| Tuesday, December
20, 2005
On the Copyright
issue:
Rather than continue with the escalating
rhetoric, let me try to summarize.
First, in fairness, one should not
castigate either Talin or Mr. Glaskowsky for positions they don't hold.
Beating on straw men is a fairly old technique, and can be amusing, but it
serves no really useful purpose; and if it is unintentional because based on
misunderstanding, that doesn't advance the arguments either.
Rather than post full replies and
exchanges, which tend to escalate quickly to rudeness even among intelligent
people -- especially among intelligent intellectuals who can find marvelous
turns of phrase for pushing people's buttons -- I'm going to try to boil the
disagreements down a bit. I do believe these exchanges, which echo some that
have been going on in the Science Fiction Writers of America discussion
groups, have been valuable. They certainly have been to me in sharpening up
my thinking on the subject.
We are, after all, looking for intelligent
criticisms of DMCA in the United States, and perhaps the Berne Convention
internationally, so that copyright law and general international law
regarding intellectual property makes sense, assuming that is possible.
First, an excerpt from a note by Peter
Glaskowsky (png), who begins by quoting Mr. Cole:
> Having just been through Law School's
Intellectual Property paper, I can assure Mr. Glaskowsky that new laws
absolutely are being created, and always have been, in response to the
threat of new technology to vested interests.
Yes, that's true, but what he says is irrelevant to
what I said. I was referring specifically to Talin's claim that new
technology to restrict copying is equivalent to new laws. I wish Mr. Cole
would be more careful when interpreting my arguments.
Which is fair enough. PNG also points out
that Mr. Cole's description of what is
happening in New Zealand is probably a misinterpretation:
I suspect he's confused, and that what happened was
that DVDs coded for other regions-- as opposed to DVDs without region
coding-- were banned. This interpretation is more consistent with key fact
that the discs in question were held to be "not of merchandisable quality."
Clearly an uncoded disc is perfectly good merchandise in New Zealand like
anywhere else, but a disc coded for another region would be useless on most
New Zealand DVD players.
In any event this is an argument about
facts in one country, and not terribly relevant to the topics of copyright
law, advancing technology, and intellectual property in a new Millennium.
PNG continues:
And I see you've now posted a message by St. Onge that
ALSO attacks things I didn't say, and goes on to condemn "the entire
attitude of people like png", and puts words in my mouth like "I'm entitled
to do whatever I can get away with" and "I think you're a thief."
Darn it, Jerry, that's just all wrong. What is it
about this particular issue that makes normally intelligent people get all
stupid? Your correspondents are usually above that.
An observation I tend to agree with, but I
find it happens everywhere the issue is discussed. After a while the issues
are dropped, and the rhetoric escalates without adding much of substance.
So: Glaskowsky continued:
I'll say this again. Creators have the right to impose
any conditions they like on the possession and distribution of their
creations. And they do-- you've seen non-disclosure agreements, for example.
Microsoft can distribute a million copies of a Windows Vista developer build
and insist, with full legal authority, that none of these copies may be
redistributed. Obviously such a DVD isn't legally equivalent to a DVD copy
of The Matrix.
Copyright law is just a standardized framework that
applies in the absence of other agreements.
There is no such thing as a "right" to resell a book
or tape a TV show, else Microsoft couldn't enforce NDAs. The only "right" in
this situation is the right to enter into contracts. The rest is just the
legal implementation of this fact in this context. That's the exact
resolution to the conflict that Talin believes he discovered, though others
got there long ago.
png
Which is a fair statement of one view, and
worth noting.
The opposite view, stated by some, is that
"Information wants to be free," with the implication and sometimes direct
assertion that there is no such thing as intellectual property. Property
consists of exclusive rights to some object, and by its nature intellectual
property can't be property since your ability to enjoy a copy of a book does
not take the book away from its original owner or reduce his right to enjoy
it. And therefore any "rights" to intellectual property are artificial and
manmade and depend entirely on laws and conventions. There follows the
conclusion that a greater good is served by drastically restricting or even
eliminating those artificial rights; that the "rights of readers and
researchers" trumps any "rights" of creators.
I put this as baldly as possible because,
despite a lot of weasel words, that is what the "information wants to be
free" argument comes down to. The public good trumps individual rights,
"fair use" should always be interpreted in favor of the user and not the
author, and the only way to encourage the useful arts is to make information
free.
I have even seen arguments to the
effects that the public has every right to first drafts of author's works,
because intellectual curiosity and academic freedom are more important than
any authorial intention or right to privacy. And lest you protest that this
is ridiculous, I point out that it's no more than a logical extension of the
notion that the final draft of an author's works "ought" to be freely
available to all including those who can't afford to pay (or have more
pressing needs for their limited resources and want to spend their money on
something else like a new version of the iPod).
Finally we have the argument, frequently
asserted, that making a work freely available is good not only for the
public, but for the author himself; that making an electronic copy of a work
freely available never harms and often increases sales of the book; and
since this is a Good Thing whether authors know it or not, we can end the
argument because authors would agree if they knew what was best for them.
Again I put this rather baldly but it is what most of those who assert
experiences with Baen's Free Library are actually saying. Moreover, I can
say that my experience so far confirms the assumption that allowing free
access to downloadable copies of science fiction probably does not harm, and
probably does help, sales of the books.
We will return to that in a few moments,
but I do point out that John Adams said a long time ago that in the United
States we hold that each man is the best judge of his own interests, and
while our political masters have been whittling away at that ever since, it
remains one of the founding viewpoints of America, observed not only by
Adams and the Framers but by Tocqueville; and we change that notion at the
peril of dividing the country into Enlightened and Benighted. But if we
follow Adams's principle, the fact that authors may be wrongheaded in their
attempts to assert control over their creation is not an argument against
allowing them to be so.
We have, when discussing intellectual
property, three areas of disagreement. The first is moral: what rights
should authors and artists have assuming we have the means to grant them?
What is fair and just?
The second disagreement is technological:
what rights are enforceable? As an example, I may assert that I have the
right to insist that you read my novels only in a comfortable chair with
good light and adequate time to read at least three full chapters at a
sitting, or you ought not read them at all; but whether or not I have that
(moral) right is irrelevant because there is no means for enforcing it, or
at least none that would allow me to make enough sales to make a living from
my books. Similarly, whatever we may think of second-hand book sales -- and
there are many authors who resent hell out of Amazon's second hand copies of
a book appearing on the same page and in competition with new books,
particularly in the first few weeks of issue -- it is pretty hard to enforce
any kind of restrictions on what may be done with a book once you have
bought it. Since laws impossible of enforcement are usually a bad idea, it
hardly matters what restrictions I would like placed on traffic in second
hand copies of my works.
Aside but important here: admitting that
whatever my moral rights, there is no technological means of making major
restrictions on second hand trade in physical books, is not to give in on
author associations' demands that Amazon not advertise second hand works on
the same page and in competition with new copies for the first six months
after the book's release. Note also that while I may believe it immoral that
I am taxed to support institutions which loan out copies of my books for
free and thus may well deprive me of sales, my feelings are not those of
most, and the tax collector continues to support libraries.
Just what technological means are now or
will be available for enforcing restrictions on copying and sharing
intellectual property is a matter of continuing disagreement, and one worth
pursuing. We know that very strong encryption is already possible, and can
be incorporated into chips, as well as being done on the fly in modern fast
hardware. Since all encryptions depend on secrets shared by the encryptor
and decryptor but denied to everyone else, the sharing of that secret -- the
key, if you will -- becomes a point of vulnerability that is very much
open to penetration. Some think that securing those secrets for thousands of
individual works can never be accomplished. Others have
a different view.
Let me give an example: I have a
self-contained audio copy of a book. It comes on a small device with earbuds,
and contains that book and only that book. There is no way to access the
audio file. I can give the entire unit away, but I can't copy the file.
But, of course, I can: I can play the book (Michael York reading C. S.
Lewis, if you must know) and record the audio output on any modern computer.
The resulting digital copy of the reading can now be shared with millions if
I care to do that.
Similarly, any performance that can be
seen on a screen can be recorded, and making the connection between the
Media Player and the viewing/audio device unbreakable is impossible. It can
be made very difficult, so that the average person would have no clue as to
how to go about doing it, but that is irrelevant so long as there are savvy
fans determined to break the link and make a digital copy of the analog
output. Once that copy is made, it may be a bit degraded from the original,
but successive copies won't be degraded from that first "pirate master" at
all.
Mr. Cole suggests that many -- he actually
implies all -- potential buyers will prefer cheap or free to higher quality.
Clearly his implication is wrong since counter examples exist for nearly
every work even today, but his premise that a very great many people will
prefer mildly degraded pirate copies to the higher quality original is a
valid speculation, and one to be taken into account when framing laws.
Indeed that was almost certainly what the authors of the DMCA (not Members
of Congress but staffers seduced by the RIAA and in at least one case
employed by the RIAA after the act was passed) had in mind with their
criminal penalties for breaking decryptions, and the drastic statutory civil
damages for acquiring pirated works.
I think most of us can agree that drastic
criminal penalties for defeating copy protections are generally a bad idea,
more likely to encourage stealthy piracy for principle than to prevent
commercial piracy for gain. What we need is a means for taking the profit
out of piracy without inducing others into becoming pirates for fancied
altruistic motives: which is to say, technological, not legal means are
needed.
Our third argument, then, is what laws are
appropriate given moral rights and the technological means of enforcement?
And note that until we settle the first two points, we can't even begin to
address the subject of better laws. (Well, we can, in that some provisions
of the DMCA are so awful that we can all agree they ought to be repealed,
but we can't agree on what to replace them with.)
One final point, which transcends all
three areas: technological advances are exponential. While it is quite true
today that reading a novel on an electronic system -- desktop PC, laptop,
Palm or iPaq, Video iPod, or, my favorite, a TabletPC -- is not, for most
people, as enjoyable an experience as reading a book, that may not be true for
long. I can easily envision within five years the widespread availability of
devices as small and lightweight and generally convenient as a paperback
book, with quite long battery life, capable of holding a thousand or more
novels including illustrations and maps, and costing under $50 in today's
dollars. When that happens, the mass paperback book industry, already very
nearly unprofitable, may well collapse. With those devices the electronic
rights to works, and the royalties from them, may well be far more important
than print rights.
And when that happens, there will likely
be "feeds" of pirated works, so that device owners may find themselves with
this dilemma: do I erase the pirate copy and buy a legitimate one? Or just
read the pirate copy? And if I am part of a bitstorm group that exchanges
works and says that as a matter of social responsibility I should continue
to storm works after I have received them -- i.e. that good net citizenship
means "Freely dids't thou receive, now freely give" -- should I honor that
notion of citizenship as opposed to making payment to the copyright holder?
These are not trivial questions, nor are
they entirely theoretical. I am pretty well convinced that well before 2020
low-cost devices to allow one to download and read books as conveniently as
we now read paperbacks will be ubiquitous. And it is a matter of some
concern: how do authors, of both fiction and non-fiction, survive in those
times? I know that Cory Doctorow and friends say we are all like those who
claimed that betamax would ruin the movie industry, and believe they need
not think this through much further. Permit me to disagree.
And that, I think, is where matters stand
now. I doubt we are finished with this discussion.
============
Subject: Intellectual Property - Scott Adam's Free
e-book results
Dr. Pournelle:
Regarding the continuing discussion on intellectual
property, Scott Adams (Dilbert's creator) noted in his blog that he had
distributed his book "God's Debris" for free via internet. He had 170,000
downloads in two weeks. His theory: if people liked the book, then perhaps
they would like to purchase the sequel.
Of those 170K+ people who downloaded the book, less
than 1000 purchased the sequel. Most of the readers asked when the book's
sequel would be available free.
Just one data point, perhaps not indicative of
anything. (I haven't read the book.)
Link to the Dilbert Blog entry about that here:
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2005/12/how_to_be_a_mar.html
Regards, Rick Hellewell
=========
From another conference:
Don't miss out on your favorite Christmas movies.
It's a Wonderful Life:
http://tinyurl.com/4polk
A Christmas Story:
http://tinyurl.com/84t48
In 30 seconds. Re-enacted by bunnies
============
Subject: Outsource this!
I have just learned from one of my Indian informants
that the latest way to make money in India is to ghostwrite research papers
for American university professors.
Why not just outsource the whole university?
Steve
=============
Longevity for Dummies: How to
Live Longer Than You Deserve
From: "L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D." <scoles@ucla.edu>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:46:21 -0800
To Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Gerontology
Research Group:
Given that your parents have already decided your
genomic fate, here's the humorous "Coles List" of 12 life-style rules to
maximize your remaining longevity... -- Steve Coles
1. Never smoke cigarettes, a pipe, or cigars (even
under special circumstances like when a proud new father hands out cigars
for free). Do your best to avoid 2nd-hand smoke. I have held the
black-stained lungs of smokers in my hands during surgery. They look really
ugly. (Healthy lungs are pink.) Also, it has not escaped our notice that
many serious fires, in which innocent people are burned to death in a
blazing building, are started by tobacco smoking and matches when the smoker
falls asleep (often because they're dead drunk).
2. Eat a diet high in roughage: fruits, vegetables,
and whole grains and low in saturated fats. Avoid trans-fats. Eat fish
(salmon, tuna, sardines) [4 - 5] x per week. Eat unsalted nuts. Consciously
decrease salt intake to as close to zero as possible. Beverages: Make sure
you have an adequate fluid intake whenever sweating profusely (with
electrolytes added as needed). Drink one cup of coffee in the morning. Drink
one cup of green tea at some point during the day. Avoid carbonated sodas.
Drink milk with meals; Note: Boba Tea is not a drink, but a meal with lots
of calories. EtOH: Drink 1 full glass of red (or white) wine of your choice
(with a meal) every day, unless you've already had your quota of something
stronger (gin, vodka, whiskey, rum, etc.). Never drink more than two shots
of alcohol at any one sitting. A DUI looks terrible on your driving record,
but late night accidents on the freeway may shorten one's life as much as an
intentional suicide.
3. Supplements: If I could take only four supplements
a day, here's what they'd be... (a) Standard Multi, with no iron; (b) Fish
Oil caps x 2; (c) Co-Q10; (d) Magnesium. (See our Bridge Plan on this
webpage for recommended doses and additional supplements that are good to
have, but not really essential.) Take an Aspirin every day if over 60. Take
Melatonin [1-3] mg each night before bedtime if over 40.
4. Maintain a healthy weight. Check your BMI. Diet as
necessary, until you maintain a stable weight for several years. (Prime
Minister Sharon of Israel was looking for a stroke sooner or later at 350
pounds, no matter what else he did.) Remember that our bodies were tuned for
our ancestors who had to chase after their food rather than merely walk a
few steps to the refrigerator during a TV-commercial break.
5. Exercise vigorously 1/2-hour per day: If you don't
sweat, you're not cutting it. Lift small weights (10#) with [40-50] reps per
type of lift. When shopping, park far away from the store in a parking lot
(on purpose) and slowly jog to the store. If it's only one floor up, use the
stairs, not the elevator. Never run a marathon; it's too tough on the
joints. Never play in competitive team sports. Professional athletes don't
live longer than anyone else, and accumulated micro-trauma does build up.
Inactivity (being a cough potato eating pizza and potato chips, while
watching television for hours on end) leads to insulin insensitivity or
Type-2 Diabetes, Cancer, turns your muscles to Jell-O (frailty and
sarcopenia) and your brain to mush (short-term memory loss). Heart disease
increases; the rate of strokes (undetectable microTIA's) increases; bones
undergo osteoporosis and more easily fracture if you fall accidentally;
depression increases; upper respiratory tract infections increase; urinary
tract infections increase; sexual functions rust out while libido sags -- a
tragic double hit. So, probably, the single most important thing you can do
for maximizing longevity is to get the right level of physical activity in
one's life.
6. Keep your immune system in tip-top shape. It is a
precious invisible asset, since it protects you from the ceaseless assault
of pathogenic microbes: viruses, bacteria, fungi, yeast, amoebas, helminths,
and assorted parasites carried by all types of vectors including insects (mosquitos,
spiders, ticks) and animal hosts, or poorly-cooked meat, spoiled food, or
water fouled by sewage. (If you don't believe me, take a course called
Medical Microbiology 101 just for fun, to learn about the extraordinary
range of invisible creatures that silently crawl over your skin without your
knowledge or permission. When revealed by an electron microscope, they're
more varied than any Hollywood horror movie you've ever seen in your
lifetime.)
7. Decrease Stress (e.g., elevated Cortisol in your
blood for long periods due to continuous arguments with your
spouse/significant-other, grief over the death of a loved one, loss of a job
that you really liked, long commutes every day in heavy traffic; you know
what I mean.) There are lots of unconscious stress conditions that should be
identified early by the proper professional: marriage counselor, divorce
lawyer, psychiatrist, as needed, but you must act to take advantage of them
and not stay in an abusive relationship for very long, or your body will
suffer the corrosive effects of chronically-elevated cortisol (that is
trying to get you to "fight or flee" in the short term, but does you no good
over the long term). Try to stay out of debt. Never gamble more than you can
afford to lose in a single day. Never ever gamble at home on the Internet
using a credit card. Stay away from addictive drugs at all costs. Pain meds
are appropriate for people who are really handicapped, at the end of life,
or with a chronic condition. Habitual crystal meth at rave parties is really
going to burn you out fast, even if only indulged in on weekends. Never keep
a loaded gun in your house. Never drive a car too fast under any
circumstances unless you're in a chase scene in a movie where all
contingencies have been premeditated. Never pay attention to the nut-case
who honks his horn in back of you while in heavy traffic. Road rage kills
even innocent bystanders. Advice for physicians: If you're ever paged on an
airplane's PA system "Is there a doctor on-board?" Don't raise your hand or
press your call button. There's very little that you can do anyway. Never
take a vacation at a place where you'll need to take another vacation as
soon as you get back. Stay away from exotic travel locals or political
hot-spots like Kabul or Baghdad. Behave yourself at Christmas parties.
Spiritual: Go to the church, synagog, or mosque of your choice at least
three or four times a year, so the elders know what you look like. It may
come in handy some day. Intellectual stimulation: Keep your mind active.
Solve puzzles, play chess, checkers, cards, computer games, whatever as a
way to keep nimble. Play an instrument; listen to good music. Go to museums,
go to movies, read a good newspaper every day, watch the History Channel
from time to time. Get a job that you like. Work for a charitable
organization in your spare time. Teach children or become a mentor. Adopt a
pet (cats, dogs, tropical fish, whatever). Raise children. Take time to
smell the roses.
8. Get 7+ hrs. sleep qhs. Try to get up on Saturdays,
Sundays, or holidays at the same time as normal for a weekday.
9. Germs and Oral Hygiene: Wash hands several times
per day; shower twice a day; use mouth wash four or five times throughout
the day; brush teeth after every meal (when at home); use dental floss once
a day; get a dental hygienist to clean your teeth professionally twice a
year.
10. Engage in sex as often as possible, but always
with a willing partner and obviously one who is STD(-), especially HIV(-).
If you're married, avoid extra marital relationships (otherwise known as
"adultery"), if possible. It's the cover-ups that get you into more trouble
later. Standard adult pornography works for most people, but child
pornography, of any sort, is absolutely forbidden. Masturbate when alone for
a long period of time to prevent rust accumulation.
11. If > 50 yo, get regular screening by a medial lab
every year (Remember that the most common warning sign of a heart attack is
death [secondary to an MI].) If your BP is too high (>140 and/or >90) you
need to add some meds to your daily regimen... e.g., a beta blocker, an ACE
Inhibitor, and/or a diuretic, under a doctor's supervision) to bring it
down. Hypertension is a silent condition, and you won't know if you don't
have it measured. If your Cholesterol is too high (>225), you ought to add a
statin Rx. Start with a generic first. Shop around until you find one that
suits you, as you will be on it "for life." Check your liver enzymes once a
year. If your CBC counts are off, that will need to be fixed as well.
12. Men (and post-menopausal women) should donate
blood regularly. It's not just for the sake of the faceless people you may
help along the way. It's for your own good, too. Our blood-clotting
machinery was tuned for a time when our hunter/gatherer ancestors got much
more cuts and scrapes than we do in a modern civilization. Quick clotting
then is not compatible with maximizing your longevity today, as we get
internal clotting problems instead.
I put this quick list of 12 life-style interventions
together in an hour or so. If you knowingly fail to abide by any of the
above rules and we find out, as a punishment, we'll send Martha Stewart to
redecorate your house when you're not home.
Happy holidays,
Steve Coles
L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder Los Angeles
Gerontology Research Group URL: http://www.grg.org URL: http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~scoles
E-mail: scoles@ucla.edu
========
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