<biblioid class="libraryofcongress">2003063276</biblioid>
</bookinfo>
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 1 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 1-->
<dedication id="salespoints">
<title></title>
<para>
But even if he was right then, the point is not right now:
<citetitle>Free Culture</citetitle> is about the troubles the Internet
causes even after the modem is turned
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 12 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 12-->
off. It is an argument about how the battles that now rage regarding life
on-line have fundamentally affected "people who aren't online." There
is no switch that will insulate us from the Internet's effect.
to be defended in our future. A free culture has been our past, but it
will only be our future if we change the path we are on right now.
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 14 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 14-->
Like Stallman's arguments for free software, an argument for free
culture stumbles on a confusion that is hard to avoid, and even harder
to understand. A free culture is not a culture without property; it is not
This is how the law usually works. Not often this abruptly or
impatiently, but eventually, this is how it works. It was Douglas's style not to
dither. Other justices would have blathered on for pages to reach the
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 18 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 18-->
conclusion that Douglas holds in a single line: "Common sense revolts
at the idea." But whether it takes pages or a few words, it is the special
genius of a common law system, as ours is, that the law adjusts to the
AM radio market. By 1935, there were a thousand radio stations across
the United States, but the stations in large cities were all owned by
a handful of networks.
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 20 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 20-->
</para>
<para>
RCA's president, David Sarnoff, a friend of Armstrong's, was eager
course always public spirited; the reality is something
different. Ideas that were as solid as rock in one age, but that, left
to themselves, would crumble in
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 22 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 22-->
another, are sustained through this subtle corruption of our political
process. RCA had what the Causbys did not: the power to stifle the
effect of technological change.
Common sense does not revolt. Unlike in the case of the unlucky
Causbys, common sense is on the side of the property owners in this
war. Unlike
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 27 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 27-->
the lucky Wright brothers, the Internet has not inspired a revolution
on its side.
</para>
To see the point in a particularly absurd context, consider a favorite
story of mine that makes the same point.
</para>
-<indexterm id="idxaibo" class='startofrange'>
+<indexterm id="idxaibo1" class='startofrange'>
<primary>Aibo robotic dog</primary>
</indexterm>
+<indexterm id="idxroboticdog1" class='startofrange'>
+ <primary>robotic dog</primary>
+</indexterm>
+<indexterm id="idxsonyaibo1" class='startofrange'>
+ <primary>Sony</primary>
+ <secondary>Aibo robotic dog produced by</secondary>
+</indexterm>
<para>
Consider the robotic dog made by Sony named "Aibo." The Aibo
learns tricks, cuddles, and follows you around. It eats only electricity
their computer "dog" to make it do new tricks (thus, aibohack.com).
</para>
<para>
-If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the
-word <citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly connotation. Nonprogrammers
-hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in horror movies do even
-worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call them, <citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much
-more positive term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the program to
-do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to do. If you buy
-a new printer for an old computer, you might find the old computer
-doesn't run, or "drive," the printer. If you discovered that, you'd later be
-happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone who has written a
-driver to enable the computer to drive the printer you just bought.
+If you're not a programmer or don't know many programmers, the word
+<citetitle>hack</citetitle> has a particularly unfriendly
+connotation. Nonprogrammers hack bushes or weeds. Nonprogrammers in
+horror movies do even worse. But to programmers, or coders, as I call
+them, <citetitle>hack</citetitle> is a much more positive
+term. <citetitle>Hack</citetitle> just means code that enables the
+program to do something it wasn't originally intended or enabled to
+do. If you buy a new printer for an old computer, you might find the
+old computer doesn't run, or "drive," the printer. If you discovered
+that, you'd later be happy to discover a hack on the Net by someone
+who has written a driver to enable the computer to drive the printer
+you just bought.
</para>
<para>
Some hacks are easy. Some are unbelievably hard. Hackers as a
bit of tinkering that turned the dog into a more talented creature
than Sony had built.
</para>
-<indexterm startref="idxaibo" class='endofrange'/>
+<indexterm startref="idxsonyaibo1" class='endofrange'/>
+<indexterm startref="idxroboticdog1" class='endofrange'/>
+<indexterm startref="idxaibo1" class='endofrange'/>
<para>
I've told this story in many contexts, both inside and outside the
United States. Once I was asked by a puzzled member of the audience,
weakness in the SDMI system, and why SDMI would not, as presently
constituted, succeed.
</para>
+<indexterm id="idxaibo2" class='startofrange'>
+ <primary>Aibo robotic dog</primary>
+</indexterm>
+<indexterm id="idxroboticdog2" class='startofrange'>
+ <primary>robotic dog</primary>
+</indexterm>
+<indexterm id="idxsonyaibo2" class='startofrange'>
+ <primary>Sony</primary>
+ <secondary>Aibo robotic dog produced by</secondary>
+</indexterm>
<para>
What links these two, aibopet.com and Felten, is the letters they
then received. Aibopet.com received a letter from Sony about the
anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
</para>
</blockquote>
+<indexterm startref="idxsonyaibo2" class='endofrange'/>
+<indexterm startref="idxroboticdog2" class='endofrange'/>
+<indexterm startref="idxaibo2" class='endofrange'/>
<para>
And though an academic paper describing the weakness in a system
of encryption should also be perfectly legal, Felten received a letter
of the copyrighted material made possible by that circumvention would
have been a copyright violation.
</para>
+<indexterm><primary>Aibo robotic dog</primary></indexterm>
+<indexterm><primary>robotic dog</primary></indexterm>
+<indexterm>
+ <primary>Sony</primary>
+ <secondary>Aibo robotic dog produced by</secondary>
+</indexterm>
<para>
Aibopet.com and Felten make the point. The Aibo hack circumvented a
copyright protection system for the purpose of enabling the dog to
good, but permits guns, despite the obvious and tragic harm they do.
<indexterm><primary>Conrad, Paul</primary></indexterm>
</para>
+<indexterm><primary>Aibo robotic dog</primary></indexterm>
+<indexterm><primary>robotic dog</primary></indexterm>
+<indexterm>
+ <primary>Sony</primary>
+ <secondary>Aibo robotic dog produced by</secondary>
+</indexterm>
<para>
The Aibo and RIAA examples demonstrate how copyright owners are
changing the balance that copyright law grants. Using code, copyright
</para>
<para>
There was some truth to the government's claim, but not much. We
-certainly agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in
+certainly agreed that Congress had extended existing terms in 1831
and in 1909. And of course, in 1962, Congress began extending
existing
terms regularly—eleven times in forty years.
disappeared, you will be redirected to an appropriate reference for
the material.
</para>
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 336 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 336-->
</chapter>
<chapter label="18" id="c-acknowledgments">
its culture. I am thankful to her, and to the many in Japan who helped
me prepare this book: Joi Ito, Takayuki Matsutani, Naoto Misaki,
Michihiro Sasaki, Hiromichi Tanaka, Hiroo Yamagata, and Yoshihiro
-<!-- PAGE BREAK 337 -->
+<!--PAGE BREAK 337-->
Yonezawa. I am thankful as well as to Professor Nobuhiro Nakayama,
and the Tokyo University Business Law Center, for giving me the
chance to spend time in Japan, and to Tadashi Shiraishi and Kiyokazu
battles, and who has always been right. This slow learner is, as ever,
grateful for her perpetual patience and love.
</para>
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+<!--PAGE BREAK 338-->
</chapter>
<index></index>
projects / text-free-culture-lessig.git / blobdiff