Intel Holds Digital Rights Summit

ewhac writes "According to the Associated Press, Intel's Digital Rights Summit was apparently quite lively, as technologists, lawyers (including Professor Lessig), and academics argued the (lack of) virtues of copy-protection and Digital Restriction Mechanisms -- how granting Hollywood's whims would further dampen the already-reeling tech industry. The only voice in support of even more onerous legislation was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif), who has co-crafted a proposal to let media companies interfere with Internet operations to combat unsanctioned copying. Berman dismissed the experts' claims as a "smoke screen," to cover the tech sector's true source of hardship, its own irrational exuberance. Berman represents California's 28th district, which includes the Hollywood Hills and San Fernando Valley regions of the Los Angeles metroplex."

Comments

Re:Maybe one day when you create your own IP...

[DuckDuckBOOM!]

...you'll be in favor of protecting it too!

Yes, I will. And I'll do so in a manner that doesn't trample the rights of my customers. I'll benefit in the long run, and so will they.

Considering the tone of the meeting...

[Cutriss]

I find it rather surprising that this story didn't get posted on the front page. The corporations here seem to have all acknowledged (in front of the three congressmen in attendance, no less) that they can't fight the DMCA in Washington, so the tactic seems to be that they'll take the fight to the consumers (AKA - The general public).

That's exactly what the DMCA battle needs - If the general public realizes how poor of a law this is, then we can get it struck down.

Of course, it doesn't help that the RIAA/MPAA member companies are suing all the Digital Rights Summit attendees, keeping their money/resources tied up with stupid lawsuits filed under a stupid law...

Telling Quotes.

[Irvu]

Punctuated by hisses, applause and shouts of "Amen!" from members of the 100-person crowd, the four-hour debate illustrated the gargantuan gap between Silicon Valley and Hollywood when it comes to so-called digital rights management.

It sounds so much like a tent revival, or a televangelist's show. Perhap the two industries have finally realized that the difference is religious. The tech industry exists to create interesting new tools for the general public. The media companies think that the general public are the spawn of Satan, or at least that we should be treated that way.

"In the future, it will be easier to pay for subscription services than to be an amateur database administrator who moves content from device to device," Lessig said. "We're legislating against a background of the Internet's current architecture of content distribution, and this is a fundamental mistake."

Not if The FCC has its way.

"He said digital rights has become a smoke screen for discussing financial excess of Silicon Valley in the late 1990s and the realities of the industry's slump."

And the lack of them is a smoke screen for the RIAA's slump.

"Let's have some perspective," he said. "This issue is not as bad as 45 million people living without health insurance."

Which would be meaningful if I was under the impression that he was going to do something about the health insurance problem. Parhaps he's subtly arguing for Lessig's side. Congress has generally agreed, that health insurance is an issue, they have also solidly failed to do anything about it. Perhaps this is a congressional way of finding the middle ground by devoting all rhetoric to one side and all action to none.

Probably not, but it's nice to think.