Just got out of the first Lessig vs Rosen debate. I think it went pretty well, was interesting, inspiring, and provacative. Like Jason commented, always interesting to see Larry’s slides evolve. They’re really tight right now, hitting on all gears, and I think really got the audience into it (and thinking). The focus definitely is where it should be; that is we’re talking about a massive shift/realignment of who and how what you can do with media/culture is being controlled, and also how out of whack the laws are with how people behave. (Lessig handled what Rosen threw out on the whole ‘piracy’ red herring beautifully)
Hillary Rosen made a point about choice that’s worth nothing. That is, the artist should be able to choose to go with something like the CC or signing all their rights over to RIAA companies (I’m not sure how many would disagree with that [some, of course], but well, that’s not really the question – the questions is are the laws out of whack wrt to digital media?).
Having given her that, I have to say that Larry let a couple of things that she said slide that got me really angry. She feigned indignity at the RPI student who was ‘victimized,’ comparing him to the 1 in 300 that gets a speeding ticket, but it’s worth pointing out that he wasn’t even the one d/ling anything. He was a CS student who wrote a tool that searched files on the network, 3/4 of which weren’t even related to the media monopoly’s copyrighted content (hooray DMCA, if we were talking about the milk man metaphor, basically it’d be like suing the supermarkets for letting people get milk elsewhere, or refrigerator makers for letting milk be kept chilled). Larry spoke a lot about the pall that the lawsuit and threat of lawsuits cast, but I’m not sure if that can really be emphasized enough. How much of a choice is it if you need a lawyer watching your back for everything you do?
Also, that being said, the whole hand-wringing about unauthorized distribution isn’t the issue anyway. The main issue is that on the computer, everything you do involved copying (see: RAM Copies, ’96 9th circuit summary, Microsoft v Business Boost), and that your unregulated uses have disappeared. And thank you Lessig for calling out Rosen on the DMCA fair use bit. When she said that the DMCA didn’t affect fair use I almost choked on myself. Tell that to Jon Johansen, or Ed Felton, or any number of students, researchers or educators. Hillary: the DMCA is a horrible, horrible law on so many levels; claiming to be associated in its making is nothing to be proud of.
So here’s the question I posed in the Q&A (slightly less eloquently):
Hillary, you argue against the need to change the law. So here’s my question. How come when I buy a song on a CD, I ‘own’ it, but when I buy a song off of iTunes, I get a EULA? I don’t own it, I’m renting it. Can I sell my iTune like I can sell my CD? George Hotelling tried to, and he couldn’t. What happens to first sale or any of the other rights I used to have?
Larry riffed on that to talk about what the ‘land-grab’ was all about, but I didn’t really get an answer from Hillary, she chose mostly to answer the other question that mine was grouped with (I got up a second late so I was far back enough in line that they started answering questions in pairs). Maybe she was turned off by my EFF hat. Or just had nothing to really respond to on the issue (does that mean I win the debate? ;P ).
Also Some notes on why Larry’s not as insane as he sounds when he talks about not making d/ling illegal:
Spectrum recorded the debate. I’m going to see if I can convince the guys down the hall to chop this up into a Research Channel show.
Other questions (not asked):
- Do you think suing your own customers is good business practice? Do you think it’s effective in the long-term? Does it promote the health of the industry?
- How do you reconcile the numbers? Units shipped vs profit vs performance of the Big 5 as compared to those of indie labels? (latter: are they just making better product than you or is it better marketing, or just gross incompetence on the big labels’ part?)
- How comfortable are you, personally, with the loss of traditional ‘rights’ of media ownership like first sale, mix tapes, etc. Also your view on whether laws need to be changed re:performances (singing happy birthday); general philosophical view on commercial vs non-commercial in life and digitally
Oh yeah, I still get hits for Larry’s free_culture presentation. So, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, check that out, it’s a 1/2hr flash presentation I worked on where Lessig talks about some of the basics on the whole ip/culture relationship thing