Since the first VCR hit the shelves, the recording industry has wrestled with this issue. Technology had finally made amateur duplication of copyrighted AV materials easy in inexpensive. That was the mid-70's.
Thirty years later they are still fighting this game...and will probably lose, if they haven't already. Not because the technology is so easy--heck, it has been for years. The battle will be lost because of lack of enforcement particularly in foreign (non-US and EU) countries. The availability of major motion pictures on the streets of Hong Kong before a movie is even released attests to a big gaping hole in enforcement. On the music side, Napster is now legit, but has been replaced by Limewire and a host of other sites based outside the US. The RRIA is trying to prosecute, but with only limited success.
Job's article on DRM (and iTunes specifically) cites the ready availability of DRM-free music out there, and advances the position that music rightsholders secure royalties at sale, and unwrap online music from duplication restriction.
US and European law has actually stayed fairly up-to-date with technology advancements, though much was based on legal decisions in cases that were brought to court. It is naive to think that the rest of the world is going to react with much respect to copyright. In the past, that wasn't much of a problem because there wasn't much of a market there. That is all changing now.
It is going to be interesting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment