First. Let's get this straight. I am no longer a pirate and purchase all the software I use. I say "no longer" because back when I was a teenager and didn't have money, I copied to my heart's content.
OK. Now that we have that out of the way, I'm increasingly concerned by the efforts of large corporations in the entertainment industry who are making it their primary cause to establish a government-sanctioned monopoly on their respective segments of the industry. I think we've all heard about CPRM, the copy prevention scheme - the entertainment industry likes to call it "copyright protection". This technology brings absolutely no benefits to us endusers. In fact, it does the exact opposite, creating significant problems in the following areas:
-RAID
-recovery from hard disk failure
-installation of software incompatible with CPRM (currently everything available)
-re-installation of licensed software onto a new computer after having removed the previous installation
-hard disk imaging
-legitimate file backups under the legal umbrella of "fair use"
-file optimization software
I think enough is enough. It is quite obvious that a boycott of products from companies actively participating in establishing CPRM - Intel, IBM, Toshiba, and Matsushita (Panasonic) - will not work. Given the clout of these companies with OEMs such as Compaq and Dell, there will be an immensity of "newbies" who know absolutely nothing about this copy prevention technology, and will unknowingly purchase CPRM-compliant systems which will no doubt cause unnecessary trouble for them.
And, for us legal users of software, we will only suffer the effects of large corporations and government telling us how we can use the products we've purchased. Something as simple as an e-mail file attachment from your business to your home, could become a complex hodge podge of authentication and license verification that need not be applicable to the majority of computer users who are, for the large part, legitimate software licensees.
It's time for the computer user's version of the NRA. Only, this organization needs to be an international one, as globalization is increasingly pressuring governments to give into the demands of foreign corporations. When information is no longer freely transmittable, the whole world suffers - not just the country who is under an electronic iron curtain.
Let's get this straight again. The purpose of CPRM and other copy prevention devices is to create a monopolistic stranglehold on the market for these well-established companies. They find that they cannot compete with creative and resourceful upstarts who wish to use different media to get their entertainment services and products to us consumers, and so they are looking to the creators of our electronics equipment and to government to ensure they rule out any possible chance of upstarts competing in their market.
To make matters worse, the industry is basing their entire existance on the basis that files in the possession of end users can be controlled by the industry. This is a flawed argument right from the get go. There is no proof-positive way of ensuring that a file you give to a consumer is used the way you want it to be. If I sell you a car that has a governed engine for example, I cannot prevent you from disabling the governor and tweaking the engine. Nor should I care, because the car is not any more lethal or unroadworthy because it has a higher horsepower potential.
Some of you might say...well then just go ahead and make workarounds that bypass this technology. I say that's not enough! The reason being...that for Americans, doing so will make you a CRIMINAL under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You will be a CRIMINAL for making a backup under fair use of MS Windows, just in case your current CD gets scratched up. You will be a CRIMINAL, for copying your favoriate TV show from your TiVo to your laptop so you can watch it on the subway ride into work. The ridiculous scenarios can go on and on...but have to stop.
And so, borrowing from the NRA (rather pathetically...but this is a pathetic situation) - "Computers don't break copyright, computer users break copyright". Let's not regulate computers. Let's regulate the users who are actively breaking copyright by purchasing illegal copies from Asian markets, or downloading for free, illegal software off the Internet. There are already sufficient copyright laws in place to deal with copyright violations. It's time for the industry and the government to deal with the copyright offenders (sweatshop factories churning out illegal copies of VHS movies, DVDs, and MS Windows). They need not hurt us legitimate computer users.
-GL
OK. Now that we have that out of the way, I'm increasingly concerned by the efforts of large corporations in the entertainment industry who are making it their primary cause to establish a government-sanctioned monopoly on their respective segments of the industry. I think we've all heard about CPRM, the copy prevention scheme - the entertainment industry likes to call it "copyright protection". This technology brings absolutely no benefits to us endusers. In fact, it does the exact opposite, creating significant problems in the following areas:
-RAID
-recovery from hard disk failure
-installation of software incompatible with CPRM (currently everything available)
-re-installation of licensed software onto a new computer after having removed the previous installation
-hard disk imaging
-legitimate file backups under the legal umbrella of "fair use"
-file optimization software
I think enough is enough. It is quite obvious that a boycott of products from companies actively participating in establishing CPRM - Intel, IBM, Toshiba, and Matsushita (Panasonic) - will not work. Given the clout of these companies with OEMs such as Compaq and Dell, there will be an immensity of "newbies" who know absolutely nothing about this copy prevention technology, and will unknowingly purchase CPRM-compliant systems which will no doubt cause unnecessary trouble for them.
And, for us legal users of software, we will only suffer the effects of large corporations and government telling us how we can use the products we've purchased. Something as simple as an e-mail file attachment from your business to your home, could become a complex hodge podge of authentication and license verification that need not be applicable to the majority of computer users who are, for the large part, legitimate software licensees.
It's time for the computer user's version of the NRA. Only, this organization needs to be an international one, as globalization is increasingly pressuring governments to give into the demands of foreign corporations. When information is no longer freely transmittable, the whole world suffers - not just the country who is under an electronic iron curtain.
Let's get this straight again. The purpose of CPRM and other copy prevention devices is to create a monopolistic stranglehold on the market for these well-established companies. They find that they cannot compete with creative and resourceful upstarts who wish to use different media to get their entertainment services and products to us consumers, and so they are looking to the creators of our electronics equipment and to government to ensure they rule out any possible chance of upstarts competing in their market.
To make matters worse, the industry is basing their entire existance on the basis that files in the possession of end users can be controlled by the industry. This is a flawed argument right from the get go. There is no proof-positive way of ensuring that a file you give to a consumer is used the way you want it to be. If I sell you a car that has a governed engine for example, I cannot prevent you from disabling the governor and tweaking the engine. Nor should I care, because the car is not any more lethal or unroadworthy because it has a higher horsepower potential.
Some of you might say...well then just go ahead and make workarounds that bypass this technology. I say that's not enough! The reason being...that for Americans, doing so will make you a CRIMINAL under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You will be a CRIMINAL for making a backup under fair use of MS Windows, just in case your current CD gets scratched up. You will be a CRIMINAL, for copying your favoriate TV show from your TiVo to your laptop so you can watch it on the subway ride into work. The ridiculous scenarios can go on and on...but have to stop.
And so, borrowing from the NRA (rather pathetically...but this is a pathetic situation) - "Computers don't break copyright, computer users break copyright". Let's not regulate computers. Let's regulate the users who are actively breaking copyright by purchasing illegal copies from Asian markets, or downloading for free, illegal software off the Internet. There are already sufficient copyright laws in place to deal with copyright violations. It's time for the industry and the government to deal with the copyright offenders (sweatshop factories churning out illegal copies of VHS movies, DVDs, and MS Windows). They need not hurt us legitimate computer users.
-GL
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