From: Phil Osborn (philosborn2001@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Oct 12 2002 - 15:39:15 MDT
Well, here's a chance to strike a blow for
intellectual freedom on several fronts:
Suppose you take one of those new phones that offer
direct web access with video to the Alcor Conference
and leave it on piped to a live webcam page, or just
accidentally leave it turned on after dialing a phone
recorder at home - or anywhere.
This opens you up to all kinds of legal mischief. In
California, it is illegal to record someone without
their explicit permission. (Unless of course you are
an employer, in which case you can record your
employees, although they cannot legally record you.)
Is this a recording? It had to be stored as packets
along the way, right, even if it is streamed only?
Has this been tested in the courts?
Then there are the new copyright laws. Are you guilty
of "hacking" the conference? This could subject you
to a potential life sentence under the Digital
Millenium Copyright Laws, I believe.
Some years back, a bunch of local libertarians found
out about a narc conference and walked into it with
video cams running. Of course, they were thrown out
and the tapes destroyed. With easilly available RF
spy cams which could be piped to anywhere else, such
as an anonymous web page, how many of these criminals
- the narcs, that is - will be able to remain
anonymous?
Not that Alcor is criminal - far from it. But the
logic of an expensive, closed conference is becoming
increasingly tenuous. What is there at the conference
that could not be made available on-line? Are they
going to be taking tissue samples for cryogenic
storage at the con?
I wish them well in their efforts to raise money as
well as publicity, and I certainly support their
rights to do crionic storage of human remains. It
seems like there ought to be a better way, however.
In fact, I recall an Alcor Conference of 20 years ago
in which Eric Drexler told us about nano-tech and that
Chinese researcher talked about the line of research
that resulted in the discovery of telomeres. As I
recall, it was held at the Disneyland Hotel and there
was quite a large attendence.
I'll be curious to see the figures on these year's
con. I note that the all-time best digital arts
conferences that I ever attended were the three
inexpensive CyberArts conferences of 1990-1992. The
industry names, the gurus (Jaron Lanier, etc.) and the
garage experimenters were all there rubbing elbows and
talking shop about what actually worked in 3D audio or
VR. When CyberArts died and Meckler took over from
them, even though Meckler did a good job, the cons
became more and more an industry marketing and
propaganda venue. Almost nothing but suits.
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