I found this link in the comments section of the article posted here. http://hubski.com/pub?id=10921

It has some interesting thought experiments on copyright. My favorite is this one:

I record a movie off of HBO using my DVD burner. Who thinks that’s wrong? (no hands)

I meant to record an HBO movie, but my recorder malfunctioned. But my buddy recorded it. Can I copy his DVD?” (A few hands.)

NotPhil: I think the "generational divide" is probably just a divide between those who grew up before IP laws went crazy (and DRM drove everyone crazy). It gets tougher every day to see how the organizations lobbying for stuff like SOPA could ever have a reasonable claim to make.

So, Pogue, for instance, just assumes IP laws are reasonable, while the college students (whose schools were probably sued because they allowed students Internet access, and who probably know someone whose grandma lost her house after she got sued for listening to Lawrence Welk over the Internet, and whose favorite bar went under after it got sued for having a cover band which didn't pay royalties for the songs they covered, and so on) just assume IP laws and DRM are legal scams.


posted 4506 days ago