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Cringely On Civil Disobedience
Sauron23 writes "Robert Cringely over at PBS has his usual weekly Pulpit out. This weeks it's a follow up to last weeks discussion of one of the enforcers of the DMCA, BayTSP. He clarifies some of the issues surrounding a planned bust in October for P2P users sharing movies and makes perhaps an unusual request for civil disobediance from P2P users. I don't know what 10 million pirated copies of "Debbie does Dallas" would be worth either Bob. Probably more than the courts would want to handle. Worth the read." Some of the stronger parts of the column, IMHO, is the commentary on the e-mails people sent in.
This follows the simple principal that if you or I drive 100 miles-per-hour on the highway, we get a ticket, but if EVERYONE drives 100 miles-per-hour, they change the speed limit.
Everyone isn't going to do this. No way. I totally agree with his analysis of the problem, but unless some critical mass of lawbreakers were to be reached (chances being somewhere between fat and slim) you'd get the same result as you would if you were driving down the interstate in a pack of cars all going 100 mph: one guy would get nailed by the highway patrol and the rest would be ignored. The guy who pulled you over wouldn't care about the ones who got away... he got YOU, the rest are "job security".
But don't I WISH this would work!
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
What cringely suggests is great. I am a huge proponent of organizing to oppose certain laws that adversely affect me. How do you organize people to do something like that? If one was to become a leader in an organization that takes non-violent action against these laws, isnt it likely that our government would start to watch our every move and make our life hell? Couldnt anti-DMCA activity be perceived by some as terrorist activity. I would be reluctant to pro-actively speak my mind on this issue for fear of repercussions. There is a lot of money out there that wants these laws in place. Im sure they have some clout to ruin my life if I speak out.
--------- I have no signature
I think this DMCA craziness will stop with one "scapegoat": take a cute, innocent and doe-eyed teenager. Let's name her Jane Doe.Imagine said teenager has downloaded her very first MP3 Britney Spears song (shudder) from Kaazaa.
Have 20 armed-to-the-teeth RIAA goons kick down the door of her bedroom, drag her to court and prosecute her for 20 years for music piracy. If some high-powered RIAA lawyer claims US$ 20 Mil. for IP theft, from her hapless parents, that's even better. Lock Jane Doe in prison. Cut to Jane's parents crying over both the tragic destiny of their daughters and over the lawyer's bill.
Then, plaster her (cute, innocent, doe-eyed) face all over the net and all over CNN and every other TV network in the world and have Linus Torvalds himself explain that "this terrible injustice could happen to your teenager! And all this just for downloading a music file!!".
Then stand back, relax, and watch the public outrage, roused by the suffering of poor cute little Jane Doe, sweep away the RIAA, the MPAA, the DMCA and whatever else is bothering you.
This is very effective. But not very nice for the poor "Jane Doe"...
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Civil disobience has its place, however his suggestion doesn't reall work in the long run...
all one will really accomplish here is get fined, possibly have their equipment conficated...
and end up with a criminal record, this will not change anything...!
The Question becomes what will change things...?
What I think...give this issue about another year or so and its going to start to divide people....
Digital Rights are going to end up being an issue like Abortion rights, what I would like to see is it reach the level of slavery. We all know what happened then, and while I don't advocate that kind of outcome, not by a long shot...I think it needs to reach that kind of level of awareness in peoples minds.
The corporations need a wake up call....
Organize a strike against the offices of big music/movie studios...block the entrances so they can't go to work, and produce thier wares then they will start to listen...you have to impact the bottom line in ways that have a public eye showing. No Vilolence people...I can't stress that enough, just protest.
You can't win through boycott either, because little suzy's parents are always going to buy her the next Disney DVD no mater what the issues...
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
How exactly is doing something like this going to catch the public eye? Joe Public still won't have heard of what's going on, the only people that will know about it are Congress and the US Copyright Office. Now, something like what Bruce Perens planned to do (violate the DMCA in front of a crowd) on a larger scale would be more like it...
Agreed. Perens' ploy as an individual act in front of a crowd would garner much more attention than Jimmy the Gamer copying mp3's in his basement -- even if they both subsequently turn themselves in. If what Cringley is suggesting is we all do this alone, go to local police stations and turn ourselves in, and there is no broader infrastructure to communicate to the media what is happening, it won't work. Also, I think the plan is flawed because it suffers from the collective action problem: it will work if X number of people do it (and get attention), but it won't work if less than X do it. So if I break the law, and the number ends up less than X, everyone loses and I lose more. However, if X people break the law, and I am X+1, I have (from my POV) paid the costs of action unecessarily.
What I propose is a national gathering (perhaps in 2-4 locations simaltaneously) where folks can come together en masse to explicitly violate terms of the DMCA collectively in a public manner. This will encourage people to act (reduces fear of being less than X) and will make it much easier to garner media attention to the event(s). We all show up in San Fran, New York or Chicago, violate the DMCA like mad, document it, and then march down to the local police station and turn ourselves in. That just might work...
We should figure out some way to make our P2P apps notify the law enforcement whenever we've downloaded a copyrighted clip. I am thinking about some kind of plugin into Kazaa and gnucleus et al.
It would be such a massive wave of honesty that their mail server would probably collapse.
Stop the brainwash
Perhaps someone should write a Windows trojan that pops up a dialog box explaining the situation (and consequences) with "click Ok to engage in civil disobedience". The application would download some unauthorized digital content, then print the "Turning Yourself in to The Authorities" HOWTO.
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