Comfortable Disappearance

I had the pleasure of attending a briefing today on the Supreme Court’s decision on MGM v Grokster. This SC decision is likely to exacerbate the hinderance on technological development that recent lower court cases has had, because the Grokster decision says that software companies are liabel for the use of their product, regardless of intent of design. One of the panelists was Fred von Lohmann, Senior Intellectual Property Attorney, at the the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF is, in my opinion, a fantastic organizaton, that is working to protect the fundamental rights of technological development.

The Supreme Court’s case lies, probably most importantly, on the premise that software developers are liable for the use of their software in violation of copyright laws by third parties using their software, if they could have designed their software to better protect copyright laws. “What?!” you might say…well, that’s exactly how I feel as a technologist. Does this mean that every software developer creating tools in the digital age, needs to create their own Digital Rights Management schemes? That’s ridiculous. There are no standards for DRM currently, and no dicussion of them in the public sphere. Forcing companies to continually consider how their programs can continue to reinforce an antiquated and poorly created copyright system will only hinder technological development and hurt not only consumers, but the entire market in the long run. Isn’t that what America is all about, the greatness of the free-market?

Copyright laws were created to protect the interests of publishers and holders of copyrights, and never in the interest of new development. Recently, new ideas like the GNU GPL (General Public License) have rightfully begun to challenge America’s antiquated copyright system.

I’m sure most of this isn’t going to interest most of you, nor spur you into action, but I think it’s one of the most important issues facing technological development and innovation today. Nonetheless, if you are interested check out the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus’s web page for more information on today’s briefing.