Death Of The Global Information Infrastructure

Peter R. Kornblum writes "Under the title "Knowledge is Money", the German computer magazine "c't" has published an extensive discourse on how software patents, Digital Rights Management and the extended duration of the US Copyright law affects society at large. The article argues that multinational corporations are shrinking the public domain at the expense of innovation. The Entertainment Industry is agressively trying to force other countries to implement copyright legislation similar to the DMCA and adjust their patent laws to current US conditions. And they are succeeding: The European Union has passed a resolution for all its member states to implement DMCA-like copyright laws by the end of this year. Regular Slashdot readers may not find too much new info in the article, but it does a good job of putting things into perspective -- and it paints a rather frightening picture of the current situation. Its conclusion: The public domain is shrinking at an alarming rate; fair use rights are agressively undermined by corporate industry. "Not much has survived of the Global Information Infrastructure, that euphoric liberation rhetoric about the Internet being there for everyone." And it's all part of a grander scheme. A translated, English language version of the article is available online at http://www.heise.de/ct/english/02/24/108/. The original German text can be found at http://www.heise.de/ct/02/24/108/."

Comments

Of course, if there were no public domain...

[Lord Bitman]

If there were no public domain, things would be a lot easier for me. With so many independent artists, so many non-independent artists, so many free musics just being distributed because they are nice to listen to and so many indes who have had their music blatantly stolen and placed on filesharing programs while they have no one to turn to, and no way for others to know that their music ISNT really free. With all those, it would be a lot easier if everyone was controlled by the RIAA, and no music was free. As it is now, I think I'm legally obligated to spend six months trying to locate and contact the original artist of a song I see on Gnutella, secure direct confirmation from him that it is okay for me to download his music, and then actually see if it's any good.
See, there's this 'fair use' thing, and everyone here respects that. It says that if I own a song but think CDs are annoying low-capacity shitplatters, I can get online and download that song and I'll still be okay legally. The problem with that is it means (oh, shit..) people can share copywrited works on filesharing programs.
Then comes my problem. I'm on gnutella and I'm searching for random shit that's got a good beat. I see an artist I've never heard of, so I figure it's an independent artist sharing their music and I download it. It kicks ass, I get more, I love it all. Just to be sure, I check out stores, but I find nothing.
A year later I mention it to a friend and he says it's actually an artist that was all the rage 5 years ago. So all that great free music I've been listening to wasnt actually free, wasnt actually independent, and according to the law I'm supposed to pay a fine to the uncle of the left nut of the record company that merged with the local label that represented the artist five years ago.
This means that I'm in the wrong, all because your stupid public domain shit made me think that what I was downloading was actually okay for me to download even though I didnt own a CD I've never heard of.