Cyber Disobedience
"Italian Radical Euro MP Marco Cappato wants the concept of cyber-civil-disobedience to be written into European law"
Like many other things, you think of a way of expressing a point of view - come up with a description for it, only to find that someone has already come up with it! Cyber Disobedience is such a term.
A conclusion that has become self evident is that those that are technically able should practice Cyber Disobedience. In that they should actively use methods to circumvent TPMs as long as the Powers That Be (PTB) are contemplating imposing draconian legislation such as the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) and globalised forms of the American DMCA.
The RIAA and the MPAA seem to be using "bully" tactics, going after the less informed and vulnerable - there needs to be a re-think of the business models that a used for these industries - they, the rightful owners of the Intelectual Property (IP) and the law makers (The Powers that be - PTB), cannot expect the rules setup before the digital age to work in a digital world.
I am not suggesting that copyright laws are not needed and there should be a "free-for-all" on all intellectual property. Quite the contrary, there is a requirement for sensible controls for such media that addresses the unique aspects of the new technologies It is not reasonable to think that laws designed to protect IP when it was just in the form of a printed page, an analog recording or a concept existing in the minds of its inventor (i.e. a patent).
In a digital world the ease at which IP can be copied and transmitted is so much easier, after all it is all pretty much the same thing. However, the fact that is all just ones and zeros doesn't mean that the same controls can be applied to its protection. The music industry has a different production and distribution requirement than does the movie industry. Both are now very concerned in the age of the torrent. One would think that the ebook pioneers would have had a better idea of getting right first time - however, with Sony pretty much at the helm here no wonder that is in a mess already! Business models for all the digital arts need to be developed, ones that treat the consumer in a way that encourages them to follow a path of acceptance and compliance, not bully them with the threat of a suit should they try and make a copy of what they quite possibly own.
As Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing) states, the revenue that most recording artists receive from the studios is a pittance. The same could probably be said of other artistic endeavours, the reasons for the production of artistic output are usually for other, more noble reasons other than making a buck at the end of the day. It is the large corporations that see their control slipping through their hands. Although there is a lot of money to be lost by allowing the free and restricted copying and distribution of IP the implementation or poorly thought out DRM schemes only adds fuel to the fire and encourages those with the technical where with all to find ways to circumvent it.
P2P, torrents and file sharing is here to stay. Most ISPs realise this and are developing their infrastructure to accommodate for this. There are some that have still got their heads in the sand and try and discourage this activity by throttling their consumers connections if they detect the downloading through torrent clients. This is more to do with their lack of capacity and the fear that their systems will get swamped than it is to do with the protection of IP.
The disobedience part is that we (the ItK - the "In the Know") should do as much torrenting as we can, break as many digital locks as we can (on media that we own of course) and refrain from the purchase of any material that is laced with DRM - until the PTB realise that the current system is broken and realise they need to fix it.
By actively participating in torrenting and the promotion of a DRM free world (at least in its present forms) the issue is going to continue to be in the public eye. To that end we - ItK must boycott purchases from websites such as the iTunes store or from other paid music websites.
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