Let's hope the latest misguided musings of Canadian Michael Geist stay above the Latitude 48 degrees 40' North. The aggressive self-promoter and unabashed commons promoter has written a column noting that Sony is reaching settlements of law suits surrounding its misguided DRM attempts on CDs. Yet he takes this evidence of a market solution (predicted before a House subcommittee by my colleague Jim) and says, well, it's best phrased in the headline: "Rootkit Fiasco Shows Sterner Laws Needed." No longer do we need to wait for marketplace failures to push for new regulations; instead, Geist says settlement language should be "the starting point for a future statute." Not a good way to encourage future settlements, which benefit consumers and spare our legal system. We saw the same tactic when the FCC quickly beat down Madison River on net neutrality; that successful resolution was ignored and only the initial incident was cited by those favoring net neutrality regulations and laws. My own headline for Geist's column would be "Lawyer Wants New Laws Where Proven Not Needed."

posted by Patrick Ross @ 12:50 PM | Academia, Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain, DRM & Watermarks, etc., Free Culture Movement, International

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