EFF's Fred von Lohmann is the latest to chime in on Solveig's "The DMCA Dialectic: Towards Constructive Criticism." He invokes the Holy Grail of DRM opponents, the infamous "Darknet" paper of 2002. This was Ray's reaction when I sent him EFF's post:

The talismanic authority of the Darknet paper baffles me. It simply proves too much; namely that because some can circumvent DRM and, in a sense IPR, therefore there should be no DRM. It is not a completely bankrupt argument — you can certainly argue that the net effect of, say, antitrust laws or drug laws is negative. With Darknet, though, it is treated at something of an instant QED. To the contrary, it simply makes the point that a black market will arise on the internet for illicitly copied content. The challenge of law (and the usefulness of property rights) is, through social norms and legal sanctions, to shrink the size of that black market so that productive activity continues and a market thrives. Seems to me, on balance, that’s what the DMCA is doing in its best instantiations.

Solveig, I believe, makes clear in her paper the goal of reduction, not elimination, of black markets. If critics continue to ignore that point there's not much hope of constructive dialogue.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:12 AM | DMCA

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