Weez Blog

Lawrence Lessig : Digital Rights

First of all...he's every bit as cool as I'd hoped he'd be.

Battery is dying, refined post to come. In the meantime...go to Creative Commons and to his blog.

Update: Lessig presented a compelling argument for free markets. In the 1800ís, Daguerre had made the daguerrotype. It was expensive. Showed graph of acceptance of the technology. Slight slope, slow adoption.

Contrasted with the invention of ìthe Kodakî, George Eastmanís inexpensive camera, and the subsequent graph indicating a steep slope, fast adoption of the camera.

The point was this: at around the time of Eastmanís burgeoning camera endeavor, the question of permission came up. Must one ask permission to take oneís image? (Some did fear that the camera sucked onesí soul.) The courts said ìnoî. No permission necessary.

If permission had been required, what would have happened to the adoption of the camera? Slight slope, slow adoption.

Clear.

Lessig compared that to the notion of copyright. In terms of a bookÖwhen you read a book, you do not make a copy. When you give it to someone else, you are not making a copy. When you sell the book, you are not making a copy. Not even transforming it.

But in digital form, every thing you get from the net, by its nature, is a copy. An image downloaded to your disk is a copy of the image which remains on the server. Copyright law doesnít take into account the nature of the internet and its transfer of intangible bits.

Someone brought up the notion of stealing a CD from Tower RecordsÖwouldnít that be the same as downloading 10 MP3s?

Lessigís answer: The fine for stealing a CD would be about a grand. The RIAA is charging fifteen hundred per MP3, so that would be 150,000.00. So the answer, not even close.

This is a war on piracy.

This is a war against children.

Posted by weez at October 17, 2003 09:15 AM