Friday, January 21, 2005

Doors of re-perception

At IT Garage: Open the 'pod bay doors, Steve. The headine is more Apple-centric that I'd like it to be, but I liked it too much not to use it.

TGISF

I "flipped" the blog to Saturday (today as I write this), but something went sideways (my fault, I'm sure), and now I seem to be stuck in Friday.

We'll work it out, I'm sure. Meanwhile, I'll just keep posting yesterday.

You can't manage freedom

Tristan Louis says DRM is Not Binary. A long insightful piece, with this bottom line:

What I am trying to highlight is that while proponents and opponents of DRM solutions both see the world in black and white, they may want to start a dialogue and realize that there's a lot of gray areas out there.

Tristan frames his case mostly in terms of his own usage. Which is fine, as far as that goes. But the frame that matters most is much bigger than that. It's the change of copyright in the U.S. from an opt-in to an opt-out system; and the damage this new copyright system is already causing to free speech, free markets and free culture.

The damage already done by the pro-DRM forces verges on the incalculable. And it's far more important than whatever (frankly, debatable) harms the pro-DRM forces have suffered from peer-to-peer file sharing over the Net.

This is not to say that copyright is a bad thing. But this post (like Tristan's) is about DRM. For a good summary on copyright, I'll defer to Siva Vaidhyanathan, who concludes The state of copyright activism with this:

It is our duty as writers, scholars, and educators to make it clear to our students, our peers, our congressional representatives, and the public that copyright is a bargain, a good deal for everyone, when all interests are considered. As both copyright producers and users, we in the academy are in a good position to outline the complexity and benefits of such a deal. And we are in a good position to highlight the abuses that copyright holders have engaged in since 1998. We must be blunt about the current system’s threats to free speech, intellectual freedom, and the free flow of information. We must be careful not to be trapped into nihilistic rhetoric about the "end of copyright." Copyright need not end if we can rehabilitate and re-humanize it. Our culture and democracy depend on it.

As a label, DRM has two problems. One is that it requires a top-down DRM perspective on a peer-to-peer world. The other is that it is understood by its proponents as a way to preserve value by crippling technology and its use. It's a fundamentally obsolete notion, a eugenics for our time.

The issues involved need to be reframed in terms of A) The Net's basic nature, which won't change; and B) the need for sane and useful copyright law. B requires copyright reform. The pro-DRM forces are dead-set against that reform. And that, sad to say, makes them an enemy of many freedoms.

Thanks to Jim Thompson for pointing to Siva's piece.

Smarter living through podcasting

Dan Bricklin posts More of why podcasting is good. He was inspired by the January 14 edition, with Adam Bosworth as the guest. Sez Dan,

During this one it hit me why: It's done as a deep, serious show aimed at a professional in the area covered (in this case the IT world), it's not dumbed down, it's actually "smarted up".

Loose talk

Buildng a a Better Relationship, One Conversation at a Time is my latest Suitwatch. One small bit of Cluetrain leverage: Conversation used to be optional. Now it's mandatory.

From Faulkner to Grisham to... this

Brandy, a 21-year-old wife, mother and student in Oxford, Mississippi, is selling her forehead as advertising space on eBay. Starting bid is $2,000. More than 10,000 lookers so far, but no takers.

You may wonder why anyone would do this. I am doing this because I am a stay at home mother and a full time student; and with only one income int the house money is tight. I heard about a man doing this on the radio and getting over $ 25,000.00 for putting an add on his forehead. I don't expect to get anywhere near that much, but I couldn't think of a better conversation starter that a logo tattooed across my forehead or a more fun way to make a little extra cash.

Thanks to an alert local OSSI member for the pointer.