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DeCSS, From the Beginning
An anonymous reader sent in a link to a presentation given by Tom Vogt at HAL 2001. He reviews the whole CSS/DeCSS mess from the beginning, which makes a it a nice backgrounder for people who are wondering what the Sklyarov, 2600 and other cases are all about.
We can have the internet or we can have digital intellectual property-- but not both. Though many of us are middle-of-the-road in our opinions, the nature of the technology makes the issue fundamentally bipolar: there is no middle ground.
If citizens are allowed to automatically send and receive encrypted messages over the internet, then there is no way to enforce digital intellectual property laws. Unless we start executing copyright infringers, the 0.0001% enforcement that might be possible against a Freenet-type system isn't going to alter behavior. Digital IP is dead.
On the other hand, if citizens are not allowed to automatically send and receive encrypted messages over the internet, then the internet is dead. Yes, you can still dump your money into corporate web sites and post your baby pictures. But many potential applications are ruled out. And, more importantly, the internet is destroyed as a free speech medium: no longer can one use it to routinely circulate documents against the wishes of the usual elites.
Digital people are typically too prone to see issues in black and white. In this case, however, the issue really is black or white: we can have the internet, or we can have digital IP. Probably a lot of us wish that the choice weren't so stark, but it is.
It's just amazing what people will say to try to justify that they are stealing other peoples hard work.
We all have the right to free speech. These people are bastardize that right to commit crimes, I really can't feel sorry for them.