David McNab
Thu, 18 Oct 2001 15:32:17 -0700
>>From David McNab: >>A Hypothetical Question: >>If the system of software patents, plus the DMCA and SSSCA, had been written into law >>in 1950, what would have happened in the computer industry since then? >>Think about it. From: "Scott Haman" > I am working on a research > paper covering the DMCA law. I was > wondering if it might be possible if you could give > a statement or even a partial answer to your query. > Any time you could spare would be greatly appreciated. Hi Scott, Thanks for your email. A few things I would envisage if DMCA, SSSCA and software patents had arrived in the 1950s: 1) Pace of technology - would have been slower. Intellectual property restrictions would pose huge barriers to the 'young bloods', who have traditionally been a major source of inspiration and innovation. I suspect that it would have taken till approx the year 2020-2040 for technology to reach the level it reached in 2001 without these restrictions. Most or all of the basic conceptual building blocks of software would be under private ownership, with heavy licensing fees inposed on all programmers using these. This is akin to a situation in music where all song structure elements such as riffs and chord progressions are privately patented - for example, 12-bar blues owned by Virgin Records, II-V-I-IV swing progression owned by Polydor, VI-II owned by EMI, the standard I-IV-V owned by Sony etc. No composition or live performance of songs using these progressions, even original songs, without heavy royalty payments. Result? A smaller choice of music, far less live gigs available, most entertainment venues with video jukeboxes only. Ridiculous I know, but it does fit with the software situation. In such a 'DMCA in 1950' regime, I would see all personal computers being leased from large corporations, with their cases securely locked - any attempt to open a case would send a 'security violation' message to central servers, resulting in arrest and large lawsuit. In fact, such computers would be more akin to 'internet appliances'. The ISP would also be the hardware and software vendor. For convenience, let's call these ISPs-hardware/software providers 'ISVs' - Information Service Vendors. I guess there would be a cartel of approx 1-7 such ISVs superfically competing, but largely in sync. These 'internet appliances' would not allow the use of any software that isn't licensed by the ISV central servers. Anyone wanting to be a programmer would face huge fees and licensing requirements, and technical programming information would be guarded like 'state secrets'. In fact, independent programmers wouldn't exist - all programmers would be employees of companies large and rich enough to afford the licenses. The only programming allowed would be a level of really basic scripting/automation, at the price of an extra monthly fee. As for allowed software, business packages like word processors, database etc would be leased by the hour. Earlier versions would be cheaper than more recent versions. No software would be capable of being installed and used independently. All software would 'phone home' to the ISV and shut down if the user's account wasn't up to scratch. Ditto for hardware. No hardware can be installed unless supplied by the ISV. Hard disks on the 'appliance' would be the property of the ISV. Even if your machine had a 100GB drive, you would pay a monthly 'data rental' according to the space you are using. To use removable media, you would pay a levy for every time you burn a CD. If you insert a CD into your friend's appliance, its checksum will be sent to the ISV server and vetted before your friend can access it. As for creation of your own media - video, music, art etc - be prepared to pay. You would pay according to the bitrate - CD-quality audio bitrate of 192kbps+ would be charged at a premium. Lower quality eg 16kbps would be cheaper. All your work would be sampled and sent to ISV central servers and checked for copyright compliance. If cleared of possible violations, you would only own about 10% of the copyright, because a usage condition of the ISV would require you to sign away most of your own intellectual property rights. Your screen would carry advertising. At different times, your entire screen may fill up with advertising. Perhaps if you pay a bigger monthly fee, you may not have to put up with full-screen ads. Pay even more, and you get to use more of your screen area for programs and less for ads. You wouldn't be able to run any kind of server unless you paid a big extra monthly payment, plus an extra fee for every 'hit' on your server. You'd also pay according to the size of your site - the more pages, the more data, the more you pay. And pay. And pay. If you want to use snazzy features like frames, or mouseover events, you pay more. You can only choose from a set of web templates, priced according to aesthetic appeal. Privacy would be non-existent. Your emails would be read by humans, and/or analysed by language parsing software, in search of knowledge about your receptiveness to certain marketing campaigns. For instance, if you mentioned a leaky roof in an email, your details would be sent to building companies (well, those who paid to be enrolled with the ISV). They will feed ads through to your screen, or send sales people to phone you or knock on your door. Or if you exchanged harsh words with a lover, you'd be inundated with ads, phone and front door approaches from counsellors and conflict resolution specialists. Encryption would be for the ISV's benefit, not yours. The police would have 'carnivore' machines installed at every ISV, with the ISV decryption keys. A somewhat different world to the one we've grown up in. ------------- But what chills me is that I can see many organisations and interests, with enough money to buy Congress many times over, working slowly and inexorably to bring about exactly this state of affairs. Scott, the fight has only just begun. Regards David PS At worst, I look back and see that a huge part of the USA's victory in the 1949-1989 Cold War was due to the relative intellectual freedom it granted (*not* 'grants') to its citizens, and the resulting technological advances. Under the regime described above, I could see the USSR still intact, and military expenditures continuing to cruelly bleed the USA economy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Haman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 7:47 AM Subject: Univ Texas academic report > Hello, > > My name is Scott Haman, I am working on a research > paper covering the DMCA law. I read your Hypothetical > Question about what computing would be like if the > DMCA had arrived in the 1950's, and I think that > really gets to the heart of the matter. I was > wondering if it might be possible to submit a few > general questions about the DMCA or if you could give > a statement or even a partial answer to your query. > Any time you could spare would be greatly appreciated. > > cheers, > > scott michael haman. > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals. > http://personals.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ Chat mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.freenetproject.org/mailman/listinfo/chat