Re: [d@DCC] Short summary of Meeting with Bev Oda...

From: Christophe Beauregard <christophe.beauregard _-at-_ sympatico.ca>
To: General Copyright Discussions <discuss (at) list.digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:01:59 -0500
References: <Pine.LNX.4.61.0503120839400.29821@calcutta.flora.ca>

On Saturday 12 March 2005 09:10, Russell McOrmond wrote:

>    I described a gun that had an audio/video interface with a remote
> control on the trigger -- when a hunter wanted to shoot that desire would
> need to be cleared via remote-control with some bureaucrat
> (private/public sector doesn't matter, but I hinted public).

DRM is pretty much entirely run by the private sector. Control by "foreign 
mega-corporations" plays pretty well.

>    Essentially the owner of the technology is not the person in control
> of the technology, and there are considerable unintended consequences of
> that. Imagine all these "remote control" guns ending up being able to be
> controlled by terrorists, going off at times not intended by those who
> the "control" was intended to be given to by parliament (IE: the reality
> of DRM given the copyright holder is not and can not be in control).

You probably could have expanded on this by discussing how DRM doesn't have 
a "special user" class. That is, the guns used by police officers and the 
military have the same interface and get cleared by the same bureaucrat. 
There is no legal workaround, and even if it was legal to workaround it, 
any truly _effective_ DRM wouldn't have a workaround. It wouldn't help that 
the military would have to buy a completely different set of guns for every 
continent they deploy into, either.

This is similar in concept to DRM that doesn't know the difference between 
an infringer trying to mass copy a movie and a teacher trying to get a 
video clip for a class.

In order for DRM to be effective, there _cannot_ be any exceptions. Period. 
A DRM-free DVD is the version that's going to be found on the Internet, 
just like a DRM-free gun is, inevitably, going to make it onto the streets. 

If you _really_ want to rattle some chains, tell a story about DRM-protected 
child pornography that can't be _detected_, let alone _viewed_, by law 
enforcement. Because, after all, effective DRM works just as well for the 
"bad guys".

> P.S.  Don't take this analogy as an indication of my personal political
> views on gun control.

Irrespective of personal stance on firearm control, I don't think anyone 
will disagree with the political power of the gun lobby. You don't have to 
agree with them or even ally with them in order to make use of some of that 
power.

c.
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