Seriously thoughtful A literary comment on DRM

[NormHart]

I recently purchased a collection of short stories by Spider Robinson entitled By Any Other Name from Baen Books, $4.00 in almost all ebook formats (and, of course, DRM free);

http://www.webscription.net/p-54-by-any-other-name.aspx

Or collected with 4 other Sci-Fi ebooks for $10 (the Sheffield books are lovely)

http://www.webscription.net/p-496-w2...scription.aspx

The first story in Spider Robinson's collection is Melancholy Elephants (c) 1984, which offers an argument that I haven't seen elsewhere against copyright extension.

Mr. Robinson puts the argument far better than I can but his basic premises is that there are only so many ways to order words, music, and colors and that eventually, if copyrights are extended too far, there will not be any way to create new art since any presentation will be vulnerable to accusations of plagiarism.

I'd love to hear what the thoughtful folks here have to say, I am tired of the "DRM bad" argument.

(It is quite a good short story BTW.)

[phenomshel]

I've already seen/heard that premise, though not in that particular book. I think my husband said it in regards to guitar riffs..."there's only so many notes, and they only go together so many ways". I've also thought it in regards to doctoral dissertations...isn't that the one you have to write "an original contribution to human knowledge" ? (I'm glad I'm not even getting close to a doctorate!)
The university I am enrolled in has several failsafe procedures to detect and discourage student plagiarism. Not that I'm condoning plagiarism by any means, but the thought has crossed my mind that there's only so many things that can be written on a single subject, and what if my thoughts happen to mirror someone else's?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by NormHart

The first story in Spider Robinson's collection is Melancholy Elephants (c) 1984, which offers an argument that I haven't seen elsewhere against copyright extension.

The story can be read for free, as it's in the sample chapters of the book.

http://www.webscription.net/chapters...0671319744.htm


And the problem it addresses isn't DRM, but copyright length. And we're losing....

[NormHart]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The story can be read for free, as it's in the sample chapters of the book.

http://www.webscription.net/chapters...0671319744.htm


And the problem it addresses isn't DRM, but copyright length. And we're losing....

Ah, thanks p (it is alright to call you p isn't it?) I should have thought to check that.

Isn't DRM a direct outgrowth of copyright? E.G. a means to enforce copyright and therefore restricting or reversing copyright growth necessarily means restricting or reversing DRM utilization?

[pdurrant]

I see DRM and copyright length as separate problems.

DRM can be (& is) applied to public domain works. However, I expect DRM to die because of costs and inconvenience to customers.

But there seems to be no limit to the length of copyright that lobbyists will ask for.

It might be that the US will never see any more works enter the public domain.

Originally Posted by NormHart

Ah, thanks p (it is alright to call you p isn't it?) I should have thought to check that.

Isn't DRM a direct outgrowth of copyright? E.G. a means to enforce copyright and therefore restricting or reversing copyright growth necessarily means restricting or reversing DRM utilization?