Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cory Doctorow Talks About Fighting the DMCA (2 Videos)

Posted by Roblimo on from the smart-people-fight-stupid-laws dept.

Wikipedia says, 'Cory Efram Doctorow (/kri dktro/; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of their licenses for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.' Timothy Lord sat down with Cory at the O'Reilly Solid Conference and asked him about the DMCA and how the fight against it is going. Due to management-imposed restraints on video lengths, we broke the ~10 minute interview into two parts, both attached to this paragraph. The transcript covers both videos, so it's your choice: view, read or listen to as much of this interview as you like.

48 comments

  1. Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Is there any actual reason you've decided to put TWO videos in this article?

    Does the end of part one mark a change in topic? It doesn't seem to from the transcript. In fact, you seem to have cut one of your own questions out, according to the transcript.

    One video is already an abominable waste of space. Two is just freakin' stupid unless you've got a good reason. A very good reason.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Roblimo · · Score: 2

      "Due to management-imposed restraints on video lengths, we broke the ~10 minute interview into two parts,"

    2. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      slashdot is a hollow shell of it's former glory of getting massive numbers of internet sites to run out of file space and crash. today we have facebook and it's ministry of doom telling people what to pay 30000000% markup of original price of 1 red cent. with all the ads carefully curated from the browsing history of the users.

    3. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Well, apologies for not spotting that. I allowed my automatic assumption that there was no possible good reason for doing this to lead me to not checking the text.

      That said, I still can't see any good reason for doing this. "Management-imposed restraints" could mean anything. Does "management" think two 5 minute videos costs less in bandwidth than one 10 minute video?

      Was "management" perhaps previously in charge of disposable razor marketing?

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    4. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by SgtKeeling · · Score: 2

      You need new management. Who can we email on your behalf to explain what a foolish idea it is? Also, why won't the second video show without flash, but the first one is fine without it?

    5. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 1

      That said, I still can't see any good reason for doing this. "Management-imposed restraints" could mean anything.

      Well, "management-imposed restraints" doesn't actually answer the question of why, so your question wasn't unreasonable.

      Based on the trajectory of Slashdot after the Dice takeover, though, presumably the real answer for "why" is "because our managers are total morons."

      --

      How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    6. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by kesuki · · Score: 1

      windows 3.11 for work groups could only record 30 seconds worth of music in pcm format with the built in tools.

      --
      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
    7. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Due to management-imposed restraints on video lengths, we broke the ~10 minute interview into two parts,"

      Wait, this site has management?

    8. Re: Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      The link didn't take me to the video and when I found the link to it the transcript was nowhere to be seen. I'm on mobile, if that has anything to do with it.

    9. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Roblimo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Tim just put the "let's have the ability to attach two or more HTML5 video to one text block" on the developers' work request list. It'll happen. When? Um.... "Soon." This is yet another case where the people who actually work on the site agree with readers -- which we do 90% of the time. Believe it or not, our management is gradually learning that the people who work on the site know a thing or two. The Beta debacle was great training for them. Gawd, that thing was awful...

      As for video length restrictions: A spreadsheet manager looks at video costs and sees that a majority of people jump off of a video within 3 minutes. So, asks the spreadsheet manager, why would we ever want to have longer videos? Reality = people not interested in that video or topic watch 3 minutes, while people interested in the topic or interviewee stick around for 10, 15, 30, even 60 minutes. What Tim and I want is 3-minute (or so) summary videos for the uninterested, followed by full-length ones for those who are interested. At least, when the topic is interesting to at least some readers, we now can (and generally do) provide a transcript that covers the full, uncut video interview for you.

      Believe me, we appreciate questions and criticism. We read what you have to say. Like about the cartoon-balloon m,ain page comment counts. I can't say that I personally care much about them one way or another, but I think Tim or one of the other guys brought them up in a meeting to which I was not invited -- because I rarely am since I'm retired and I just work part-time editing /. videos for hourly pay to supplement my Social Security. Thinking of which, I have some howto videos to edit for another site, so I'd better break off here and go do that.

       

    10. Re: Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Roblimo · · Score: 1

      I am not in love with Slashdot on Android. "It needs work," is a gentle way to say what I think of it.

      I don't see the transcript on my phone, either. Thanks for reminding me about that. I'll pass it up the chain.

    11. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Rob answered above. Spreadsheet-based managers say "Average view is 3 minutes".

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    12. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by SgtKeeling · · Score: 1

      Thanks for replying. It's reassuring to hear that there are actual humans making decisions with rational thought behind them, even if I don't agree with the decisions.

    13. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Talk about backwards reasoning.

      If they made the movies only 1 minute long, average view would be 1 minute.
      According to Vine, no view is ever longer than 7 seconds.
      Why are cinema films longer than 3 minutes? Aren't all views equally average?

    14. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was there any official statement on ditching Beta?
      I think I might have missed the celebration party.

    15. Re: Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Transcript on mobile, please, even if it's just a link to a stand alone text file.

      From the department of people bored in the doctor's office lobby, but don't want to play a video on their phones.

    16. Re:Why two videos? For the love of dog, why?! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Spreadsheet-based managers say "Average view is 3 minutes".

      What use is that statistic? So the average view is 3 minutes. Why does that mean videos shouldn't be over X minutes long?

      Is it to stop the staff wasting time shooting and editing videos that are too long? If so, that idea hasn't worked at all, because we've still got 10 minutes of video to go with this article, just pointlessly broken up into two videos.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  2. no surprise here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    He is an activist in favour of liberalisingcopyright laws

    If I'd never written, composed, or painted anything worth shit I'd probably be like that. Freeloading communist shitbag.
    --
    roman_mir

    1. Re:no surprise here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I'd never written, composed, or painted anything worth shit

      You probably haven't.

      Doctor may not be a top-tier writer, but at least people read his stuff.

      Sometimes they even pay him for it.

    2. Re:no surprise here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...liberalising copyright laws...

      Stealing other people's shit.

    3. Re:no surprise here by Travelsonic · · Score: 1

      Only if you're utterly an utter failure at critical thinking. Liberalizing alone does not give any hint at the extent, which can be as simple as preventing them from lasting as long as they do, and allowing consumers to do modifications, and backing up unhindered (as well as the ability to play media on whatever device they want unhindered) - which is a far cry from that in any sense of the word *

      * purposefully excluding the fact that copyright infringement =/= theft legally, and the opinion that the two should stay separate on all levels, because of how much of a tangent I risk going off of by touching that can of worms.

      --
      If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
  3. A New Video. Excellent News. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was getting tired of that scrotum-looking balloon on the front page all the time.

    1. Re:A New Video. Excellent News. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 0

      No, two new videos! That's got to be twice as good!

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  4. The honest version by russotto · · Score: 4, Informative

    The honest version of the answer to that would be very short. "We lost."

    1. Re:The honest version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      You didn't "lose" shitlord. Hate speech isn't free speech and the DMCA helps instill a sense of public curation among internet corporations. If the internet is ever to become a safe space for women and minorities, we need acts like the DMCA which place websites on the line for offensive and illegal content which they refuse to remove. It's not censorship if it's done by private companies.

    2. Re:The honest version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Somebody's off his meds again

    3. Re:The honest version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's distressing when a symbol of a whole people can be so easily smeared as hate speech with zero discussion. We've seen this sort of nasty propaganda turned on American citizens before. It's always the "good guys" that do it too. :/

    4. Re:The honest version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      > thoughtcrime
      K.

      > private companies
      K.

      The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that...

      It has become evident that further conversation involves a confused SJW and thoughtproperty shill at once. I'll have to wait for my lawyer and PR agent to have simultaneous openings before I can continue educating you.

    5. Re:The honest version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This year for July 4 I'm wearing a shirt I just bought. It has the Confederate flag, and reads "If this shirt offends you" above it, and "then you need a history lesson" below it. No way in Heckle and Jeckle is this administration "the good guys", censoring history and shit.

    6. Re:The honest version by Travelsonic · · Score: 1

      It's not censorship if it's done by private companies.

      citation needed.

      Every definition I have read has nothing on where the SOURCE of the action is, just on the ACTION itself. Censorship is not about who does it, but that there is an editing, a repressing of opinion - some cases, like private companies editing their journalists (to various extends) are fine, but that's not a matter of "censorship" versus "not censorship," but a question of "acceptable censoring" versus "unacceptable censoring."

      --
      If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
    7. Re: The honest version by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're free to do it. And the police will be happy to taze, arrest, beat you up and shoot you, probably but not necessarily in that order.

  5. Boing Boing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Geez, is that site still around? I haven't been there in ages.

    1. Re:Boing Boing? by Morpeth · · Score: 0

      I gave up on it long ago, the Boing Boing Nazis censor the living crap out of anyone who doesn't worship them and agree with everything they say. I'm fairly left leaning, and they make me look like [insert conservative nutjob], people like Xeni Jardin and her pretentious bs make me barf.

      --

      'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
  6. You know what Id have done differently? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Given at least a moments thought to audio quality, you know with this being an interview and all.

    1. Re:You know what Id have done differently? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would have given a moment's thought to whether we really need to post a video that's little more than a camera pointing at someone talking instead of actually condensing what he said into a concise, readable article.

  7. Only men can be sexist by cyber-vandal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fuck off bellend.

    1. Re:Only men can be sexist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yea Cory is a tool. Makes it hard to take anything he says seriously.

    2. Re:Only men can be sexist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Strawman arguments are lies.

    3. Re:Only men can be sexist by Morpeth · · Score: 0

      Can't stand him, Xeni Jardin and their pack of 'if you aren't on board with everything we say, you're a fascist' aholes.

      --

      'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
    4. Re:Only men can be sexist by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      He's an asshole, a meticulously-polished asshole. Doctorow is a simpering fucktard who we'd all be better off without.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  8. Poor, Poor IPA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone took the time to do a phonetic transcription of his name and your lack of Unicode-Fu went and messed it up :(

    1. Re:Poor, Poor IPA by dhasenan · · Score: 1

      I was wondering how they expected us to pronounce such long sequences of consonants. Of course, even the part that's left is wrong -- alveolar trills are not a part of English.

      For those of us familiar with X-SAMPA, I might render it /'kAr\i 'dAk.tr\=.oU/.

  9. Efram by CrystalShepard · · Score: 1

    Cory Efram Doctorow (/kri dktro/; born July 17, 1971): The "Efram" is silent.

  10. Fuck Him. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck him and Fuck his shitty BoingBoing site full of SJWs who harass people and beg for money. What a piece of shit his site turned into. Fuck that guy and everything he REALLY stands for (as opposed to the popular shit he proclaims to stand for to befriend geeks).

    And while we're at it, Fuck Xeni "no, seriously, I'm totally 29 and not nearing 60" Jardin and her shitty fluff pieces.

    1. Re:Fuck Him. by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      ^^^^ THIS times a billion.

      Fuck him and his simpering SJW fan club who will breathlesssly suck up anything this fucking asswipe has to say.

      Oh, if only I had mod points, they'd be yours. Fuck Cory Doctorow, that fucking poser pukebag.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  11. Cree Dick Trow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cory Doctorow - when I see this I want to say Core E Doctor Oh
    kri dktro - when I see this I want to say Cree Dick Trow

    Is his name actually pronounced Cree Dick Trow or do I not know how to read the pronunciation helper?

  12. Fuck Cory Doctorow by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Fuck this bullshit poser and his deliberately thick-thick-thick fake hipster glasses. Doctorow is an asshole that started off on Boing Boing, and then decided to fuck that site all to hell and back in the pursuit of money. He's a poser fucktard who rarely has anything even remotely interesting to say.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  13. Irrelevant Twat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm glad to see a lot of./ers agree with me on this.

    This guy is the front man for every irrelevant "tech blogger" and "html programmer" out there. The fucking idea we need the self-aggrandizing idiot giving speeches on the necessity of open source, lack of diversity/women "in tech" (will facts and statistics every trump feelings?), gamergate "worse then isis" rhetoric (just read his dogshit on BB), a male feminist (ha) and the cherry on the top is he is a self-styled writer with no technical background.

    In short he EPITOMIZES everything wrong with the internet right now. Fucking everything. And if we let douchebags like him co-opt what we've accomplished for decades well, quite frankly, we've already lost. I mean jesusfuckingchrist he works at the EFF now!

    And Cory if you read this, and I bet you will you narcissistic twit, fuck you, you don't speak for me and you sure as holy hell don't represent me. Our interests do NOT align. I've been writing code for roughly two decades, you sell shitty books and get paid for speaking engagements regurgitating things you don't understand.

    And everyone else, think I'm just ranting? Go look at this http://craphound.com/category/novels/ and read the synopsis on each. Do yourself a favour, take a few minutes and just do it.