Digital Media and the Law

[Jeremy Charette]

I've been following a few stories lately with great interest. Where I live, in the great state of New York, Democratic Assembly Joseph Lentol has <a href="http://gamepolitics.com/2007/05/30/another-ny-game-bill-democrat-proposal-could-turn-game-retailers-into-felons/">proposed a bill</a> which would make it a felony to sell a game to a minor which contained "depraved violence or indecent images". In other words, nearly any mature-rated game on the market. It would be a greater offense for the clerk to sell Halo 3 to a minor than it would be if the kid <i>stole</i> it. The RIAA is pushing for <a href="http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/May/07_ag_353.html">longer jail terms</a> for people who share files than for rapists. Meanwhile <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/larajade/513641346/">amateur photographers</a> are having their work <a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/04/flickr-and-you-part-1-rebekkas_19.html">ripped off</a>, and the government is doing little if anything to protect their intellectual property. For years we've been <a href="http://news.com.com/2010-1071-825335.html">talking about the DMCA</a> and the subsequent loss of fair use rights. What does it all add up to?<br /><br />Money. The politicians are after more political funds, so they can get re-elected. The various "save kids from video games" bills out there now are nothing more than a publicity stunt. Unfortunately, one that may lead some pimple nosed 19 year old video game store clerk to three years in jail, followed by a life spent trying to get away from a felony conviction. (By the way, all of these bills leave out the people most responsible for the actions of minors: parents.) Major corporations are nickle and diming consumers every time they want to view or move content they've already rightfully paid for (and the law backs them up). The little guy gets his or her pictures ripped off and reprinted, and ends up with no royalties, and no real way to fight the bastards who are taking them for a ride. Meanwhile the very website which failed to protect their photos now censors their comments about the situation.<br /><br />It's a sad state of affairs. The digital media revolution is in full swing, and the law is tripping and falling over itself trying to keep up. Give me your thoughts: how do we fix this mess?

[Damion Chaplin]

The answer is obvious, though not exactly easy or smart and just a little irresponsible...

The law (as far as digital media is concerned) doesn't work. It's broken (if one could say it ever worked). The law should therefore be ignored (as far as digital media is concerned). That's pretty much what each of us are already doing, to a degree determined by our own concience.

For example, it's illegal for us to rip our own DVDs for use on our own PMPs. That's a stupid law written by stupid people to protect stupid people from freedom-loving people who just want to watch their movies (which they bought with their hard-earned money, BTW) while commuting. Do you think I care about what stupid people think? As long as I'm not selling or sharing my ripped movies, stupid people have no way of knowing that I'm ripping them in the first place. So I ignore that particular law and rip my own DVDs to watch on my Zune.

Yeah it's illegal, but frankly writing stupid laws should be illegal too. :evil:



NOTE: The above statement does not necessary reflect the views of Thoughts Media, Inc., its owner or any of its websites. It reflects my own opinion only.

[bluemax]

I understand that in France each politician gets a limited amount of "face time" in the media. It doesn't cost them anything and everyone gets the same amount of time. There are no phony "organization to (re)elect joe blow" either. So, their politicians spend more time "representing" the people than they do trying to raise money for the next election. I may not always agree with French politics but at least I see redemption for a country that espouses a government "of the people, by the people and for the people".
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

-
Bill B

[Jason Dunn]

Things are getting worse and worse in this regard, and it's hard to know where to begin to fix things.

Myself, I keep coming back to the stupid things that public companies do in order to increase profits quarter after quarter, year after year. They will do the most evil things possible if it makes their board of directors, and thus their shareholders, happy. I know that the stock market is one of the biggest generators of wealth in our era, but I can't shake the feeling that there's something very, very wrong with how it's all playing out. I'm a Captalist with a capital "C", and I believe in a free market economy, but the lengths that public companies go to in order to show constant profit growth is insane...

[Jeremy Charette]

The Consumerist recently ran an article on a study that showed that companies with a high customer satisfaction rating greatly outperformed stock market averages. I don't understand why more companies don't realize that, and take advantage of it. I do have to say, Apple gets it. Most Apple customers are happy with Apple products and services, and they show it with their words and their wallets. Microsoft is getting better in this regard, especially with the recent Xbox 360 flap, choosing to focus on good customer service and quick repairs rather than failure rates.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/personal-finance/how-to-beat-the-stock-market-buy-companies-with-high-customer-satisfaction-scores-261282.php

[jlp]

Seems that amateur Artists (photographers, singers, etc.) are amateurs in protecting their works too.

It's like baking a cake and put it on your window frame to cool it down when you live on the ground floor next to a busy street: it won't take long before it will feed somebody else than you expected.

Only that digital media is different because you still have the original file, not so with the original cake :P.

Anyway, artists owners of digital works (if only of a digital representation on a website of an oil painting for example), anywhere in cyberspace should only post excerpts of their works (or small rez version of their images) and encourage people really interested in their work to contact them.

Then there are proven ways to protect any file (image, song, movie, etc.).

The following solution apprears to be not so simple at first, but when you have set it up it should be fast and easy to use.

The IDDN (InterDeposit Digital Number) system's been around for almost 15 years now and seems related to the WIPO*.

Quote: "InterDeposit, an international federation for data-processing and information technologies, set up in Geneva on 10 January 1994, is made up of the various organisations concerned by the protection of intellectual property rights over digital works." Find it here. (http://www.iddn.net/)

Further you can read: "2. Detection of the unlawful use or exploitation of works - settlement of disputes

Thanks to automatic search systems and the intervention of its authorised agents, the APP ensures that infringement reports are drawn up to provide material proof of any offence. This judicial evidence allows conventional court proceedings to be initiated if the infringers refuse the on-line WIPO* arbitration that is normally chosen for the settlement of disputes, in accordance with the IDDN Charter whose enforcement is accepted by cybernauts when they consult an IDDN referenced work."
It's here. (http://www.iddn.org/eng/principe.htm)

*=Based in Geneva Switzerland, the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) (http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en) is a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Then there is still steganography. This is entirely handled by the right owner. The user conceals inside the file (image, song, etc.) another file that is asymetrically crypted (using PGP or GPG) that represents the signature. The key to unlock the concealed file is the proof of ownership.

I don't know if this latter solution is enforceable is a court of law or whether it remains in the file after processing it: e.g. convert/crop/resize, etc. the image or convert an MP3 file to WMA for example.

Somebody more into cryptography/steganography will probably be of more help, I just try to point to existing solutions.

Searching Wikipedia for those terms will give you much further insight: PGP, GPG, cryptography and steganography.

Jelpy