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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
The only way to substantially attack the amount of copying going on online, would require restrictions rather more intrusive than are used in China.
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Yes, everybody assumes that China's software and web controls are the only way to make things more secure... and that they will result in a totalitarian regime if implemented. News flash, guys: China was a totalitarian regime well before the Internet was invented. The two are not mutually connected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Are you really unaware of how entertwined free speech and free business are? Of how DEAD the internet would be if the government shut down YouTube (for hosting "pirate videos") and Google search (for linking to infringing content)? Shut down Flickr for hosting photos that include copyrighted & trademarked images; shut down Facebook for all those user images that are stolen from video games. And that's before we get into shutting down all those Wordpress blogs that repost news stories or half-chapters of their favorite books--it's not like there's a minimum amount that's verifiably not infringement.
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So, the world will be dead without Facebook, YouTube and Google? Funny, I seem to remember a very lively world before we could go online to see skateboarding dogs. I also seem to remember a world where the news presented to us was verified and believable... unlike all those blogs out there...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Where does it stop--does the gov't inspect every email attachment? Do they require inspection of every file hosted on a remote sharing service--in which case, do businesses get an automatic exemption for the claim "trade secrets?" If so, the pirates have an easy exemption; not, well, plenty of businesses won't be moving data quickly between locations.
What law could allow private information to be exchanged, without allowing "infringing" information to be exchanged? Who would have the right to look at which files, and who would pay for the inspections?
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Okay, let's nip this one in the bud: We're talking about securing copywritten files to prevent their being illegally shared. No one said anything about restricting business content. And such a system, IF it slows down business transactions, may add entire milliseconds to their web traffic speeds. I'm pretty sure businesses can adapt to that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
I didn't say "the government can't go after large-scale infringers." I said that governments and software developers aren't going to "join forces" to eradicate or even impede copying online. That "software makers" are not a unified group with a singular goal.
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Not today. Which is why we have the chaos we have. That doesn't mean events can't push them into the same camp tomorrow, or that others who want more security can't force it on them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Most of my friends don't think it's possible at all. I posit that the gov't could demand the right to inspect every packet exchanged on the internet; it'd just cost a lot of time and money, and slow down business along with a lot of entertainment.
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Security always costs time and money; that doesn't mean it's not worth the trouble. And "slowing down entertainment"? To use your word: Shrug.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Entertainment would find a way to go elsewhere; business can't.
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Businesses are not helpless babies. They will not collapse because they have to learn some new tricks, or because their web speeds fall from T8 to T7. Business evolve and adapt... that's what they're designed to do.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Do you have any evidence of this? When and where did it get hard to access data that once was widely available, other than by oppressive totalitarian regime?
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One word: Adobe.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Where has it gotten harder to get copies-in-general to the people that want them, rather than the occasional attempt to block a very specific type of data?
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Nowhere. Again, that's why we have the chaos we have now.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
The theory is sound; the practical side is nonexistent...
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Not at all. Talk to Adobe. Talk to Microsoft. They know how to control products. It is do-able. It just has to be done.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
If the laws improve life for the general public, they'll be accepted. All the laws I've seen proposed are a pack of restrictions the general public is supposed to put up with, in order to punish a shapeless group that nobody can prove is doing any real harm.
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The same can be said about cable TV control. We seem to be handling that just fine.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
I wouldn't expect a crash of civilization...
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But that's exactly what you're trying to describe, as a result of
creating and enforcing better document security. I say you're over-reacting, as most people do, to the idea of better security and enforcement, whatever the goal... while ignoring all of the examples of laws and enforcement around you that have
not brought the world to a crashing halt.
To your credit, it seems to be a natural reaction to the subject of law and control (I'm sure it's biologically based, though I suspect a social component is also at work). That's primarily why laws and enforcement have to be documented, in order to provide the trackable evidence, checks and balances that prevent it's getting out of control.
By the way: All of this discussion about the value of laws, etc... is
Let's try to get back to the subject of entitlement.