Friday, January 21, 2005
Digital Piracy
Once upon a time when piracy was theft, there was a general concern that this can surely not be good for the economy. But in this day and age of global media and Digital Rights Management, it seems that casual "mom and pop" piracy is flourishing and rapidly becoming a socially acceptable norm. What can the publishers do to avoid this from eventually crippling the digital medium that we have come to love? A casual survey of many internet forums reveals that in the most part, theft = piracy without conscience playing any part. The question of rights vis-a-vis publisher versus consumer is a vexed one. I believe there can be only one solution.
Many pundits believe that technology is free from any kind of moral obligation. This kind of thinking does nothing to protect us from the future. If the digital medium is to form an increasing part of our lives, then so is theft in the form of digital trespass. It saddens me to see such short-sighted thinking, especially from the technocrats who espouse these things in the first place.
Can a 1 be stolen? Can a 0 be stolen? Extrapolate these questions to ask yourself if a binary sequence of indeterminate length can be stolen1. Who has created this binary sequence? Is there any intrinsic value in one sequence of binary digits over another, and who is to ascribe this relative weighting? I believe that these questions are at the heart of the digital dilemma facing us today. Can anyone say "Microsoft Palladium"? Try Googling that and you will realize that there is much more to this vexed issue than meets the eye.
To sum up: information = data = knowledge + control = personal rights - responsibility.
Yours deeply,
Wally
1Footnote 1/23/2005: If I use the letter "a", can I be accused of plagiarism?
Many pundits believe that technology is free from any kind of moral obligation. This kind of thinking does nothing to protect us from the future. If the digital medium is to form an increasing part of our lives, then so is theft in the form of digital trespass. It saddens me to see such short-sighted thinking, especially from the technocrats who espouse these things in the first place.
Can a 1 be stolen? Can a 0 be stolen? Extrapolate these questions to ask yourself if a binary sequence of indeterminate length can be stolen1. Who has created this binary sequence? Is there any intrinsic value in one sequence of binary digits over another, and who is to ascribe this relative weighting? I believe that these questions are at the heart of the digital dilemma facing us today. Can anyone say "Microsoft Palladium"? Try Googling that and you will realize that there is much more to this vexed issue than meets the eye.
To sum up: information = data = knowledge + control = personal rights - responsibility.
Yours deeply,
Wally
1Footnote 1/23/2005: If I use the letter "a", can I be accused of plagiarism?
Labels: copyright
# posted by Wally Masterson @ 6:28 AM 
