[Linux-aus] Broadcast and netcasting: the next round on our digital rights.

[Alphax (Wikipedia email)]

James Purser wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 21:59 +0930, Janet Hawtin wrote:
>> Hi folks
>>
>> Just a heads up that beyond the DMCA on the not so distand horizon
>> the same WIPO organisation is working on giving people who broadcast or netcast 
>> over the internet 'parity' licenses with their offline counterparts.
>> This means they want to own copyright of material they transmit.
>> Regardless of the status of the material as public domain, cc or copyright to a 
>> person or organisation.
>>
>> Some good links for information on this issue include
>>
> 
> This is something I don't understand. Broadcasting a piece does not
> constitute a new performance, and it should not convey on the
> broadcaster rights they did not negotiate with the copyright owner.
> 
> The foundation of licenses such as the BSD and GPL is copyright. Its
> through the ability to specifically allow and deny certain rights to
> recipients of our work that we can do what we do. By automatically
> assigning extra rights beyond what has been originally agreed, the power
> is taken away from the content creator and given to the distributor.
> This is just plain wrong and works against the spirit and intent of
> copyrights in the first place.
> 

Lots of people just don't understand the nature of what copyright is and
how it works. I see this time and time again (I'll put on my official
"Free Content" hat here: amongst other things, I'm a sysop at Wikimedia
Commons) - people think that taking a screenshot of a program gives them
the copyright to the image, people think that "public domain" means
"accessable to the public", people think that "free use" means "it was
free for me to use it", and so on.

A rather infamous phrase has arisen within the Wikimedia community
regarding these "misunderstandings" (they're good intentions driven by
sheer cluelessnesses - "Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice"
(Hanlon's razor)); "For every one person who knows something about
copyright law, there are at least ten who don't, and two who think they
do but don't."

So, back to broadcasters claiming copyright: it's essentially the same
as people claiming copyright over screenshots they take (and then
"releasing" rights which they don't have), but with the opposite intent.

In the case of broadcasters claiming copyright over their
"performances", it's a case of claiming copyright on a compilation of
works (or a compilation of derivative works) which isn't theirs to make.
Most of the FLOSS licenses are "viral" for a very good reason; to
prevent exactly this sort of thing. Unfortunately, some of the easiest
to understand "free licenses" - namely, the Creative Commons BY/SA set -
have been viewed with mistrust because of the fact that Creative Commons
also endorse some incredibly non-free licenses (ND and NC).

> We stand on the cusp of a huge shift in the way the media is used across
> the globe. From new digital media services, to internet based media.
> Sites like youtube and video.google represent one part of this new wave.

They're also a potential legal minefield :) It's not copyright
infringement, it's free advertising! Or is it? This is one of those bits
on the map where they write "Here be Dragons"...

> They allow the user a hell of a lot more control over what they watch
> than the traditional media does. Whats going to come next is the new
> media players. Technologies like annodex combined with new content
> creators and new, integrated media devices like those being developed by
> Bluebox all mean that a consumers viewing world just got a whole lot
> bigger.
> 

Eh, I don't think I can say anything new on DRM here...

-- 
Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax
Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
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