To DRM your project implies the belief that all Internet users are potential infringers. To regionalize your product is the opposite; clearly you believe that no one will infringe.
I find that increasingly, I hardly browse at all; I'm a confirmed RSS reader. That means that I don't spend much time on any one site which is fundamentally what iPad magazines expect you to do. I don't want to be nailed to a single source any more; I want to hop around.
That's precisely what I meant. When a law is ridiculous, it might just as well not exist, for that's how folks will treat it. If draconian penalties apply to scofflaws, solutions to evade will present themselves. The harm, of course, is that copyright does have legitimate purposes, so those whom it's designed to protect will lose that protection just as street crossers lose the protection of a broken traffic light that's ignored.
"But what's changed when things go digital is the fact that every use involves copying. That wasn't true in the past. And copyright has never been designed to handle a situation where every use is a copy."
Regulatory capture assures us that the chances of copyright reform are slim to none at all. ACTA will make things worse, of course. The key issue, however, is that when laws become ridiculous they slowly become universally ignored. If a traffic light stays red for five minutes, you go through it presuming it broken. If copyright laws cannot or will not accommodate the digital age, we'll go around them.
After reading the comments here, I'm really pleased with my service here in Nova Scotia. Eastlink provides Cable TV, Phone, and Internet for a bundle fee with 30Mb/sec down and ~2Mb/sec up and I've never detected a cap.
Given tools like Dropbox, why would anyone want to run the risk of a hassle at the border (which I cross frequently from Canada)? As Mike has pointed out many times now, the Internet crosses the border without overt DHS hassle. Use it if you're carrying sensitive info or email the info ahead.
I know someone who buys video DVD, watches them, and if he thinks he might like to watch them again, downloads a copy. He does this so he can go straight to the main content without grinding through all the unstoppable bumph at the beginning of a commercial DVD.
Basically, this would make criminals of us all. Who doesn't make copies of kid's games to preserve the original, rip a CD for viewing on an alternative device or even for viewing from a laptop HD instead of a spinning plastic disk running their battery down?
If we come to a red light that doesn't change, eventually we go through it.
"... because that software has already totally crossed over the border via the still mostly borderless internet. ..." Clearly you're not familiar with Canadian Internet experience. Try to view a link on Comedy Central found in a US site or a link to Hulu, for example. Restricted to US audiences unless you have an US proxy account.
"Their mission is really to support the largest acts at the expense of smaller acts..." That's really not it. Their mission is to maximize the profits of the recording industry.
An article how software patents tangle video streaming.
Diary Of An x264 Developer
A long article that keeps returning to the point that alternatives to Flash's domination of video streaming exist in a tangled web of patents.
http://x264dev.multimedia.cx/?p=292
A young firefighter and musician in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Dave Caroll, had his favorite guitar broken by United Airlines who then gave him the runaround about fixing it. He wrote a clever song called United Breaks Guitars, made a very low rent video, put that on youTube, and had it go viral (over 7 million views to date). Since then, he has appeared on Oprah, the View and been interviewed by Wolf Blitzer. He has now made two follow-on videos with parts two and three of his song. His group, the Sons of Maxwell, have been selling their CDs like beer at a ball game ever since. That, to me, is the way the music industry is supposed to work.
As a retired Engineering Prof and ex-Dean of Engineering I most vigorously applaud any effort to break the Journals' high-priced and rigid copyright on published papers. Engineering and Science Libraries have been struggling to subscribe to those journals for years and most now keep those journals in electronic form.
Oh, I understand the Journals' reasoning; all of them are struggling to stay afloat financially (my personal experience is with ASME and IEEE journals), but like so many things in this Internet Age it is simply an old business model struggling to stay afloat. The most obvious solution in my view is that either research funding agencies or the government more directly ought to subsidize the maintenance of digital publication of reviewed papers as part of their general support for research.
I think the problem with the failure of companies to evolve is that they don't really know what their business is. In the little town I come from there were several very successful cast iron foundries, one of which made really beautiful and very long-lived cast iron fences. When less expensive welded steel fencing began to erode his business, his went gradually downhill to failure. Why? Because he didn't realize that his business was not fences, per se -- he had learned how to make large, intricately detailed iron castings that didn't warp as they cooled (rather tricky) and so didn't pursue any other business that required this expertise. At the time, there were quite a few and he just didn't see them. He was a fence maker.
I think the problem with the failure of companies to evolve is that they don't really know what their business is. In the little town I come from there were several very successful cast iron foundries, one of which made really beautiful and very long-lived cast iron fences. When less expensive welded steel fencing began to erode his business, his went gradually downhill to failure. Why? Because he didn't realize that his business was not fences, per se -- he had learned how to make large, intricately detailed iron castings that didn't warp as they cooled (rather tricky) and so didn't pursue any other business that required this expertise. At the time, there were quite a few and he just didn't see them. He was a fence maker.
At some point the terms of ACTA must be revealed; they are hardly enforcible unless folks see the rules. That it is so patently one-sided; that it is entirely to the entertainment industry's advantage will surely cause an uproar among all those expected to enforce it. ISP's will surely not take this lying down and surely the digital communications industry at the end of the day has more clout than Hollywood. I welcome the draconian features Mike has pointed out; the more incredibly this "treaty" toes the wildest dreams of a single point of view the less likely it is to succeed in fact.
On the post: UK Ebook Seller Refuses Foreign Customers' Money
Can't have it both ways
On the post: Did Google Street View Catch A Car Thief In The Act?
On the post: Why iPad Magazine Apps Suck: They're Defined By The Past, Not The Future
On the post: Lessig Asks WIPO To Overhaul Copyright; Not Designed For When Every Use Is A Copy
Re: dumping it altogether is better than reform
On the post: Lessig Asks WIPO To Overhaul Copyright; Not Designed For When Every Use Is A Copy
Copyright Overhaul
Regulatory capture assures us that the chances of copyright reform are slim to none at all. ACTA will make things worse, of course. The key issue, however, is that when laws become ridiculous they slowly become universally ignored. If a traffic light stays red for five minutes, you go through it presuming it broken. If copyright laws cannot or will not accommodate the digital age, we'll go around them.
On the post: Time To Face Facts: Broadband Caps Are Really About Protecting Video Revenue
Cable Service in the Maritimes
On the post: Judge Says DHS Can't Hang Onto Travelers Laptops To Search Much Later Without A Warrant
On the post: Canadian DMCA Introduced; Digital Lock Provision Trumps Any And All User Rights
Bank analogy
On the post: Canadian DMCA Introduced; Digital Lock Provision Trumps Any And All User Rights
Re: Jorvay's comment
On the post: Canadian DMCA Introduced; Digital Lock Provision Trumps Any And All User Rights
If we come to a red light that doesn't change, eventually we go through it.
On the post: Why Should Customs Officers Be Determining What Counts As A Copyright Circumvention Device?
On the post: Nice Work ASCAP: Convinces Yet Another Coffee Shop To Stop Promoting Local Bands
On the post: VC Explains How Damaging Software Patents Can Be
An article how software patents tangle video streaming.
On the post: Entertainment Industry Explains How True Net Neutrality Is Just Another Word For Theft
On the post: Obama Administration Considers More Public Access To Publicly Funded Research
Oh, I understand the Journals' reasoning; all of them are struggling to stay afloat financially (my personal experience is with ASME and IEEE journals), but like so many things in this Internet Age it is simply an old business model struggling to stay afloat. The most obvious solution in my view is that either research funding agencies or the government more directly ought to subsidize the maintenance of digital publication of reviewed papers as part of their general support for research.
On the post: Consumer Electronics Firms Fighting Against Copyright Levies In Europe
On the post: Buggy Whips Not The Perfect Analogy Of Businesses Disrupted By Innovation?
On the post: Buggy Whips Not The Perfect Analogy Of Businesses Disrupted By Innovation?
On the post: Why Is The NY Times Running A Ridiculous, Conflicted Op-Ed Against Google?
On the post: More ACTA Details Leak: It's An Entertainment Industry Wishlist
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