IPcentral Weblog: December 2004 Archives

December 2004 Archives

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12.30.2004

Updating Lessig's Code

Larry Lessig is going to use an open process to produce an update of his book Code. (Tip from the Volokh Conspiracy.)

However, Lessig will retain total control over the final published version, and over the royalties (although he is donating his advance to Creative Commons). So a skeptic might notice that this is an excellent way for him to get expert research and editing help at very low cost in money or personal time.

There is nothing wrong with this, since the participants will be consenting adults, but as a mode of production it is dependent on the participants: (1) Deriving sufficient psychic pleasure from the enterprise to motivate them; and (2) Having outside sources of income.

This is not the wave of the future. The wave of the future is the combination of the communications power of the Internet with the motivational power of money.

posted by James DeLong @ 1:12 PM | Free Culture Movement

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The Shadow Internet

A compelling article in Wired paints a clearer picture on how so much pristine digital content ends up so quickly on P2P networks. It details an elaborate system of insider thieves, top-quality recording equipment, skilled compressors, and eager distributors who get access to content based on their ability to push pirated works out into cyberspace.

Here author Jeff Howe dispels a myth about "sharing" online:

It's a commonly held belief that P2P is about sharing files. It's an appealing, democratic notion: Consumers rip the movies and music they buy and post them online. But that's not quite how it works.

In reality, the number of files on the Net ripped from store-bought CDs, DVDs, and videogames is statistically negligible. People don't share what they buy; they share what is already being shared - the countless descendants of a single "Adam and Eve" file. Even this is probably stolen; pirates have infiltrated the entertainment industry and usually obtain and rip content long before the public ever has a chance to buy it.

The whole shebang - the topsites, the pyramid, and the P2P networks girding it all together - is not about trading or sharing at all. It's a broadcast system. It takes a signal, the new U2 single, say, and broadcasts it around the world. The pirate pyramid is a perfect amplifier. The signal becomes more robust at every descending level, until it gets down to the P2P networks, by which time it can be received by anyone capable of typing "U2" into a search engine.

Here he discusses the individuals who push the content from top-level servers out to other servers connected to P2P networks:

The kids in the scene aren't trying to bomb the system. They don't care a whit whether major labels suffer more from file-sharing than indie labels, or if a ban on prerelease DVDs affects Miramax's chances at the Academy Awards. They do this because it feels mildly rebellious, like smoking a doobie behind the local Kroger or setting off the school fire alarm - and because it's fun.

Like ants, curries are monomaniacal about tiny tasks - they copy and move files from place to place - but together they form a force so powerful that it threatens to displace the traditional forms of media distribution.

The next time you hear someone say that file-sharing is okay and that the media industry just needs to find new business models, remember these ants.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:17 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...

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Saved!

I was about to do some serious thinking about the amicus brief we are going to file in Grokster, just as soon as I finished reading the Wall Street Journal, of course, when I was saved by abebooks, the used book website.

It delivered my copy of Poul Anderson's The Time Patrol, the almost-complete story of hero Manse Everard's "duty to save human history from the chaos of paradox, no matter what sort of human suffering this forces him to 'preserve.' " The copy was discarded by the Albuquerque public library (the fools!).

Then, to complete my ruin, I received from Gallowglass Books in British Columbia (also via abe) the first four volumes of Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings, the greatest series of historical novels ever written, and yes, I have read all of Patrick O'Brian, twice.

Continue reading Saved! . . .

posted by James DeLong @ 10:38 AM | Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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12.29.2004

Free Culture Contd.

Professor Mahoney's perceptive review below of Larry Lessig's Free Culture came at the right time for me, because I have been looking over that book during the holidays. Lessig is very good at making arguments regarding the erosion of creative expression using selected examples, but there is much evidence -- the Supreme Court's approval of 2 Live Crew's parody of Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman, for example -- that conflicts with his argument. This "creative expression" argument, however, has no bearing whatsoever on unauthorized downloads of copyrighted content on P2P networks. In fact, I feel the argument is a red herring, for it's hard for these academics to directly defend theft.

Disclosure: I am not related to Jim DeLong.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 2:17 PM | Free Culture Movement

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Enforcement Problems

I have been pondering what light is shed on the debate over online content IP by thinking of it as an enforcement problem--that is, a problem that arises from and will be solved mainly by changes to how enforcement institutions work. Here is an interesting link illustrating how it works now; note, adding to the difficulty, that it is an international problem.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 2:13 PM | Liberty and IP , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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More on Asian Relief

Instapundit has more suggestions on where to donate for tsunami relief.

posted by James DeLong @ 12:33 PM | General

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Review of Lessig's Free Culture

The December 2004 issue of the Virginia Law Review contains a skeptical review of Larry Lessig's book Free Culture, entitled Larry Lessig's Dystopian Vision, by Prof. Julia D. Mahoney of the UVA law school. (Linked by permission of the VLR.)

Her conclusion:

It is easy to wish that Lessig had decided to write another sort of book. Had he started from the premises that adjusting property rights to technological and societal change has posed significant challenges throughout U.S. history, and that it is impossible to state with complete confidence that any regime strikes (or has struck) the appropriate balance between providing incentives to creators and innovators and ensuring appropriate access to the fruits of their efforts, Lessig might have produced a thoughtful meditation on intellectual property in the Internet age. Instead, Lessig has opted to tell a dark, sweeping tale of a nation that for most of its history adjusted to societal and technological change with ease, but now teeters on the edge of an abyss of corporate control.
The world depicted in the pages of Free Culture, however, is at odds with Lessig's dystopian vision, for it is a vibrant place where technological innovation, creative endeavors, and public discussion of political issues flourish to a degree that would have been scarcely imaginable to our forebears. That such a society faces some perplexing challenges should come as no surprise. Addressing these challenges will require a number of difficult determinations, including whether the hazards posed by various new technologies outweigh their benefits and how best to ensure that property rights evolve to promote the overall public interest. Regrettably, Free Culture promises to be of little help in crafting useful solutions to these genuine problems.

Disclosure: Prof. Mahoney and I are related; she is my daughter.

posted by James DeLong @ 11:39 AM | Free Culture Movement

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Asian Relief

Amazon has set up a collection site for donations to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. You can donate via One-Click.

The power of the 'Net: As of mid-evening yesterday, the site had collected about $450K. Now, 12 hours later, the total is over $1.1 million.

posted by James DeLong @ 8:53 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...

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12.28.2004

Mix Ups

The International Herald Tribune has an article, taken from the Boston Globe, on the travails caused profit-hoping software companies by the need to ensure that their products contain no code subject to any of the dozens of open source licenses floating around.

As would be expected, the GPL is the biggest concern, because anyone who incorporates GPL-covered code must make their own programs available, freely and for free.

Naturally, "law firms, consultants, software developers and technology service companies . . . are moving to capitalize on the jitters that have been spreading in the business world. " The president of a software company that specializes in code audits happily estimates the total market opportunity here at $500 million by next year.

posted by James DeLong @ 4:41 PM | Software

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Price Gouging Is Good for You

Cafe Hayek explains why raising prices on essentials in times of disaster can actually be a good thing, because it avoids the exhaustive inquiry that is necessary in any scheme to ration to the "most worthy."

For another riff on the virtue of markets in unexpected places, go here.

posted by James DeLong @ 2:41 PM |

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12.27.2004

CREATE Act

posted by James DeLong @ 1:34 PM | Patents

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