Us, Them and Copyright
Following the discussions around the internet and in news articles regarding Sony’s increasingly aggressive response to the efforts of fail0verflow and geohot to get the lv2ldr and metldr keys to the PS3 and unlock the console to run unsigned software, two things have become painfully obvious to me:
- US Copyright law has become unduly complicated/ridiculous (you pick which adjective you like better)
- No one considers the personal freedoms given up in the name of intellectual property rights
Though Sony’s most recent antics are getting most of the headlines at the moment, this is just an aside by Sony in a debate stretching back over 100 years in the US between copyright holders (traditionally artists and musicians; today the MPAA and RIAA); consumer electronics companies and folks like you and I.
New technology has always caused great distress for copyright owners, going all the way back to 1903, American composer John Philip Sousa was worried the player pianos would destroy music as they then knew it. After that each new technological advancement which created a new method of transmitting information met fierce opposition from the content industry of the time from the radio, to the cassette tape to Mp3′s its always the same story. Not that all of their concerns were unwarranted or unfair but the rhetoric has at times been laughable. My personal favorite is this gem:
“I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.” ~ Jack Valenti, Former President MPAA
Valenti made this statement following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Universal City Studios v. Sony Corporation of America that made home videotaping legal. The content industry has not lost its flair for the dramatic these days however. Last week Scot Turow from the Authors Guild laid this line on the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting regarding COICA:
“BitTorrent is to stealing movies, TV shows, music, videogames, and now books what bolt-cutters are to stealing bicycles.”
While the content industry would like the discussion to remain focused on drawing parallels between physical and digital goods, at the end of the day the real issue for consumers is really about how they are able to access and use their digital goods with their physical goods. Just think about how much control movie companies, music companies have over how we are seeing in the past couple weeks video game companies have over your products. Take for example the fact that Apple is fully able to dictate to users, developers, publishers and authors how they are allowed to interact and use an iPhone or an iPad after it is sold to a consumer. Another example is this Sony mess, where they are somehow able to bring a copyright lawsuit against geohot for hacking into his own PS3 and giving other people the ability to do the same to theirs. What’s equally troubling is that countless other innovative technologies died before they were even allowed to take-off, all in the name of protecting intellectual property rights. It is vital that the discussion move away from the pirate vs. thief comparisons, to a holistic debate about content vs technological innovation vs. personal freedom. Copyright law is (at the risk of infringing some intellectual property here on the blog) like the Force, balance must be restored.
