Cory Doctorow is reminding us that “content creators” have always sued new technologies, starting with those music pirates, the piano roll manufacturers. Now it’s the Broadcast Flag initiative that will put a bit into digital TV signals and require all devices touching them to honor that bit. He gives a terrific talk — seated and calm — that asks why Internet hardware is on the verge of being told that it must be made secure against misuse. Crowbar manufacturers are not given the same demand, he says. And, he asks, why has the technical community not stood up and said that we do not want less regulation, we want no regulation.

Sean Ryan of Listen whose website says the site “gives you unlimited access to the largest legal collection of digital music in the world.” $10/month. He describes the service: they do burns and streams but not downloads because the industry doesn’t like downloads. (I can’t find figure out how to see the actual CDs they have available.)

Morgan Guenther, CEO of Tivo, is speaking. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love our TiVo?) They’re focused on execution (they’ll make a profit this quarter for the first time), transition (licensing and OEMing their technology), and innovation (moving programs from your downstairs set to your upstairs set, file-served television). “We’ve taken an industry-inclusive approach from Day One.”

Sean: “We play the middle game” with regard to compromising with The Industry.

Dan Gillmor: Is there any evidence that the recording industry will compromise on anything?

Sean: Sure. A couple of years ago they wouldn’t let us do any online music distribution. As Cory has said, there’s always compromises…

Cory: Actually, there weren’t compromises, there were victories.

Audience member: I teach film and I’m not allowed to rip a scene from a DVD to use in a class to talk about it. Fair use says I should be able to.

Morgan: We could let you create your own “channel,” e.g. an animal channel or sports channel. But you can’t do it because it’s illegal.

From this I draw the following conclusions: 1. You don’t compromise your rights. 2. I would follow Cory Doctorow anywhere.

Categories: Uncategorized dw