Crackdowns, Fools and the MPAA

werdna was one of many to submit a Motley Fool column which takes the MPAA to task, neatly summarizing the events to date. But the best DVD story so far has to be this Linux Journal article, Crackers and Crackdowns. The author has some personal experience with crackdowns, and offers tips on what you can do to fight them.

Comments

Capitalism gets unfair rap

[Demona]

(I apologize for focusing solely on the end-user viewpoint. Chris Johnson has had much insightful stuff to say here lately about the content creator's end of things, and how all this crap that supposedly protects artists screws them just as much as it does the rest of us, if not more.)

Too many people confuse fascism, oligopoly, mercantilism and fraud with actual fair trade. (A truly free market requires informed consumers, not passive drones; but we cannot force everyone to be equally intelligent, nor expect everyone to be equally desirous to live freely.)

Groups can never have more rights than the individuals which comprise them -- the individual is the smallest minority. The privileges of a private guild conflict with the inalienable rights of individuals? Too bad; the latter trumps the former.

A lot of so-called "capitalists" have swallowed the CCA/MPAA lies hook, line and sinker. They think it's about piracy. It's not. What IS it about? A lot of things which can't be easily condensed, as the last few weeks of discussion here have shown. Meanwhile, lots of hackers see "capitalism" as the problem, when it's fascism, mercantilism, oligopoly and the like that they're really upset about -- they just don't realize it.

You already know the State claims you don't even own yourself? Now private guilds are ready to violate your rights just as thoroughly, and abuse the legal power of the State by using sovereign national's police forces as their enforcement arm. Bouvier's Law Dictionary defines "property" as

"the sole and despotic dominion which one man exercises over the external things of the world to the total exclusion of every other individual in the universe."

When you lawfully purchase a DVD, do you really own it? Do you only have the right to expose your eyeballs to its images and ears to its sounds? How far may ownership be abrogated -- and by what process is this happening?

In the good old days, you were lucky: If you opened the case, all you did was void the warranty. Now, you can be declared a criminal. This harkens back to medieval days, when everyone had "special knowledge" and people were routinely exiled from the guild or killed by its members for revealing the secrets of smithing, healing, or even reading and writing.

But lawful behavior (fair use, reverse engineering and the like) can never be made unlawful, by any amount of legislation. It can only be declared illegal.

Of course it's easy to see how capitalism gets its bad name, given the retarded poster children that get all the press. Steve Gilliard once said, "The reason that some of us are more worried about government power than corporate power is that Coca Cola rarely strafes the villages of Pepsi drinkers." Unfortunately, a lot of groups out there seem to be eagerly competing with governments everywhere to see who can violate the rights of the individual more efficiently and thoroughly. Disney and other companies get together to extend copyrights, while every two-bit jackass who throws together a CGI script slaps a patent on it and sues anyone running a web-based store...

The future, where your only freedom is the freedom to make money (but not too much); where tools like compilers and debuggers are restricted to an elite, privileged and licensed class; where it doesn't matter whether it's government or a corporation giving you the shaft, because they're fascistically intertwined so thoroughly you can't tell one from the other.

"Shut up, be happy. The conveniences you demanded are now mandatory."

Have a nice day, citizen-unit.

-dj

the problem with an information superhighway is that everyone wants to be a traffic cop

How to boycott effectively

[Robin Hood]

Jason Kroll, the author of the Linux Journal article, suggests boycotting the entire motion picture industry: "Specifically, boycott Disney, Sony, MGM, Paramount, Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros. All together. Everything they do." And I can't say I disagree with him, but:

1. If you're going to boycott, publicize your reasons! Put up a web page stating (in a calm and rational manner) the reasons for your boycott, giving all the history you can without getting too verbose. Assume this is going to be read by someone who hasn't even heard of DeCSS, let alone Jon Johansen. Then put the URL in your .sig, put links to it on your main web page, and so on.
2. Publicizing doesn't have to be online. Put up posters! Find public places where posters would be appropriate (i.e., NOT the store window of Blockbusters, since it's their private property, and you don't want people ignoring your message because you were disrespectful of other people's property), and spread the word! Include a BRIEF (we're talking five lines of text here) summary of the reasons for your boycott, and put your URL at the bottom so people can find out more if they're interested.
3. If you've got the time, organize a picket line! Find some friends willing to help, make some signs resembling your posters with "BOYCOTT THE MOVIE INDUSTRY" or some such message in big letters, with reasons underneath, and parade back and forth in front of Blockbusters and other movie-related stores. As long as you're peaceful and don't physically block people from entering the stores, they can't legally touch you. If you happen to know anyone involved in any sort of labor union, ask them for advice on how to do a picket line.

That's about it. Remember to act like reasonable adults, and be ready to give reasons to anyone who asks you "Why are you boycotting?" We've got the moral high ground here; let's act like it. It's like Linux advocacy: if you maintain your cool and act reasonable, many more people will listen to you than if you shout and scream.

Briefing's over, ladies and gentlemen. You know what to do. Now get out there and execute Plan Boycott! They'll never know what hit 'em!
-----
The real meaning of the GNU GPL:

boycott effectively - additional thoughts

[mrgoat]

What bothers me about the DeCSS mess isn't that the geeks are mobilizing...it's that the geeks aren't learning. Let me clarify that statement...

The geeks have been cracked down on repeatedly the last 20 years with example cases. In just about every case, the govt and plaintiff were able to make their point (you are bad, you must be punished, we've taken your toys and your freedom; see how we punish). Whether the geek was exhonerated in the end didn't make nearly as much impact on the non-geeks as the crackdown did.

So the geeks now are better at mobilizing when the crackdown comes. So what! The point has already been made. It is already sticking in the backs of the non-geeks heads- geeks now have a two front battle of proving they aren't pirates to the court, and fixing their already dubious reputations with their own communities.

What the geeks need to start doing is heading off the problems when they see the problem at the outset - think of it as a good security policy for your community network (rather than your LAN/WAN). You see a nibble, you do a check, and if you find a hole, you plug it in as many places as possible.

The geeks, after the first filing, should have pre-emptively filed in EVERY federal jurisdiction. This would have headed off most of the mess going on now, and forced the MPAA off balance (disrupting their entired choreagraphed passion play to the media). What really gets me is this- nobody suspected that the first LAME attempt at a suit filed in California was just to test the waters, and to come up with more defendants for a case that HAD to be in the MPAA's works prior to the Copy Authoity's original filing.

So while everybody here is congratulating themselves on what the suits might think about how righteous we geeks may be, what is anyone doing to ensure we don't get a repeat? Volunteering to rebuild your local Congressperson's network/website to get their ear on tech issues? Finding new resources to work with on future problems that WILL come up? Even following current bills and measures being deliberated at the local level?

We may be laughing at how stupid the lawyers may look because they are technologically inept in regards to these proceedings, but how do you think the geeks look for leaving themselves open to this kind of stupid-ass suit in the first place? Do something, but don't just sit there.

Re:Mainstream Publication

[landley]

>if they realize that they'll piss off millions of
>customers by furthering these ridiculous
>lawsuits, they might back down, saving us all a
>lot of trouble, and legal bills.

It's not just that. This point didn't make it into the article (space constraints and trying not to alienate a financial audience with hints of socialism) but what we're all doing with the deCSS program is massive, widespread civil disobedience.

We quote gandhi for a reason: he wasn't trying to get anybody to grant him a favor, he was simply ignoring them and orchestrating widespread "business as usual" under the new model until the defenders of the status quo acknowledged the inevitable.

Martin Luther King Jr. did the same thing. Passive, nonviolent (AC flamers take note) resistance. This is what we're doing, it doesn't hurt anyone, and you can't stop us anyway. We write and use open source because now that the PC has completely commotidized all the hardware, the next obvious step is to do the same thing to all the software. Commoditization happens as markets mature. This is capitalism. Scribes had trouble competing when movable type came around. It wasn't a conspiracy, it was competition.

In the long run, if we can't get it for free, we'll have to pay for it. If we CAN get it for free, charging for it won't be able to compete no matter what the law says. Saying there will be no movies without charging admission is like saying there will be no television without charging admission. No books without cover prices: ever seen an editor's slush pile? As for free magzines, tried web surfing lately? No music without a record contract, then what's all that garbage at mp3.com? Or the live band in a bar?

There's a HUGE market for filtering through the garbage to find the 1% that's worth keeping. That's what the record companies USED to do. That's what the movie companies sort of do filtering through screenplay slush piles. That's what Red Hat (and a zillion others) try to do with Linux. And these service companies can find the best writers/singers/actors and hire them, to keep a steady supply of good material on hand. Customers come to them not because they can't go elsewhere but because what this company produces is good enough to pay for. Exactly the way Red Hat employs Alan Cox. Contratulations, it's a service industry.

Forcing people to pay for things isn't capitalism. Providing something they ARE willing to pay for is capitalism. Deal with it.

Rob