CFP 2002 Wrapup

Roger Clarke is an computer scientist who attends many of the CFP conferences, and more importantly for our purposes, takes notes. His notes for this year's conference make good reading and cover a wide variety of issues that Slashdot touches upon. Privacy, biometrics, domain names, the digital divide, intellectual property, it's all here. NTK this week has a nice quip on the conference: "And the more the CFPers confer, the more they seemed to realise that Hollywood is going for the hat-trick: taking away freedom, privacy *and* computers. Pretty impressive. But only if they manage it."

Comments

Re:I know!

[trezor]

Ofcourse he was. But there's one thing I don't get. Maybe he explained this to you, and in that case you might inform me.

The MPAA and RIAA says we don't buy the product but a license to the use of the content. So we don't actually own it, we just own the right to use it, under their terms. Isnt that sweet? :)

Sweet because that would imply that if I loose a CD or a DVD that would mean I should get a new one for free, right? I mean, I got the right to view the content, right?

If I wasn't getting a new one for free, that would conclude I actually bought the product, not just a license to use it.

So in order for the MPAA and RIAA to validly claim that we only buy our license to view the content, any dealer would be obligated to give us a new copy for free, if we loose or damage ord CDs and DVDs, right? (And he should ofcourse be given a refund for the lost/faulty product)

I think this claim makes sense.

Need to do more than complain

[00_NOP]

Hackers/computer users need to remember that Hollywood and the entertainment industry employ thousands - if not millions - and generate huge revenues for the US. If we want to complain about the media industries taking away our freedoms then we have to have an alternative business plan that will assure John and Joanna Doe that we are not destroying their livlihood in the name of our freedom. For them, freedom from want and hunger is pretty important too.

Re:Need to do more than complain

[Anonymous Coward]

You could have said the same thing about slave trade.

John and Joanna should have thought twice about working for an unethical entity.

Re:Need to do more than complain

[Glytch]

Flash back a century. "Motor car owners need to remember that horse-buggy makers and the horse-buggy industry employ thousands - if not millions - and generate huge revenues for the US."

Or maybe a bit earlier? "Electric lightbulb users need to remember that oil-lamp makers and the oil lamp industry employ thousands - if not millions - and generate huge revenues for the US."

Get the picture yet?

Re:Its cool that someone is doing this

[artistlile]

I too am so glad to see that someone took some notes. Alot of good brainstorming and information sharing happens at this conference but it seems that little gets shared with the public which is sad.

One of the reasons I didn't attend was that there tends to be such a pessimistic air about issues discussed there. I know things can be bad but surely we can make them better!

In retrospective, I am sorry I didn't attend this year though. It's not good to just stick one's head in the sand and think that good things will just happen. And being a hacker/geek/artist type, the program just didn't grab my interest much. But I missed seeing friends there and getting the scoop on current issues which is something that generally happens outside of the program/talks.

The part on the DMCA seems important and I want to find out more about all the issues that surround it.

Thanks again to Roger for posting his notes. I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to share. It's acts like this that give me hope.

-lile

hacker artist
lile.com