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 To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 4/18/2002; 9:17 AM Here's an interesting article on how allowing free access to an author's work seems to increase sales -- contrary to what Harlan Ellison, the RIAA, and the MPAA seem to believe. The interesting thing here is that he did some analysis of actual royalty numbers. Yes, it's still anecdotal, but it's anecdotal backed up by numbers. Yes, it's still only four data points. However, it's a model perhaps looking into.
 RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: Mark Morgan on 4/18/2002; 10:22 AM I'm with you on the RIAA and the MPAA, but what's your beef with Ellison? Note that in this country, if you don't defend your copyright, you lose it. Ellison has a know fundamental hatred of the Internet, but he's also not a huge fan of computers. He blames them for fluffing stories into novellas, novellas into novels, and novels into 15 book sagas. Is there something I'm missing here?
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 4/18/2002; 4:33 PM Actually, I don't have a beef with Ellison, Flint does. I believe he rags Ellison for flaming about losses due to "piracy" without specific evidence.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: Mark Morgan on 4/19/2002; 6:35 AM Flint has one counterargument, but I have a better one. Taken from the Ellison's KICK press release, "AOL, REMARQ/CRITICAL PATH AND A HOST OF SELF-SERVING INDIVIDUALS SEEM TO THINK THAT THEY CAN ALLOW THE DISSEMINATION OF WRITERS WORK ON THE INTERNET WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION, AND WITHOUT PAYMENT, UNDER THE BANNER OF FAIR USE OR THE IDIOT SLOGAN INFORMATION MUST BE FREE. Aren't ISP legally protected from unintended copyright infringement, but wouldn't Ellison be able to force AOL or whoever to dump users who infringe? What the hell is his argument here? Did AOL stonewall him or something? Or does he just object to the fact that they don't go over every single byte on their networks with a fine-toothed comb? Isn't harlanellison.com hosted by some ISP that could have infringing content on it? (Looks like they caved and gave him permission to delete anything off their servers that belongs to him. Sigh. Talk about a bandaid.) More interesting debate (kinda) over at the KICK Forums. Disable popups if you can, those ad-supported BBS's are an abomination. Flint's "can show no harm" argument is confusing--is Ellison complaining about the Baen public library? Is Flint one actually defending piracy? Or is Flint worried Ellison is going to come after Baen next? Doesn't everyone who contributes to that Baen thing have to give permission? Who made the connection between Ellison's lawsuit and the Baen library first, Ellison or Flint? I'm at a loss as to where all that bile is coming from.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 4/22/2002; 5:24 PM Moving a discussion here from "Writings and Talkbacks"... Tell that to Prof. Ed Felten of Princeton and to Dmitry Sklyarov of Elcomsoft Adam didn't know who they were. Ed Felten is a well respected researcher who cracked SDMI as part of the RIAA's SDMI challenge. He was going to present a paper on it until the RIAA threatened him with prosecution. An uproar occurred, and the RIAA claimed it never made such a threat. He later gave the presentation. For more info: look here. Dmitry Sklyarov is a Russian programmer, who was arrested in the US under the DMCA for writing software in Russia, which was legal in Russia. Adobe Corp. didn't like the fact that his software allowed people to break the (incredibly weak) encryption on Adobe E-books (again, this software is completely legal in Russia, where it was written). He spent several months in jail, before he was released. The case is now pending against his employer, ElcomSoft. Dmitry was released in exchange for his testimony. For more info, look here. Note: I specifically said "his testimony", not "his testimony against his employer". Further Note: If I lived in Russia, I think that ElcomSoft would be a heck of a place to work for. His boss came to the US in support of Dmitry (at risk of arrest himself), financially supported his family while Dmitry was imprisoned, etc. etc... The boss sounds like a stand-up kind of guy. Mark, feel free to edit/delete whatever you want from this. I was ranting. But people who spout off about "I don't know about it, so it's not important" really irritate me, especially since that's the attitude that the RIAA and MPAA are counting on in their attempt to lobotomize all computers.
 Bullies, bullies, bullies.By: Adam Schirmacher on 4/23/2002; 6:01 PM Here's what mark said: Adam? If you want to debate copyright issues: 1. Do it in the Cauldron, not in an announcement thread, and 2. If you post any copyrighted material--heck, if you post anything you yourself didn't write--I'll reset your password again and you will have to very much work to convince me to let you back in. Now drop it. Marcus, try reading what I say first. I said myself that I wasn't trying to persuade you to make it okay on this site. Don't threaten to reset my password if I already made it clear that I didn't have any intentions of committing copyright infringement. Mark, I haven't called anyone names, and I haven't debated anything completely unreasonably, and I haven't insulted anyone. You're the one that seems to have a problem with having no reason to reset my password. You'd fit right in on the Oprah show. No kidding, either, I'm watching it now. Dr. Phil is a psychology expert and maybe he could help. If you think in any way thretening me is going to help this debate, I disagree. I'm not saying I'd ever post anything violating copyright on this site. And I made that flowing-water-one-foot-deep clear already. Mark, it's not right to tell me to drop an argument just because it's not the argument you'd make. Every now and then, there might just be some people with a different opinion. Debating is fine, but threatening is not. As Aradia said, resetting passwords is a good way to keep it civil. However, it is not a good debate strategy. There was nothing uncivil about our discussion.
RE: Bullies, bullies, bullies.By: Mark Morgan on 4/24/2002; 2:23 AM Adam, I wasn't objecting to the discussion of copyright issues--that's something very important to writers. Especially as we online seem caught between the twin poles of the "information means to be free" zealots and the corporations trying to make VCRs illegal. I do object to anyone posting anything that belongs to someone else, and I admit I'm grumpy about it. My apologies if it seemed like a personal attack--we've already had one incident where someone kept posting articles from a local newspaper after I repeatedly asked him to stop. If you have no plans to repeat that, I'm cool with you.
RE: Bullies, bullies, bullies.By: Adam Schirmacher on 4/25/2002; 12:12 AM I do not plan to pull any crap on this site or it's members. I don't think repeating it is possible, since I did not do it in the first place. Maybe i could just peat it? Technicalities... However, I am completely in the dark on how this ended up inside this topic. I am 255 perbyte (100%) sure that I made my own topic.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: Mark Morgan on 4/25/2002; 1:55 AM You did, but the on-topic part of this discussion is the copyright issue, so I combined the two threads.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 4/25/2002; 11:46 AM Here's an op/ed article about the DMCA that people might find interesting.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 5/3/2002; 7:12 PM My 15 minutes of fame...
 RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: Rachelle King on 5/4/2002; 12:48 AM Go ScottN!!! Preach on brutha.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 5/4/2002; 6:38 PM Thanks, Rachelle. For anyone who wants to see my entire comments, they're at the Senate Judiciary Committee Website. Scroll down to the comments for March 30, 2002.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 6/28/2002; 12:43 PM The plaintiffs Eldred v. Ashcroft, a suit to overturn the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, has reached the Supremes. They have an impressive list of supporters. The brief (warning: Acrobat Reader required) is, in my lay opinion, a brilliant piece of work, accessible to non-lawyers, and a model of clarity. Since everyone here is an author, in some way or another, this affects us all. Personally, I agree with the plaintiffs... how does giving my heirs 70 years of sponging off of anything I may publish profitably "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"?
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: Mark Morgan on 5/22/2002; 5:31 PM There's a website for the case.
It's official...By: ScottN on 5/24/2002; 12:02 PM Hollywood has gone completely insane. Plug the Analog Hole. Now, not only does the MPAA want to regulate computers, but now they want to regulate A/D devices. In case you didn't know, if you own a digital camcorder, that's you. A couple of scenarios that actually could happen if the MPAA gets their wish. Mom and Dad are out in the park, videotaping little Johnny. Johnny is about to take his first step, when... the party over by that tree starts blasting the latest BackstreetBoys/N*Sync/Britney song. Dad's camcorder shuts down, because it heard watermarked content. Johnny's first step is lost forever, but thank goodness nobody pirated that song. or... Johnny and Cindy are at their wedding reception. But wait! We can't videotape their first dance because the music is watermarked! Oh well, wedding memories aren't anywhere near as important as the MPAA members' profits!
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 6/14/2002; 11:10 PM And the RIAA continues its campaign to be seen as the most evil cartel on earth. Doctrine of First Sale, anyone?
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: Mark Morgan on 6/14/2002; 11:40 PM In my hometown we had a used LP place (is there any other kind?) but I bet the RIAA wouldn't get up on its hind legs for that. The Brunching Shuttlecocks have the real solution.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 6/15/2002; 12:52 AM Yeah, great slogan, too. We're the RIAA. Shut up and listen.
We're the RIAA. Shut up and ListenBy: ScottN on 6/28/2002; 12:45 PM And now, a new name to add to the Evil Congresscritter list: Howard Berman (D-Los Angeles). He wants to allow the RIAA and MPAA to hack/DoS P2P systems. Because, we all know that the record companies are losing billions to piracy. OT, has anyone found a line item for "piracy losses" in any of the studios' published financial reports? I know it has to be there somewhere, because they keep telling us about all their losses, and we *KNOW* they'd never lie to us...
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 6/28/2002; 12:49 PM Looking at this thread, I realize that it might appear that I am one of those "Information wants to be free" zealots. No. I do believe, however, that if I buy a CD or DVD, First Sale applies, and nobody has any right to tell me what I can do or not do with it. This includes reverse engineering CSS (see Universal v. Remerides), playing it on an "unlicensed player", etc... I don't believe that turning PCs into glorified set-top boxes (see CBDTPA) will help with progress, and I don't believe that extending copyright anytime the copyright on Mickey Mouse is about to expire promote "the Progress of Science and useful Arts" (see the US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8)? I do believe that artists and authors do deserve to be compensated for their work, but I don't believe in a gravy train.
And the copyright madness continues, silently...By: ScottN on 6/30/2002; 10:12 PM OK, more madness. Everybody had better start talking NOW!!!! Otherwise you may be violating copyright.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: ScottN on 9/6/2002; 3:09 PM The National Journal has an interesting article on the battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. A good read, it details the tech industry's early miscues, allowing Hollywood to determine the shape and form of the debate. It also discusses how the tech sector is fighting back.
RE: To Share or Not To Share, That is the Question...By: Rachelle King on 9/6/2002; 4:55 PM I can't even imagine life without a friggin VCR or DVD player!!! Those Hollywood punxs!
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