Yet Another Example Of Why Lawmakers Need A Better Understanding Of Technology
from the working-on-the-impossible dept
Politicians and technology are generally a bad combination, often leading to ridiculous laws and even more ridiculous statements. Tim Lee is pointing out one example, while asking why our elected officials don't have more tech savvy staff to prevent them from making statements saying that the impossible is possible. In discussing copy protection, Rep. Cliff Stearns is quoted as saying: "The first question I have is whether we have gotten any closer to technology that would allow a limited number of protective copies to be made of copyright-protected works.... I would like to know about the state of technology in this area. I can't think that this is not a solvable challenge. Why don't we make it the copyright equivalent of the race to the moon. We went to the moon almost 40 years ago—it seems to me technology should afford a means of limiting the number of copies we can make of a protected work."Tim does a good job of explaining that making an uncopyable file is simply impossible. The whole point of computing is based on copying. If it's a digital file, it's copyable. Even more to the point, even if it's "protected" by some sort of technology, at some point, it needs to be unwrapped to be viewed or heard -- and there's always going to be a way to capture (and copy) that data. Tim is hopeful that politicians will start to realize that Hollywood's line of reasoning about copy protection is bogus (which might be helped along by Hollywood's own misguided attempt at building their own copy protection technology). It would be good if he was right, but I'm less optimistic. The final sentence from Stearns that Lee quotes is: "Absent promising news on the technology front, I assume we will have to allow the legislative process to work and see if that will yield a solution, although perhaps an inelegant one." In other words, if the technology doesn't work, rather than seeing what new business models the market creates, the lawmakers will just start making "inelegant" laws over this -- which likely means stringent punishment for infringement in an effort to protect an increasingly obsolete business model. We've seen this before from politicians who just want to start passing laws, even as they admit those laws are probably the wrong solution.
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if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
No
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
1. Take any ordinary CD.
2. Copy whatever you want to said CD.
3. Delete original media.
4. Destroy hard disk original media was kept on (just to be safe)
5. Smash CD with only copy of media into hundreds or little pieces and then burn (just to be safe).
Try copying that.......
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
If you can't beat em, join em. Once the record compainies and "Hollywood" realize this they'll make a lot more money. Make everything available. Make it cheap, and useable on any medium.
ITunes is a perfect example. If they made it so you can download a song and play it on anything you want they would sell a lot more copies. Instead they limited themselves by trying to keep people from making copies and sending them to friends, or even putting them on a non IPod device.
WHY? You've just limited your demographic. And, it doesn't work! You can get a FREE utility that can change it from MP4 to MP3. So the people that don't know you can decrypt it don't buy the music and the ones that do, distribute it anyways...
Fools
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
itunes cant give un-protected files, the lables would not support it. the COULD distribute/licence fairplay so that everyone can create products that can decode the tracks... but then why would we all need to buy ipods?
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
That's the wrong comparison. The comparison isn't between what people are making today and what they could make with this new model, but between what they'll be making if they continue down this path of denying customers what they want... and what they could make with this new business model.
Also, I disagree with your assessment of potential profits. I think they could make a lot more. As I said, there would be fewer mega super stars, but *many* more successful musicians, and that opens up a LOT more opportunity for widespread profits. Because the music spreads a lot farther, there are huge opportunities, that I think would easily surpass what the industry makes now.
Of course, that's a matter of opinion, but if you look at every time the music industry has freaked out about a new technology that would "destroy" their profits while making it easier for people to listen to music in the way they wanted, the opposite has happened. It's always increased demand and increased profits, and I'd bet that the same would happen if this business model were put in place.
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
Hollywood has got to give up on trying to hold back technology. With Napster hitting the forefront of "illicit sharing," Hollywood buckled and rebuked. It shouldn't have to. They just have to embrace the technology and help shape it. Work with BitTorrent, work with iTunes, whatever is out there, help create a new way of doing things.
And anyway, if you think about it, piracy is to copyright protection as ying is to yang. Can't have one without the other.
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Re: Re: if technologists can do everything...
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
what business model can achieve fairness to the creators...?
The Google one.
Before the internet, before Google, it was impossible to search for information like we can now. Some would say that that type of search capability would be worth money. How much? How about $5 a keyword? Who knows. The point is, we have it now, provided for free.
In other words, if $5/keyword search existed before Google, given the record industry's model, then the established search companies insisting on their $5 would be going to Congress and demanding that something be done about this free search.
MjM
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Business Model
theres more to come. think about it - if u2 released their entire back catelog for free download on a web site, how much would people pay to have their adds on that site? how many more people would listen to them and become fans? would ticket sales go up? would merchandise sales go up? what about endorsement deals and website tie-ins? would the net revenue gain be worth more than the €1 per album or whatever tiny percentage they get now? the record industry is the middle man and its about to be cut out. it's the future, and its good!
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
Please. For years and years we've been advocating new business models for the industry. This has absolutely nothing to do with "give it to me for free." The funny thing, first of all, is that everyone always seems to think it's the *customer's* responsibility to come up with a new business model, rather than the industry's. Isn't that backwards?
But fine, if you want a new business model: here's one we've talked about before that would be simple to implement. Basically, embrace the fact that the music itself is free and can be given away as a free promotional good to sell plenty of other stuff. Once you recognize that the music can't be protected, but also gives you *free* distribution and *free* promotion, it opens up a wide range of business models, from sponsorships to live performances to merchandise to exclusive access.
One thing to note, in such a business model you don't have quite the same *mega* rockstars, but you do end up with a lot more successful musicians. It's also quite likely that the overall pie gets a lot larger, because the actual music part is encouraged to be shared, and that incents other buying behavior. Some bands are already experimenting along these lines.
So, please, don't accuse us of just "wanting stuff free." We've been advocating business model changes for years.
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
They pay for this by as was said by promoting perfomances and selling other merch.
Some labels are already starting to cut deals to get a percentage of artists merch any way so why not just take the easy step and use the music as promotion for the merch.
its easier and cheaper to give away something than to try to come up with a way to try to make people buy it.
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Re: if technologists can do everything...
Put microphone infront of speakers
conncet microphone to PC
Press record
Whaaayla!
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Can be done
Yes it can be done. If the only place where it is unwrapped is inaccessible. Like in the operating system (Windows Vista) or in hardward like a specialized multimedia chip (?). But again there would always be suckers who can use a camcorder to record it .... :-(
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Re: Can be done
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Re: Can be done
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No Subject Given
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Copy protection...
2) Record Labels/Movie Studios: Worry less about copy protection and more about new ideas/new people/innovation.
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Needs to be unwrapped??
No, it doesn't. That is the whole point: The goal is to have it PAID FOR by the customer. Whether or not the customer can use it is irrelevant from the industry's point of view...
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Maybe we should deal with the ROOT problem
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Re: Maybe we should deal with the ROOT problem
Why not do something like the industry did with performing artists? ASCAP and BMI charge a moderate and fair price for people to license the right to use their songs. The guy singing in the bar can't legally do a public performance of a copyrighted song but these fees cover 90% of the artists and gives him the right to perform it, although I'm not sure the exact details.
They couldn't make performers stop singing these songs and couldn't very well enforce it considering the number of people so they found a way to get money from it.
If I could pay US$200.00 to listen to all the songs I want and make all the personal use CDs I want in a year, I'd pay it and it's $100 more than they would get if I were a ripper/copier type.
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Re: Maybe we should deal with the ROOT problem
It's pretty much fighting a war that you know you can't win. Like many have said, even if you have the best ironclad encryption, nothing is stopping anyone from using a decent recording device or capture program to get it from your computer.
Making things cheap would be one resolution I could forsee. I've bought about a million DVDs off of amazon just because they were dirt cheap.
I liked this post
"Record Labels/Movie Studios: Worry less about copy protection and more about new ideas/new people/innovation." They souldn't put all of this money into trying to stop something that cannot be stopped, but should rather focus on making a better product that people WANT to pay for. Many of times I've seen my friends who would usually rip something go out and buy something just because it's an "owner".
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Follow the market
I feel that the philosophy the "big" media companies are adopting: "We can control customer behaviour" is destined to fail as every other attempt in the past has. if they don't provide what the customer wants someone else will. It's just a matter of time.
As has been said here ad nauseum, exploit consumer behaviour, for resistance is futile.
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Re: Follow the market
If they ever realize that, they can stop spending money on methods of keeping it in a jar. Let it out, make it easy to get, easy to distribute. They will make more money!
Charge by the song, month, year, whatever! It doesn't matter. All the record labels have to do is setup one site, with all the music. Don't use ITunes or Napster... take the middle man out. Make it fast, easy, and cheap. People will go there strictly because it's what our society wants! INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!
If it's as simple as google they will make 100 x the money and will care less if what people do with it.
They are losing out by thinking the will beat us.
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Re: Follow the market
the execs already know; they realize that lawmakers know nearly nothing about technology, therefore they keep trying to shove bills through that are to that effect.
It's very plain to see...
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Not good enough
Solution: free mandatory lobotomies for everyone!
Suggestion: start with Congress
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Technology
Where do these people come from who can break these "protections". They come from the very society from which the companies hire their employees who create the "protections".
The very thing that has created this ability to learn is the mass communication on the internet. Which is the very same tool companies use to make money and grow.
The way I see it is that companies need to respect the society from which they hire and they need to respect the tool that makes their money.
Society is bigger and smarter than any one company, the internet is bigger and more plentiful than any one company (except maybe google ).
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