Slashdot Log In
Lessig @ OSCON
Posted by
michael
on Tue Aug 13, 2002 11:22 PM
from the bible-thumping dept.
from the bible-thumping dept.
passthecrackpipe writes "Leonard Lin has put up the presentation Lawrence Lessig gave at OSCON (mirror). It is great. It requires Flash." Nice Flash work, very impressive, and of course Lessig is a superior speaker. Worth your time and the 8Mb download.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
8 mbs? only? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What can the average computer user do (Score:5, Interesting)
Number one, Vote with your pocketbook!
Issues, DRM enabled devices...
I did not buy the new Magellan Meridian GPS because it used SD media.
I bought a CD burner
I bought a CD MP3 Player. It does not support WMA, Liquid Audio, etc. It only supports red book audio and MP3 audio.
The Archos Digital Jukebox/recorder is on my to get list. It viloates the SDMI standard by allowing a stereo analog high fidelity recording to be made. It allows the recording to be exported and copied in an unprotected format (MP3). I plan on transferring my pre-recorded tapes and vinyl to CD. The SDMI standard includes the requirement for voice grade mono analog recording and nothing better. A good stereo cassette deck will outperform a SDMI recorder everytime! Is a HI-FI VHS or 8mm VCR going to be my next audio recorder? I hope not! I will not support the SDMI audio recording standard. Voice grade mono recording does not meet my needs to back up my aging music collection. SDMI stuff is analog input bandwidth limited This input will be restricted to voice-grade mono and band-limited (-3dB at 100 hZ and -60 dB at 8 khZ) It is also to be imediately converted to SDMI protocol for local use. This translates to "it'll never be burnt to a CD or shared with your friends" This is useless to use to record the baby's first words to share with the grandparants. A tape deck is more capable in this regard. The SDMI compliant hardware is uncompetive in the marketplace due to the severe restrictions placed on it.
Read the SDMI spec here if you need to know the rest of the restrictions.
http://www.sdmi.org/
Most people have no idea this spec even exists.
Don't buy anything supporting these standards.
This includes portable media (memory cards).
Support companies that provide useful quality products and support open standards.
This is the biggest reason I use Compact Flash and CDr.
What I don't have...
A DVD player,
A DRM enabled book reader, audio player, TV/ computer monitor/ USB speakers, music in WMA or Liquid Audio format, portable devices supporting SD memory, etc..
I'm picky about my hardware and the content providers will have to cater to my needs or miss my purchases when they move into protected media.
I do not buy software that requires "activation" or a "dongle". The only exception is software that is part of an access to a service. An example is the firmware in my cell phone and pager.
superior (Score:1)
way to go /. (Score:1, Insightful)
meanwhile, i can smell the smoke from the fried processor in the site's cisco
How do you pause the thing? (Score:2)
More Mirrors (Score:4, Informative)
http://lessig.org/freeculture/ [lessig.org]
:wq
Awesome Presentation (Score:1, Troll)
THis is really well done.
echoing (Score:3)
Interesting...... (Score:1, Interesting)
Look, I'm all for bringing down these tyrants and returning to the 'free society' he speaks of, but what chance do we have? We're geeks and creators, not lawyers and politicians. And the way this world is currently set up, the latter group rules the earth and are usually easy to sway if enough money is thrown their way. Big media giants like Disney can afford to do this, but what can we do? The only real contender I can think of is Microsoft, but they're not exactly the free society posterchild.
And even if the whole geek community does something substantial (like boycott all mainstream movies and music, etc), we're STILL the minority. The masses don't give a shit about this stuff. I know this to be fact, because practically all of my non-geek friends (which is about 70% or more) show no interest in these issues at all. They feel as though it's so distant to them that it's not even a concern (much like the whole Israel vs. Palestine conflict). I've tried to make them see that it will effect them, but they are too apathetic to look into it any further.
I know, I know. All I've done is restate the problem and I've failed to provide any solutions, but that's because I simply do not have any solutions to give. So here's my question: what the hell can we do to stop our society from becoming what we fear it will some day become?
That's nice but, (Score:5, Insightful)
I just sent EFF $100. If we invoke "Chinese arithmetic" (anyone who's looked at a business plan involving China knows what I'm talking about- "if we could just capture
Re:That's nice but, (Score:5, Informative)
Better idea: click on this link [eff.org] and open your wallet. Seriously. At least give them what you gave the MPAA & RIAA's members over the last few months.
Heh (Score:2, Funny)
Don't those two statements contradict eachother?
*ducks*
It is a good presentation (Score:1)
here lessig speak (Score:1)
http://www.affero.com/sf
Download time (Score:1)
I am running on a dialup, the fastest that I have ever connected is 32.xxx. I have a 56k modem, but my phone are bad, so they slow down the transmission. I average (on a good day) 1mb = 10 minutes. Let me see.
1mb = 10 min download time
8mb = 80 min download time
80 = 1 hour 20 min
The only time I am going to download something that big is when it is something I need, which isn't that often. I am not going to sit and wait that long just to see a flash animation. I don't think it is worth that long of wait.
MP3? (Score:3, Funny)
p2p mirror (Score:1)
title=Free Culture
artist=Lawrence Lessig
category=Speech
language=English
year=2
Once again: KaZaA bad, KaZaA Lite good.
So we like Flash today? (Score:1)
One thing I really liked.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought that was an awesome way to measure it. As far as I'm concerned, my bandwidth bill just doubled... any amount I spend on that, I'll match in donations to EFF.
Bandwidth means little without the freedom to use it.
Another unemployed Flash designer accounted for. (Score:2, Insightful)
Now I know what all those unemployed Flash designers are doing with their time.
Seriously, could this guy make it any more *difficult* for us to listen to his message.
Let's get serious (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's a great idea, which is why I'm bringing it up again. Lobbying congress and educating them on these matters just isn't going to work. Politicians aren't passing things like the DMCA because they're ignorant -- they are doing it because they are bad politicians. After failing to do the right thing over and over, we can't give them the benefit of the doubt anymore. We can't reform corporate shills, but maybe we can replace them.
Instead of pleading with them to do the right thing, we need to at least try to make them do the right thing. In a case when it's hard to identify the good politician -- especially the good and effective politician -- it's a lot easier to identify the bad guy. There's lots of politicians that aren't standing up for the public's rights. But there's only a few that are standing up to actively take those rights away. We should focus on them.
When we do, we can run online ads, radio ads, and grassroot ads, anything to try to defeat this person. It doesn't have to be that expensive. We play the negative game -- it doesn't matter who the opponent is, this is a question of symbolism, of asserting our power. Because if we can cost that one politician the election, that will really mean something. Sure, there'll be more to step up in his place, but maybe we can get them out too -- do it a couple times, and people will be afraid to be the corporate media lacky.
And yeah, that's not the nicest political game. It's classic "special interest" tactics. But shit... if politics was so nice, we wouldn't be having these problems. And we're not doing this to get ourselves subsidies or for other selfish reasons (mostly) -- we're doing it for the public. And there's nothing wrong with negative politics -- that's how this country has worked since the beginning.
Unlike all the other techniques -- that dream of the day when there's massive participation -- this doesn't seem that remote. I bet $50,000 and a lot of volunteer manpower could could counter $500,000 in campaign finances, if the target was right and the manpower clever.
A little off target though... (Score:3, Interesting)
On patents, I think the most sensible argument against them was presented in a letter [mit.edu] to the US Patent Office [uspto.gov] by Donald Knuth [stanford.edu], where he points out that software and the algorithms used therein are mathematics, and mathematics have previously been exempted from patents.
Regarding copyrights, while I would be quite happy with a short limitation on the life of a copyright (5 years would suit me just fine... 10-15 would be ok, anything longer is ludicrous in the technology field), I think his presentation is quite a bit more radical than most professional programmers might agree with after putting some thought into it.
Some of us don't particularly like working as employees of companies which we do not own, but without the protection that copyright provides it would be impossible to make a living by creating consumer software products. Yes, you could write custom software under contract to a corporation for money, or write software as an employee of a company, but to write a product for consumers? Who would pay for that? The average person who'd want to use a word processor certainly isn't going to cough up enough money to pay my rent for the amount of time I'd need to write one...
Without copyright, if I write a cool app and want to sell it, I'd only sell it once before anyone who wanted it could just get it for free... This is absolutely great for code I write in my spare time for fun, or tools and libraries I write to help me do my work where they might be useful to others, but *something* has to put food on the table.
However, I do think that once you buy something, at least the copy you own should be able to be used by you in whatever manner you wish. So his speech seems misguided... The real threat is that with recent legislation [anti-dmca.org], that is less and less true.
I support the EFF [eff.org] and donate.... but the presentation is off target. I hope his arguments before the Supreme Court are less radical and stay based on the fact that 100 years is way too long for a copyright, rather than implying that copyright is bad.
Think he used a pirated copy of PowerPoint? ;)
Do Something (Score:1)
What Lessig Doesn't Point Out. (Score:4, Insightful)
What Lessig doesn't point out is that technology has completely blurred the boundary that used to exist between the red circle and the white background. In the absence of DRM, there is no meaningful distinction between publishing an e-book (red circle) and making a purchased version available to a few of your 'friends' on a p2p network (white background). Or, if you prefer, there's no meaningful distinction between purchasing an e-book from a publisher, and downloading it from your p2p 'friend'.
In other words, the world is going to be all white or all red, not because Valenti, Rosen, and their ilk are trying to actively expand the red circle, but because technology has made the circle meaningless. The content distributors understand that they're fighting a 0-1 war, and know that their days are numbered unless they make the whole world 'red'.
I don't think I'm being unfair to Lessig by saying he misses this particular point. One of the examples he uses was that sales of CDs only went down 5% last year, so the content distributors are presumably over-reacting. But that's too myopic. Within a few years, with unregulated technology, John Q. Public will be able to fire up their p2p client, type in the name of the album they want, stick a CDR in their burner, then go away for 15 minutes while the software queries freedb, downloads the songs on the album at CD quality, burns them to the CD-R, downloads the cover art and lyrics and sends them to the color laser printer. It could possibly even schedule a micropayment to the artist's account and put a shortcut on John Q. Public's desktop in case he decides the album was worth it.
Who in their right mind would bother to buy a CD then?!
Very impressive presentation (Score:1)
1. Creativity and innovation always
builds on the past.
2. The past always tries to control
the creativity that builds on it.
3. Free societies enable the future
by limiting [the power of] the past.
4. Ours is less and less a free society.
Must... Kill... Disney... (Score:1)
If ever there was a reason to spam your friends... (Score:2)
I just sent the following email to some friends of mine who work at Disney.
Dear friend, I hate spam as much as the next guy, so you will understand that I wouldn't be sending this email if it wasn't important. The following is a link to the audio and slides from a speech given by Lawrence Lessig, a professor of Law at Stanford University, on an issue that is very important to me - namely our freedom to create. http://www.perl.org/tpc/2002/lessig/ I would urge you to listen to it, it is about 30 minutes long, so put on your headphones and pretend you are listening to music ;-)
If, after listening to it, you agree with me that this is an important issue, then please do as I have done and encourage your friends to listen to it, and to pass it on to their friends.
All the best,
Ian.
How about both (Score:1)
Oh wait. We can do that now? You mean no one's forcing anyone to keep the source code private? Interesting. So what was the problem again?
We need a revolution!! (Score:1)
What we need is a revolution!
A REAL revolution.
Revolution of the minds of individuals that make up this world.
We have been led astray by the powers that be.
Them being the money hungry capitalists.(WIPO, GATT, at the forefront and several keiretsu behind them)
We need to get rid of the things that we don't need. Money, Copyright and other Oligarchic practices that are ruining this planet.
We need to get more things more of the good things. Activation of the masses, Education of the masses, Democracy (People in a bipartisan corporate republic can shut up right about now!)
, Restructuring the society for the humans that are creating it and not for the corporations that are thriving because of it and at its expense.
Now who's with me?
Anyone willing to create a world that they are proud to call home can contact me at my e-mail address.
I'll send you an action plan.
NOTE: I do not condone violence.
</FLAME>
Great speech by Lessig by the way. It inspired me to write the previous bit.
What CAN We do? (Score:4, Interesting)
We have brick-walled on what public interest political educational and advocacy groups can do. If we are to be able to make a living at high-tech, we can no longer afford to send delegations to DC to give dog and pony shows which will be greeted with polite applause and be followed up by backroom political deals involving money comming from Hollywood.
Here's the minimum specification for starting something effective... along the lines of the NRA/AARP style political advocacy group I've been calling for which is the only chance we've got of reversing this tide before it rolls over our jobs.
What would it take to form a REAL political activist group with a chance of winning?
All it would take to start an organization along the lines of what I'm calling for would be for ONE person (or a handful of people) to hire a political organizer with experience, either out of NRA/AARP/etc. or one who understands their methods, an experienced political lobbyist, set up a domain, a server, a contract with a political fax server outfit (to do the "fax your legislator" setup), and a PAC registration... and announce on slashdot and Politech that "we're open for business"... that person doesn't even NEED to put together an overview, I've posted one in several versions.
The startup budget might be as much as $200K. That just gets the office open, the Webserver up, and minimum support staff, to actually make donations to politicians means raising money... as in open your checkbooks, we as a group must at least match Hollywood's spending on politicians. The good news is that we as a group collectively have a hell of a lot more money than they do. All we need is a group to aggregate our donations and get them to our friends and our enemies' opponents.
Note that there are people who've been saying "if you think this needs doing, why don't you do this?"... that's the answer. This is not something any random geek can put together, there's a cost of entry here and most of it goes to buy expertise that isn't in the average geek's head.
Anybody who believes otherwise is wasting his time, and if you get sucked into his trip, yours as well. (Greetz, GeekPAC! - *snicker*) If you can't do this, don't start a group, wait until somebody else does that can. If nobody else appears, start making plans for America's non-tech future. Saying "We're gonna take back Congress" is a waste of time unless you have access to at least some budget and expertise.
If nobody in our community can do this... as in pay the cost of freedom... we don't deserve it and we won't have it. We CAN win... but somebody's going to have to get together the framework described here to do this.
Losing on this issue is going to cost anybody in a position to do anything serious about our situation a lot more than $150K.
Dollars & Cents (Score:1)
Re:Lessig rocks! (Score:2, Informative)
Some links.
http://eldred.cc/legal/supremecourt.html#oppose
http://www.corante.com/copyfight/
When I grow up, I want to be a karma whore.
Re:Who really cares about this presentation? (Score:2)
-- JC Watts
(that's a quote used in the presentation, and no, I don't use Linux. I don't support the "other side" either.)
Maybe someone should make a verbatim transcript of this, or is it already available somewhere? If yes, links please :)
Don't download it (Score:1)