66 trillion, filesharers are on the hook for up to 27 times the total economic output of the planet, each year. (If courts only awarded the statutory minimum of $750 per infringement, the total would come to only $9 trillion, 13% of world GDP).
These numbers sound absurd, but they're not all hypothetical. Recently a jury awarded $222,000 against one defendant, Ms. Jammie Thomas, for sharing 24 song files -- the potential maximum penalty was six times as much. Here's an interesting question: what if she had stolen $24 worth of iTunes gift cards, or a couple of CDs, from her local Best Buy and distributed them at random to strangers?
Well, check out the Massachusetts shoplifting statute. If the defendant had, instead of running Kazaa for a few hours, stolen less than $100 of merchandise from a brick-and-mortar store and handed it out on the street corner, she could be fined up to ... $250.
So, we have a situation where the penalty for stealing and distributing actual, physical property from a store is $221,750 lower than the penalty for copying files on a computer, even when the latter crime did not necessarily cost anyone a penny. (We should explore whether filesharing increases or decreases legitimate purchases in later posts).
- Can you justify that because shoplifting is much more likely to be punished than filesharing? (Is it fair to punish one person for 1000 crimes?)
- Or, can you justify that because the receivers of the Kazaa files might have turned around and distributed them, multiplying Ms. Thomas' crime (even though that could apply to the iTunes files too)?
By the end of the day, John has infringed the copyrights of twenty emails, three legal articles, an architectural rendering, a poem, five photographs, an animated character, a musical composition, a painting, and fifty notes and drawings. All told, he has committed at least eighty-three acts of infringement and faces liability in the amount of $12.45 million (to say nothing of potential criminal charges). There is nothing particularly extraordinary about John’s activities. Yet if copyright holders were inclined to enforce their rights to the maximum extent allowed by law, barring last minute salvation from the notoriously ambiguous fair use defense, he would be liable for a mind-boggling $4.544 billion in potential damages each year. And, surprisingly, he has not even committed a single act of infringement through P2P file sharing. (emphasis added)The whole article is worth a read -- highlights of the hypo include $150,000 for reading a 1931 e.e. cummings poem to a law school class, and a court-mandated laser tattoo removal. (I found the thought experiment via this Slashdot article).
At this point you might wonder, can Congress really do that? One ongoing case, UMG v. Lindor, will test whether such high damage figures violate the due process clause:
[Defendant] cites to case law and to law review articles suggesting that, in a proper case, a court may extend its current due process jurisprudence prohibiting grossly excessive punitive jury awards to prohibit the award of statutory damages mandated under the Copyright Act if they are grossly in excess of the actual damages suffered.....Furthermore, Lindor provides a sworn affidavit asserting that plaintiffs' actual damages are 70 cents per recording and that plaintiffs seek statutory damages under the Copyright Act that are 1,071 times the actual damages suffered. (also found via Slashdot)What should the outcome be?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Blogging mechanics
The weblog will be publicly readable. You may post under your real name or a pseudonym, but you must tell me your name so I can give appropriate credit. Please be sure to let me know if you have any technical problems.
Welcome to the Technology Regulation Weblog
If you're in the seminar, you'll get access to post here. If you're not, feel free to read and comment.