[p2p-research] Fwd: [fcforum] Fw: iPad DRM is a dangerous step backward. Sign the petition!

[Kevin Carson]

On 2/3/10, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I like living in a world of laws, modes of change and liberties.  I also
> like living in a world of human rights.  I am more that willing to subscribe
> to US views of rights or those of the Human Rights Convention.  Both suit me
> just fine.  Do they go far enough?  No.  But that's the level where society
> is comfortable.

The laws "society" is "comfortable" with usually reflect the kinds of
laws the dominant economic interests need for their own profit.  To a
large extent the institutional structure of the system reproduces the
kind of social consensus it needs to maintain its own power relations.
 That doesn't require a vulgar Marxist parody of "base-superstructure"
relations, or denying that the ideological realm can be contested.
But it does IMO rule out uncritically respecting "the law" and "social
consensus" as something autonomous and immaculate.  And it certainly
rules out uncritical obedience where the individual perceives the law
and the interests it supports as actively evil or immoral.

I cannot determine what I think laws ought to be and then
> just act as if that is the case.

Really?  So you'd have obeyed the Fugitive Slave Law or the Nuremberg Laws?

Anarchists believe such approaches are
> desirable.  I don't.  It hasn't worked in the many dozens of times it has
> been tried, and it won't work anytime soon.  So, it really is a theoretical
> discussion.  The older I get, the less interested in those I am.  I like
> things that matter.

I think when a significant minority of "society" has such little
respect for slavery that they're willing to help fugitives escape, or
hold digital copyright law in such low regard that they routinely
download songs for free, it matters.  It certainly matters to the
music industry, considering how loud they're always howling about how
much money they're losing.  And to me, the very popularity of
filesharing, the fact that it's costing proprietary content industries
money, and the fact that de facto competition with "free" on the black
market is causing content owners to adjust their prices downward, are
all evidence that that approach is working very well right here and
now.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html