Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The End of Innovation?

Posted by michael on from the final-nail dept.

Simone writes: "2001 has been a bad year not just for dot-coms but also for people interested in preserving the public's right to fair use of copyright materials. From the shutdown of Napster and the DeCSS case to the prosecution of Dmitry Sklyarov, federal prosecutors and U.S. courts have acted in support of copyright interests and against the public's ability to use technology to secure fair-use rights. OpenP2P.com editor Richard Koman talks about these turns of events with Lawrence Lessig." Not particularly coincidentally, Lessig has a new book coming out on this very topic.

2 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Redefinition of Innovation by Carnage4Life · · Score: 1, Troll
    Miriam Webster's defines innovation as
    1. the introduction of something new
    2. : a new idea, method, or device : NOVELTY
    It's interesting that when MSFT describes what they do as innovation people get all up in arms yet here's another group of people who are using even worse newspeak by tying the term innovation with copyright violation.

    As a software developer I'm actually offended that there are people who are trying to perpetrate the idea that innovation in software and on the 'Net revolves around violating people's copyright and redistributing the works of others. Of course, it all is put in perspective when one realizes this article is being hosted by the OpenP2P.com which was just another "jump on the buzzword bandwagon" venture whose major proponents are focused around benefiting from redistributing the works of others.
  2. Re:Napster Fair Use? Give Me a Break! by Jasonv · · Score: 1, Troll

    "Copying copyrighted information is not stealing. Stealing would mean
    that if I took it, you know longer have it. This is blatantly false."

    Cool - I'm coming over to your house tonight, taking your car out for awhile, but putting it back in the morning so you still have it....

    For me, theft would be using any of my possessions in any way which I don't want you to. Whether you take my car for a drive, take code I've written and use it when I don't want you to, or download and listen to music I've made without my permission.. that's theft