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Interesting discussion of Intellectual Property & etc. And my sense of the discussion was that the (former jefe of) MPAA's resembled the effect of talking to a Television Set.

They also discussed the proposed bill "Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2003". I'm sure you gamers will like that one.

As usual, their discussion didn't solve anything, but they did highlight the salient points in the ongoing discussion.

I, for one, don't understand why adults believe kids can't distinguish between a game scenario and real life. One "concerned mother" used the example that when kids encounter a roadblock/barricade in a video game, their first response is a violent one (crash it). Encountering the "same" roadblock in real life she said, would thus cause them to have the same first response (violence of some sort). She more or less implied that such kids would run the real roadbloock because they'd seen/crashed one in a virtual situation.

I think kids can distinguish. When you played cops & robbers as kids, did you really think you were shooting-to-kill your playmates? (Those of you that did, are you now a psychopath?)

They also discussed the proposed bill "Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2003". I'm sure you gamers will like that one.

As usual, their discussion didn't solve anything, but they did highlight the salient points in the ongoing discussion.

I, for one, don't understand why adults believe kids can't distinguish between a game scenario and real life. One "concerned mother" used the example that when kids encounter a roadblock/barricade in a video game, their first response is a violent one (crash it). Encountering the "same" roadblock in real life she said, would thus cause them to have the same first response (violence of some sort). She more or less implied that such kids would run the real roadbloock because they'd seen/crashed one in a virtual situation.

I think kids can distinguish. When you played cops & robbers as kids, did you really think you were shooting-to-kill your playmates? (Those of you that did, are you now a psychopath?)

There are a lot of parts of real life that one "shelters" children from: rape, violence, the fact that most of one's life is a grinding, dreary march to death during which we seek to eke out tiny moments of joy before the relentless machinery of despair wipes us out, taxes, Duke Nukem Forever, the fact that so-called heroes are usually as flawed and corrupt as everyone else, and the fact that they probably came into this world not in a joyous, wonderous, giving event, but from a horny set of parents who probably were not thinking about junior at the time and, nine months later, amidst blood and screaming.

Sheltering is pretty much what it's all about.

Videogames aren't the real world, and it's appropriate to treat them as pedagogical - they can teach as much as they entertain. Responsible parents will react accordingly. Sometimes, the message that they are not supposed to play with this until they've achieved a certain maturity and moral distance is as much part of the message as any that's in the game itself.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with a measured amount of play-violence, either. That's a normal part of childhood, and I don't want to think you can nerf-ify a kid's entire life. Here's a good discussion about it - I think Gerard Jones is right-on in his perspective, but interestingly enough he doesn't let his kid play GTA3.

Do you have children? Would you let your kids watch porn? After all, they'll just want to watch it more...

Siva Vaidhyanathan, whom I interviewed for Slashdot (uncut text of the interview is available over here), debated Fritz Attaway of the MPAA (not the RIAA) for NPR's Justice Talking. That debate is ...hearable?... over here .

Enjoy.

National Public Radio's legal magazine show Justice Talking has just released the show in which MPAA attorney Fritz Attaway debates the virtures of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity. The show was recorded on March 4 in Philadelphia and is available in RealPlayer format and is archived here.

National Public Radio's legal magazine show Justice Talking has just released the show in which MPAA attorney Fritz Attaway debates the virtures of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity. The show was recorded on March 4 in Philadelphia and is available in RealPlayer format and is archived here.

ok, i found their archive of abstracts and debater bios, and links from the abstracts point to recordings, but no mention of DMCA/DeCSS/etc in the listing of archived shows at all. Very odd that it's not there.

A few months back there was a Justice Talking (a show on NPR) that debated the DMCA, Siva was the voice against it, an MPAA rep (sorry, I forget the guy's name) the pro voice. I was in attendence at it's recording.

Some of the interesting tidbits from that session that I can remember (this was in October I think, so my accuracy should be called into question):

Someone suggested that DeCSS may not exist if there were a DVD player available for Linux. The MPAA guy argued that all programs written for Linux must be open-sourced, which would compromise what is essentially their security-through-obscurity scheme of handling CSS. And Siva AGREED! Now correct me if I'm wrong - isnt it possible to write programs for Linux that are closed-source?

Tidbit #2 - Someone asked about making backup copies and their allowance under fair use. The MPAA rep countered that making a backup of a movie (whether it be video or DVD) is not permitted under fair use. A big look of shock on many people's faces after that statement.

Justice Talking used to keep RealAudio recordings of their shows on their site, but I never did see this session on the site in the weeks following the debate for whatever reason. (I suspect maybe it didnt appear because they played a 3-5 second clip from a musical version of DeCSS during the show, and then asked the MPAA rep if they violated the DMCA) Unfortunately, looking at the site now you have to buy a transcript or CD recording.