Application : Music
 
The future of entertainment : music
 
Professor Charles Nesson
Professor Jonathan Zittrain
Leslie Vadasz, director emeritus, Intel Corp.
Fred von Lohmann, EFF
 

Defending the current business model
Towards new business models
 
Fred:
EFF wants to preserve the rights you had before the electronic world came along
 
Leslie:  
Had testified in front of Hollings about protecting digital content.  Hollings didn’t like what he said.
 
Nesson:
 
Problems of going towards a model like Fisher’s are immense.  Interests will fight like hell to prevent such a plan.
 
Z: Can we agree on framework that music industry should enjoy rights they had before the internet?
 
Fred: 
 
Artists should.  Recording Industry should not.
Z:
 
Companies are people too.  Aren’t those rights being infringed more than ever?
 
Fred:
As matter of black letter copyright law – that is right.  But, the law has changed so much via accident of technology as computers are able to copy things. 
 
Z:
            Is harm related to loss on bottom line
 
Fred:
Some of their claims are highly exaggerated.  (e.g. units shipped has declined because they decided to stop selling cd singles)
 
The downturn is not as big as they would have you believe.
 
Movie industry, in contrast, is enjoying its most prosperous time.  Intel and others would love to trade numbers with the recording industry.
 
I would change the law to reflect the reality that 60 million Americans are using file sharing sw (wait a minute, that’s almost everyone accessing the internet, isn’t it?  Are his numbers sane?)
 
Z:
Can you sue this problem into submission?
 
N:
It’s part of the problem.
 
Usually, reaction is there are too many people to sue.  But, if you discriminate, you will find the source, the headwaters of those that are the super nodes of the illegal distribution (In Colin Powell’s terms – you find the head, cut it off and kill it)
Fred:
But it doesn’t stay static.  If the tech stood still, maybe.
 
1)      Verizon is in US
2)      Vast majority of p2p folks are outside US
3)      So, you can’t stop.
4)      An effort to get European ISP’s to cooperate will run into privacy issues
5)      And, users take their own technical counter measures (like proxies)
 
Z:
Blubster from cnet.com – anonymous p2p
 
Leslie
Go to public wifi spots and download – then that is anonymous
…
 
Fred
P2p is smarter than most counter measure.  But, collateral damage that piles up may be severe.  E.g. ISP has to give up data on its users to anyone that asks.
 
Z
            Hey, Verizon notifies you that someone is looking for your data
Fred
 But they don’t have to do that
 
Nesson
Let me take that argument all the way.  If you are the music or movie industry – you won’t rest till all threats are gone.  One of the items of collateral damage is the alteration of the basic architecture of the net.
Fred
Collateral damage is the main concern. 
….
Those powerful interests will press for more power .  So alternative models like Fisher’s are attractive.
Z
Let’s ask Leslie as a technologist how readily can we adapt the technology so we don’t have a music industry having to sue everyone in sight.
 
Leslie
I am not speaking for Intel.  I don’t think we stop anything.
 
Z
Trusted Computing Platform Alliance – so what is trusted computing?
Leslie
A machine used in a way that if you send a file – no one in between can access a file without your permission.  Gives you privacy in open network.
Z
So, trusted alliance is developing blubster?
Leslie
You can’t talk or question what they do until you have enough information to judge what they are doing.
Z
I thought securing information against prying eyes was about producing a platform of unified hw/sw so that one could trust it would behave in certain ways.
Leslie
You are putting me in a position to defend something I know nothing about.  But if I only want you to read the book that I wrote that should be my right
Z
Isn’t that creative commons?
Fred
Such a system would be interesting.  But that is not what trusted computing is.  We have talked to the alliance about their initiatives  - All should learn more about trusted computing – large story for next 5 years – IBM pcs have relevant hw installed – It allows 1) you trust your own computer – like trust a virus has not been introduced 2) whether or not others can trust but MS never intended the system to defend against hw attacks from people with physical access to these machine.
 
…
 
Let’s assume there are people able to hack their hw- and they post their find on p2p using the same trusted computing techs- at that moment for every other user – that book that was protected becomes available.  A trusted PC will still run unlabeled stuff.
 
Z
So, trusted computing is no threat to free ware?
Fred
The threat is lower than most people think
Trusted computer has other more interesting questions.  If all major banks demand you install following sw on your platform – all much power do you have to resist that?
…
TC is very Matrix like…
Z
Come on taxi cab meters are trusted systems?
Fred
Free the general purpose computer.
Leslie
When you have an open environment like the internet – you have to be able to provide tech to do that.
…Nesson
Question of University role vis-à-vis Verizon is interesting.  They are supposedly in moral position to encourage students to obey the law.  Plus they have user agreements that make it a contractual obligation.  Granted they don’t have a monetary interest. 
 
Suppose someone offered as a service to look at shared folders in university domain and send nice letters to those offenders to cleanse the network.  A university’s reaction is initially no – counter to culture of university – not in business to police students.  The problem is within the rights owners to take up with the infringers.
 
But offer a discount to the iTune service and perhaps you shift that population to a norm of following the law.
 
…
 
Q :
What of developing countries that don’t have capital to pay for copyright?  Course, US didn’t protect other countries’ interest for first 150 years.
 
Fred:
Talks of commission on intellectual property rights
A condition of free trade with US was Jordan putting in place a DMCA
 
Nesson
Last few years have been Information Imperialism (locking govts and others that in order to run technologies you need to keep paying copyright)  hmm more tomorrow
Audience
All these copyrights are like machine of terror…. Business Software Alliance in poland acts like terrorists – they go with police to firms and audit the sw.  And, the police don’t know what to do – and specialists go looking for who knows what… that is example of wrong way to do intellectual property rights.
 
….
 
Need to check other sites for notes – I lost some here