THE FUTURE OF CONTENT: INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE, HUMANS DO:
MUSIC IN PHASE SPACE: EPISODE 30
Cory Doctorow is most known for his science fiction novels and his “internet activism.” Doctorow presents a view where free speech online is restricted not so much by the entertainment industry’s ambitions to contain piracy, but by the lock-in effects that those actions create with the internet platforms. To demonstrate this, Doctorow articulated three laws:
1. Anytime someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you and won’t give you the key, that lock isn’t there for your benefit.
According to Doctorow, digital locks (i e DRM) serve to protect the intermediary rather than the content. Also, how Hachette is one of the publishers with mandatory DRM. Plus, indies should make sure they actively choose not to use DRM — on some of the distribution sites, it is auto-selected.
Using the Hachette-Amazon dispute as an example, Doctorow described how difficult it is for a consumer to move content it has invested in with one online supplier, to the detriment of competition. He also speaks very convincingly about the “consensus hallucination of the distinction between streaming and downloading”.
Doctorow vigorously opposes third-party digital locks, such as DRM or DVD region locks, that restrict a user’s ability to experience a creator’s work.
“Digital locks are roach motels: copyrighted works check in, but they don’t check out. Creators and investors lose control of their business — they become commodity suppliers for a distribution channel that calls all the shots. Anti-circumvention isn’t copyright protection, it’s middleman protection.”
Middleman tools, Doctorow reminds us, led to the Orwellian nightmare of Amazon remotely deleting copies of George Orwell’s novels from the Kindles of unsuspecting customers who had purchased them in good faith.
Doctorow said the counter-piracy measures insisted on by the entertainment industry has only served to reinforce the domination of the internet platforms, raising barriers to entry and thus stopping competition. Doctorow used the example of Google Music which first negotiated with the four major labels, then forced that deal on the independents to make this point.
2. Being famous won’t make you rich, but no one will give you money unless they’ve heard of you.
The deal for creators has got worse as the big conglomerates have consolidated into larger organizations. Talking about copyright laws, entertainment companies and law suits that are trying to control technology. Mentions Hugh Howey and indie authors, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Madonna switching to the concert organizer instead of a record label/distributor.
As for his second law, Doctorow has long espoused the philosophy in publisher Tim O’Reilly’s statement: For most authors, the problem isn’t piracy; it’s obscurity. Like many 21st-century creators, Doctorow relishes being able to release his work online without intermediaries. Unlike some of the starry-eyed, he doesn’t think putting work online will automatically make him rich, or even necessarily earn him a living.
“Nearly everything that nearly everyone tries to get rich from a career in the arts fails,”
3. Information doesn’t want to be free
Very true, information doesn’t have any wishes, it does not get disappointed if it doesn’t get what it wants. In Doctorow’s words “information is an abstraction”. It is people who want to be free. Doctorow used this to make a point about the surveillance and censorship being unacceptable and though there may be bigger problems in the world (gender inequality, climate change, corruption etc), he said the battles on these issues will be fought on the internet.
On censorship, privacy and more. The laws that protect DRM also stop the disclosure of flaws that can harm you. Scary stuff about ‘ratting,’ how your devices including your computer’s camera can be hacked — but now it is illegal to inform you how you can protect yourself. Seriously, this is awful stuff.
“At its heart, net neutrality is the idea that ISPs should deliver the bits we ask for as quickly as they can get them. ISPs, on the other hand, are petitioning for the right to give favorable treatment to some kinds of Internet data. For example, if YouTube bribes your ISP for ‘fast lane’ access to its customers, you’ll have great, speedy access to YouTube — and all its competition will be jittery and sucky.”
