copyright


If you though that high school algebra was tough, just imagine the sort of brain…

If you though that high school algebra was tough, just imagine the sort of brain it takes to work out copyright math. The calculations required to come to the conclusion that a single iPod classic full of 40,000 mp3 files is worth 8 billion in lost revenue boggle the mind. Fortunately Rob Reid has Excel and he was able to plow through the numbers and explain them to us.

#copyright #math

Reshared post from +Tom Merritt

Breaking down the math.

Thank goodness for this clear useful explanation of the damages of piracy.

Rob Reid: The $8 billion iPod

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It's a sure sign that things are getting weird when I actually agree with Darrell…

It's a sure sign that things are getting weird when I actually agree with Darrell Issa on an important issue.

Congress is currently considering the Stop Online Privacy Act (in the House of Representatives) and the corresponding PROTECT-IP Act (in the Senate). These bills are extremely dangerous and would give both media companies and the government unprecedented censorship powers over the internet without judicial oversight. Call your senators and representatives and encourage to stop this before it's too late!

#copyright #media #politics #stop-sopa #stop-protectip

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Dear Colleague: A Bipartisan Attempt To Regulate The Internet?

Last week, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Representative Zoe Lofgren sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter to the other members of the House of Representatives entitled “A bipartisan attempt to regulate the Internet?”

I’ve posted the letter below in its entirety, adding a link to the bill page for the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (H.R. 3261: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show ) on Thomas.gov and a PopVox widget embedded on the blog post linked below.

<begin letter>

From: The Honorable Zoe Lofgren
Sent By: Ryan.Clough@mail.house.gov
Date: 11/8/2011

Dear Colleague:

The Judiciary Committee is close to consideration of H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act. We write to call your attention to a recent article about the bill in the Los Angeles Times, entitled, “A bipartisan attempt to regulate the Internet?” (available at http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/10/technology-a-bipartisan-attempt-to-regulate-the-internet.html).

We agree with the goal of fighting online copyright infringement, and would support narrowly targeted legislation that does not ensnare legitimate websites. We also believe that a consensus on the issue between the content and technology industries is achievable. As the attached article makes clear, H.R. 3261 unfortunately does not follow a consensus-based approach. It would give the government sweeping new powers to order Internet Service Providers to implement various filtering technologies on their networks. It would also create new forms of private legal action against websites—cutting them off from payment and advertising providers by default, without any court review, upon a complaint from any copyright owner, even one whose work is not necessarily being infringed.

Online innovation and commerce were responsible for 15 percent of U.S. GDP growth from 2004 to 2009, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. Before we impose a sprawling new regulatory regime on the Internet, we must carefully consider the risks that it could pose for this vital engine of our economy.

Sincerely,

Zoe Lofgren
Member of Congress

Darrell Issa
Member of Congress

</letter>

Previous coverage:
https://plus.google.com/107980702132412632948/posts/BMmaXAyrBYj
http://gov20.govfresh.com/issa-and-lofgren-dear-colleague-letter-versus-sopa/

Embedded Link

Reps. Issa and Lofgren warn that SOPA is “a bipartisan attempt to regulate the Internet” | Gov 2.0: The Power of Platforms
Tracking the tech that makes government better and empowers citizens.

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Ideas are not property

In the days before the G8 summit in France last week, French president Nicolas Sarkozy decided to invite influential people from the technology and content fields to discuss the role of the internet in society in a forum dubbed eG8.  Unfortunately what Sarkozy had in mind was less of an open discussion on modern communications and more of a rubber stamp on his intention to increase control over content and copyright.  Sarkozy has been a strong proponent of so-called “three strikes” rules that would ban people from using the net if they are accused of copyright infringement three times.

Note that was accused not convicted. Major media companies have shown no aversion over the past decade to accuse people of theft and infringement often in cases where the appearance of a piece of media was merely incidental such as a radio playing a song in the background of a video on youtube. Companies like Viacom have gone further by suing Youtube for serving up infringing material that in many cases has been posted by agents of Viacom itself for promotional purposes.

The major media companies clearly have no credibility in this game, nor does Sarkozy.

“Now that the Internet is an integral part of most people’s live, it would be contradictory to exclude governments from this huge forum,” said Sarkozy. “Nobody could nor should forget that these governments are the only legitimate representatives of the will of the people in our democracies. To forget this is to take the risk of democratic chaos and hence anarchy.”

Here Sarkozy couldn’t be more wrong.  Even in a democracy – or especially in a democracy – government is NOT the sole legitimate representative of the people. The people themselves in a modern country can be a far better representative of their own will than a government that is typically more beholden to huge corporate donors than to its own constituents. To imply otherwise indicates that control is far more important that freedom.  Freedom is messy and people like Sarkozy and the heads of big business need to learn to deal with that.

Thankfully not everyone on hand was simply a lacky for Sarkozy and the entrenched incumbents.  Among the luminaries participating in eG8 were the great prof. Lawrence Lessig and musician/writer/activist John Perry Barlow.  Lessig’s comments about the importance of taking a more hands-off approach to copyright and the internet are in the video at the top of this post.

Barlow was on panel with the French culture minister and the heads of 20th Century Fox, Universal Music France, Bertelsmann, and a French publisher.  Those other participants defended the need to protect the works they own, as opposed to created,  since none of them are actual creators of anything.  They are merely salespeople. After hearing everyone else speak Barlow summed up with the fundamental truth that IDEAS ARE NOT PROPERTY

I may be one of very few people in this room who actually makes his living personally by creating what these gentlemen are pleased to call “intellectual property.” I don’t regard my expression as a form of property. Property is something that can be taken from me. If I don’t have it, somebody else does.

Expression is not like that. The notion that expression is like that is entirely a consequence of taking a system of expression and transporting it around, which was necessary before there was the Internet, which has the capacity to do this infinitely at almost no cost.

This is a concept that Lessig has also been expressing for many years and it’s one of the driving forces behind creative commons. Unlike tangible property, when someone else uses or expresses your idea, it doesn’t preclude you from using it yourself.  What makes it special is what you do with it.