Slashdot Mirror
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/."
in a way all this copy protection and 'user management' makes it much easier for us to deal with 'information overload'
by applying the simple rule of 'i will only give my attention and personal engagement to writing, music, art etc that is put out into the world freely and without trying to hook something back from me' one can vastly cut down on the amount of 'content' out there clamouring for your attention
one might even find that works created for reasons other than economic reward are often vastly superior and more stimulating than the vast sea of mediocre 'cookie-cutter-content' that constanly seeks to engulf us and dampen our own creative individuality
so simply apply the rule of 'not freely given, then not worthy of my attention' and like god in the hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy the mpaa and riaa will simply cease to exist as no-one any longer believes in them
Wasn't the rub of Eldred v Ashcroft that the copyright term extension was being applied retroactively? I thought that Eldred had to remove works from his site that had been public domain but were not after the Bono Act.