Digital Copyright Security: The new Frontier.

Today we hear about digital copyrights in many instances, from the warnings in front of movies to the RIAA suing another peer-to-peer user to eBooks. The wide variety of copyrights makes us think this is a complicated and divergent issue. These separate industries have yet to see that it is all very simple. I will make a couple of statements here and then see what you think of them.

1. The industry (RIAA, Movie, or e-book whatever) can NEVER produce a anti-copying scheme that will prevent users from copying the items for long.

The industry in all it’s forms keeps hundreds, maybe thousands of programmers busy perfecting the next copy protection scheme. EVERY time a new one is released it is broken within the first month…often far quicker. There are 10’s of Thousands of people out there trying to break the protection. What can be created, can be broken and it will always be. Look at the history of encryption in security and nations for permanent examples http://visual.ly/history-encryption and the fact that even the RSA’s 1024 bit encryption has been hacked http://www.engadget.com and with the advent of cloud computing for uses such as www.Seti.org, can we really discount brute force hacks that need millions of years. (how about millions of processors, stolen in botnets for a year? Or less?)

2. People that are not going to buy a copyrighted item and want to pirate it for personal use WILL find a way.

his is about human nature. If they really don’t care about theft they will steal. This is a problem of Morality, as we “Kill God” in our society we feel we don’t need to abide by the Moral restriction religion imposed on us for thousands of years. We feel we know better than god and that what we decree will be Moral. The internet just makes it easier so there is NO lost money for the companies/artists. (As if the artist get much from the company)

3. People that profit from copyright items illegally, WILL ALWAYS do it illegally.

Again, if they live a life of crime they will always live that life unless they face something that stops them or makes them rethink their life. So prosecute them and put them in jail, be my guest it won’t affect me in any way.

4. Prices of Movies, Albums, and ebooks are inflated by the cost of litigation AND copyright security development and production.

I often wonder exactly how much of the money made from every movie/Album/Book gets to the creator? The industry seems HUGE in comparison to most of their creators. And you CAN’T tell me that the lawyers and programmers donate their time? So WHAT does it take to Secure and prosecute ONE title thought it’s life? That’s not taken from the author?

5. Authors, Artists, Actors make NO more money off of electronic LEGAL sales than they make off of physical sales.

Why is the price of new books 7.99 at the store but $15 bucks online? Is there some cost to printing the bits for the book?. Digital media is the same for Audio or Video. Why the same price? It should be cheaper. There is NO cost to make a million copies of something because copying is done AT THE TIME OF DOWNLOAD. The web is cheap. I mean I can host a web site online for under 50 bucks a month. Really, even if I want a site that can handle millions of hits per day the cost is not geometrically greater, just greater, so the cost per copy of WHATEVER is TREMENDOUSLY low. Really, check out http://www.godaddy.com or others.

6. It is LEGAL to copy an item for your PERSONAL use. Fair USE. (Even though it’s often ILLEGAL to break the copy protection….imagine that).

How is it that Fair use allows us to legally copy videos and audio for our own use and backup but if we break the encryption we are breaking the law? Again sounds like more lawyers to me. So really, how can I legally make copies of the children’s movies that the little one’s watch so (and tear up so often) without breaking the law? Apparently I can’t. This just promotes contempt for the law. As I learned decades ago in the Army, NEVER give an order you KNOW won’t be obeyed. It destroys your own authority and builds the contempt of those below you. How could we pass this law? Then again it seems that Contempt is what most people in this country feel for their elected officials anyway. Why do we allow this?

Because of these reasons and many others I feel that the war on copyright infringement is like the war on drugs. They should be carried out the same way. Pursue and Prosecute the criminals who make money at these CRIMINAL activities to the fullest extent of the law. But suing a user who downloaded 5 songs because you can just shows your moral bankruptcy. Baen publishing has had a fascinating example and argument on this for years, GIVE IT AWAY. For Years they have had a free library where they encourage their authors to post books for FREE. NOT parts of books, or leading chapters, but WHOLE books http://www.baenebooks.com and select the free library. It’s great…the reason the authors put the books up? IT INCREASES SALES on ALL their books, NOT just those posted. The Late Jim Baen, founder encouraged users to loan their e-books to others because this increased sales as well. WHY doesn’t the rest of the industry follow this example….NOT the SUE THEM ALL mode that the lawyers are permanently set in.

So there ;-).

bob