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

[M. Fioretti]

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 21:09:02 PM +0700, Michel Bauwens (michelsub2004 at gmail.com) wrote:

> I understand the idea behind objecting to republishing, but I don't
> see it as enforceable at all, can you prosecute someone because you
> miss on a banner?

Every now and then, I do quickly check online if there are copies of
something I wrote.  So far, every time I found copies, I or the editor
were able to have them canceled. Not by going to court, mind you. We
just asked. The fact that it is a violation of copyright of course
helped to get their attention. Without copyright it would have been
surely more difficult.

I know perfectly that it would be impossible to have 100% success on
this, but that's OK. It's much better than no protection at all.

This said, if I had unlimited resources I would not set up advertising
campaigns to convince people that copying is some crime against
humanity. I would set up advertising campaigns to convince people that
in some cases it's just plain dumb and unglamorous (kind of like
smoking in a small closed room filled with children) and even
counterproductive. Downloading music and movies 24/7 as if there were
no tomorrow is what gives things like ACTA many more chances to
happen.

If people had been smart enough 10 years ago (and if intellectuals had
thought a bit more about this) to buy, share and download only stuff
that was really necessary and urgent (think textbooks) or at least out
of print, for just a few months, we wouldn't have to worry about ACTA
today. See http://stop.zona-m.net/node/88

This said, what upsets me the most is that there is almost no
awareness of the sides of the issue I have presented here these days.
For example, you wrote:

> Now I realize that there are people that republish only for
> commercial gain.  fail to attibute, etc.. This is I agree an ethical
> problem.
> If your material is copyrighted you do have legal recource and I'm
> not opposed to that, however pragmaticallhy difficult it may be to
> actually realize in practice,

and while I'm obviously happy that you agree that what I describe is a
problem, and that you're not opposed to recource... in general, I'm
more concerned about the fact that there is almost no acknowledgement
and diffusion of these concepts than of how difficult recource is.

Oh, and by the way your work on the P2P wiki and blog is COMPLETELY
different from the kind of leeching I have attacked in this
thread. Please note I have only and constantly spoken of integral
copies, sometimes even without attribution. You or anybody else are
always very welcome to excerpt and comment and link as you please, as
far as I'm concerned. I never said the contrary and I wouldn't
consider smart anybody who objected to such activities, for the same
reasons you described.

Marco