[free-sklyarov] My reply to USNews

[Keith Handy]

I was unable to send this to the C-FIT list.  It kept bouncing back.

Seth Johnson wrote:
> 
> (Forwarded from DMCA_Discuss list)
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 17:55:17 -0500
> From: "James S. Huggins \(DMCA Discuss\)" <DMCADiscuss at ZName.com>
> 
> An invitation to express YOUR opinion from U. S. News
> 
>   ... James S. Huggins
> 
> http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010910/opinion/10atlarge.htm
> 
> Reply to: letters at usnews.com


Just felt like sharing what I came up with:

_______________________________________________________________________


As a generally cynical and jaded person, particularly with regard to the
wealthy and powerful among us, my tendency is to immediately assume the
worst of the DMCA's proponents.  It's hard not to perceive this orgy of
cooperation between big media and the federal government as a techno-
tyranny rising in a corrupted America, all participants willingly
sinking to any ethical depth to maintain cash flow in an otherwise
obsolete industry.  My general feeling is that this law doesn't protect
or benefit a single artist, musician, author, or programmer, but only
the parasitic and non-creative middleman, the "publisher".  

However, just this once, I'm willing to briefly give DMCA proponents the
benefit of the doubt -- allow me for a moment to assume that there are a
great many in favor of this law who genuinely feel it to be in the
spirit of fostering creativity.  By passing more laws, stricter laws,
and harsher laws, can we teach society respect for the creative mind? 
By putting terminal fear into the hearts of anyone who may be an
accomplice to an accomplice to an accomplice of a POSSIBLE copyright
infringement, will we fill the world with great art, software, music,
and literature?

How well is this approach working for the so-called "war on drugs"?

If our industries and government are so concerned with fostering
creativity and originality, then why is there so little call for
encouragement of these qualities in children who attend public schools?
(And isn't there something not-quite-right about beating the individual
spirits out of children for twelve years, and then threatening to lock
them up for figuring out how a DVD works, all on their tax dollars?)  If
the music industry is so concerned with originality, then why are so
many clone bands and sample-loopers being signed and promoted?  And why
is the film industry jumping on every cash-cow sequel and remake it can
conceive of, or Bill Gates making billions off of slight modifications
to a glorified Macintosh interface?  Do these examples represent the
kinds of "work of the mind" that need to be cultivated and protected?

Could it be that the role of a "publisher" is scarcely different from
that of a "pirate", and that "protection against piracy" boils down to
protection from unwanted competition?   

To the best of my understanding, copyright and patent laws were designed
to protect the creative individual's opportunity to make some money from
his/her work.  The use/misuse/abuse of such laws over time has turned
them against individual freedom in favor of corporate interests, and new
laws and bills continue to further distort the concept.  The prevailing
mentality now is that anyone who works for (or holds stock in) a large
corporation has a right to guaranteed income from it, while anyone
foolish enough to be independent or work for a smaller company is just
asking for problems, and therefore deserves to go broke from lawsuits
he/she can't afford to fight.  The eerie subtext in all of this is "join
us or die".

As a musician, writer, artist *and* programmer, I can tell you
definitively that money is *not* a primary incentive to create something
original, and the extent to which any artist *is* financially propelled
is generally inversely proportional to his/her actual creativity.  This
is not to say that I want to work a day job for the rest of my life, but
I certainly wouldn't call on government storm troopers to stop anyone
from passing my work around; I would first and foremost be glad that
people were enjoying it.  

Yes, this is probably the very sentiment that allows publishers to rip
their own clients off so easily, but we all decide what's most important
to us, and we perservere.

-Keith Handy