It's been a while since I've written that
Intellectual Property isn't (property). This diary created a large number of comments (including a
follow up), many of which were (in one way or another) saying "get a grip, Brian- things aren't
that bad.
No, things aren't that bad, they're worse. More on the flip.
The first tidbit of news is this
Groklaw story, where we have the first honest to god attempt to
patent a plot. Note that the "technological arts" requirement (which was being used to prevent more business method patents) has been
removed by the PTO, so that argument is gone. The only good side to this is that the prior art defense still holds-
for now, at least. Note that patents now explicitly cover everything created by man- which includes software,
large chunks of the human DNA sequence, and business methods- so why not plots as well? This fits nicely with the patents as property model- all property is own by someone, so all ideas should be owned by someone. This is just taking the current logic to the next logical step. And while the USPTO hasn't yet approved this patent, they haven't yet rejected it either.
The next bit of insanity comes courtesy of the 31337 Haxorz at Sony Music, who are starting to put root kits on it's music CDs. Stick the CD into your computer to listen to it (a legal activity, last I checked), and in goes the root kit. Remove the root kit, and your sound stops working. Think about what this implies a little bit- Sony has the right to make unannounce, unapproved modifications to your computer without your consent or knowledge! Which means that, in some sense, it's not really your computer anymore. You don't really own it- or not all of it. Sony owns a part of it. Sony has rights to it, or at least is claiming rights to it. Their defense will probably be something along the lines that by simply playing the music on a computer you are implicitly agreeing to allow Sony to root your box. I wonder if playing music on an OS their root kit doesn't work on (linux) constitutes a violation of that implicit agreement- and that I might be sued for doing so? This may sound insane, but it's no more insane than planting virii on music CDs, or patenting the plots of novels, is. The point of this diary is: check your sanity at the door.
Another example of the assumption that the rights of the copyright owners trump the rights of the everyone else is in the "analog hole" domain. Do you have the right to digitize analog signals? The theory here goes that the mere ability to violate someone's copyright threatens the stability of the entire space-time continuum, or something. And so we have the Analog Content Security Preservation Act of 2005. The movie industry is demanding veto power over pretty much every electronic device made. Certainly every one capable of digitizing analog signals. Which is a lot more than you might suspect.
I want to point out this link yet again. It's a National Geographic article saying that 20% of human DNA sequences are already patented. You might be going "Hey, I don't watch movies or TV, or listen to music, or use a computer- what does this have to do with me?" Well, my friend, let me be the first to inform you that you are duplicating patented DNA sequences via cell division, and without a license. Hope you don't mind us installing a virus in your mitochondria...
The real fight here, as should be obvious by now, isn't about rewarding creators- we can reward the creators without installing rootkits on our CDs, patenting our plots and our DNA, and handing Hollywood control of our computers. No, it's about control- who controls culture? The movie and music industries are not creators themselves, so much as they are gateways. They currently control what movies we see, and what music we hear. Computers and the internet is removing this control from them, and they're fighting back.